FRIDAY JUNE 6 2014 VOL. 41, NO. 22
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Best of Bowen
Aaron’s run, and much, more in the weeks ahead
Theatrical recognition
Bowen actor nominated for award
Let us fall
Guest editorial by Bowen kids
Last Sunday, the Bowen Island Fish and Wildlife Club hosted a record number of little people for the annual Coho Bon Voyage event. The children in attendance had the opportunity to release the last of the hatchery-raised coho into Terminal Creek, where they will begin life in the wild. Meribeth Deen, photo
With bike park flattened, community engagement on the park begins MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
Thirteen year-old Finn Corrigan-Frost says he was one of four “hard-core” users of the bike park on Mount Gardner Road, and that there were at least four other kids who used the park two or three times per week, most weeks. For CorriganFrost, the bike park consumed last summer entirely, from dawn until dusk, he says, and he was hoping that this summer would be the same – aside from the time he planned to spend working shifts as a dishwasher at Tuscany, a job he picked up THE CAPE ON BOWEN R001799974 BI03
in order to pay for a new bike and the shovels he used to rebuild jumps at the park on a regular basis. The bike, he says, is designed specifically for pushing up hills and flying off jumps like the ones at the bike park, so isn’t of much use now. His two shovels, he says, are now lost under the earth compacted by the bulldozers that flattened the park last week. The group of dedicated bike park users went unacknowledged on May 26, when Bowen’s municipal councillors voted unanimously to dismantle the park and flatten its dirt jumps. Three times during the roughly fifteen minute conversation, various members of council questioned whether members of
the island’s mountain biking community had been consulted, or whether there was anyone present who could represent this community. Bob Robinson, superintendent of public works, presented the bike park report put together by the municipal engineering assistant, Al Fontes, and mentioned that Fontes had been in touch with “Dangerous Dan,” referring to local mountain biker Dan Cowan. Cowan says he had a conversation with Fontes around Christmas and he knew the issue would be going to council at some point this spring, but didn’t know when. continued, PAGE 3