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Annual Campbell River Logger Sports and Salmon Festival held last weekend. Pages 23, 33
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HOWIE MEEKER GOLF CLASSIC
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Councillor: City not doing good job explaining water restrictions alistaiR tayloR Campbell RiveR miRRoR
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Howie Meeker (centre, in front of pin flag), 91, will return for the 27th Howie Meeker Golf Classic fundraiser for Special Olympics this weekend at Storey Creek Golf Course.
STILL GOING STRONG Both the Special Olympics fundraiser and it’s namesake are still rolling along J.R. RaRdon Campbell RiveR miRRoR
H
owie Meeker is quick to point out he was the first person called when organizers for Campbell River
Special Olympics were looking for a celebrity to lend his name to their fundraising golf tournament. But they weren’t expecting the name to be Howie Meeker. The 27th annual Howie Meeker Special Olympics Golf Classic tees off this Saturday at Storey Creek Golf Course, with the former NHL All-Star and Hall of Fame broadcaster scheduled to meet and greet players and donors. Though Meeker has surpassed
a quarter century of involvement with the tournament, the job was initially supposed to go to someone else. “The fellas that started the golf classic had a special meeting,” said Meeker, 91. “I was invited to it, maybe because I had some contacts to maybe get some players from the Canucks to put their name to it.” But Meeker, who was then
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Vancouver Island is in a stage 4 drought. But Campbell River isn’t. And people are asking why. They’re asking Coun. Larry Samson all the time. And he’s getting tired of it and wants the city to do a better job of explaining it to the public. Because they keep asking. People are asking “why aren’t we at stage 2, why aren’t we at stage 3,” a frustrated Samson said at Monday’s city council meeting. “I think we need to communicate this a little better to the public.” Samson had given council a notice of motion on July 22 asking for city staff to take a more proactive approach to explaining the current water restrictions to city residents. In the interim, Samson hasn’t seen anything come out from the city explaining why it’s not on a higher water restriction level. Community interest in the water restrictions is high, if social media is anything to go by. There are frequent comments on Facebook about people watering their lawns when there is a drought going on and some of the debate goes to the level of threats to turn people in to authorities. Other posts also accuse
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various local levels of government of contravening water restrictions themselves by watering lawns at public facilities. The problem with these “debates” is that the city is not in as dire water straits as the rest of Vancouver Island and is currently only on Stage 1 water restrictions. That’s because Campbell River’s source of water is a massive chain of lakes and reservoirs. “Our watershed isn’t the same as other watersheds,” Coun. Charlie Cornfield said. “Our watershed is a huge watershed.” Cornfield wasn’t saying residents shouldn’t try to conserve water – they should observe the current water restrictions – but his point was that the city’s water system is not under the same pressure other Island cities are. The situation is exemplified by the fishing ban that is currently in place on Vancouver Island streams and rivers – except for the Quinsam, Campbell and Qualicum rivers. Those rivers are not under a fishing ban because their water levels are not considered dangerous to fish. Samson said things like the fact that the city is only a small user of the water in the system is not well
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