FRIDAY JUNE 13 2014 VOL. 41, NO. 23
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The grad edition
Celebrating the academic achievements of Bowen Islanders
Community Column
Exploring our community and the idea of community in general
Ferries update
Looking ahead to the Queen of Cap’s refit
Bowen kids rack-up atheletic Council saves awards at West Van Secondary decision on live-
aboards for later
MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
From left, Bowen kids who won atheletic award at WVSS: Josie Huskisson, grade 12; Charlie Welsh; Finn Rainsley-Ray, grade 8; Elliot Beamer, grade 9; Mattias Blomberg, grade 8; Jack Welsh, grade 12. Missing: Maia Blomberg, grade 12, won the Scholar-Athelete Award and the Big Block Award for doing four sports for every year of highschool; Grady Huskisson, grade 8, who won a Bronze Medallion for the number of sports played this year; and Niko Blomberg, grade 11, who won a Bronze Medallion and a Service Award. Meribeth Deen, Photo
MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
All Bowen Island students who commute to school in West Vancouver have a longer day than their peers on the mainland, but for those who participate in school sports, their days are much longer. This fact does not seem to have not stopped young Bowen Islanders from participating, and excelling in school sports, and many of them were awarded for their efforts at a surprise ceremony this week. “The commute is worth it,” says Josie Huskisson, who played volleyball, soccer and gymnastics throughout her highschool career. “I’ve met all my best friends
through sports, and it’s been so much fun.” Maia Blomberg, who won the Scholar-Athelete Award, says that being on a team can be helpful for academic achievement. “Especially coming from Bowen, its good to have the network of friends that team sports builds for you. And all your friends will have the same pressures as you,” she says. “What’s not good about being from Bowen is the public transportation, especially when the buses don’t line up with the ferry.” Elliot Beamer says he credits the Bowen lifestyle to the fact that there are so many young atheletes. “It helps when you grow up running around in the woods,” he says. “And we’ve all grown up eating really healthy food.”
Going well beyond the fifteen minutes allotted to public comment at this week’s Council of the Whole meeting, Bowen Islanders brought forward a variety of perspectives on plans for the long-term management of Mannion Bay. Each speaker deemed himself, ultimately, “a friend” of the Bay, noting the importance of taking care of it. Council kept this spirit of co-operation intact by approving the majority of the recommended actions that make up the long-term management strategy crafted by the chief bylaw officer, Bonny Brokenshire, but decided to save the discussion on bylaw enforcement, and consequently the issue of live-aboards, for another day. The founding member of the Friends of Mannion Bay, Bruce Russell, told council that the abuse and misuse of the Bay by a few has caused deterioration to Mannion Bay that the community at large must endure. However, he added that recent communications with some of the “boaters” on Mannion Bay were encouraging. “I accept their belief that they too are friends of Mannion Bay; however, we appear to differ on what likely is the most contentious issue: live-aboards.” In a letter written to council, Russell outlined in detail a number of behaviours (the use of the Bay as a dumping ground, improper disposal of boat sewage, the use of questionable anchoring or buoy systems,
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for example) that would simply be eliminated if the municipality were to enforce the land-use bylaw, which makes it illegal to live on a boat off Bowen’s shores. “We do not want to allow or encourage any more live-aboards in Mannion Bay or any other bay on Bowen Island. While the details of how we phase out the liveaboards that are currently in the Bay can be discussed later… if we do not nip the live-aboard situation in the bud this time, we can be certain that as other jurisdictions deal with their live-aboard situations, we will have more.” Link Irelan told council that he has lived on Bowen for two years, on a property directly across from Sandy Beach. He described a number of activities that take place regularly in the bay and are “endured” by local residents, including the sound of generators at 3a.m., loud music, boats that never leave the bay as well as “higher end” grievances such as people coming on to private property to steal water and electricity, using public garbage bins for private use, and beach parties where garbage and broken glass is left behind. “Although I applaud the idea of making new rules that will enforce these things, we already have rules in place and need to enforce those. I worry that if we allow live-aboards to stay, even temporarily… we’re sort of flip-flopping back and forth over what we’re allowing people to do.” continued, PAGE 12
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