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Friday August 1, 2014
Volume 20, No. 61
All Aboard! Comox Valley agrees to sign Island rail restoration agreement By Philip Round Echo Staff
The Alberni Project’s founder and director, Lewis Bartholomew, pictured beside a scale model of HMCS Alberni, the ship sunk 70 years ago with the loss of 59 lives.
Ferry painting inspired museum dedicated to a wartime tragedy By Philip Round Echo Staff It takes real commitment to give up a regular job and paycheck and devote a big part of your life to researching and memorializing the lives of people you have never previously known. But that’s what Lewis Bartholomew did after spotting a painting of HMCS Alberni as he traveled on a ferry from the Lower Mainland to Vancouver Island 14 years ago. As he passed the time on the Queen of Alberni ferry, he read the wording on a plaque beneath the painting and learned that 59 men lost their lives when a Canadian Navy vessel was torpedoed by a U-boat in the English Channel on August 21 1944, sinking within 30 seconds. “I was so moved by the painting and the explanation, I felt compelled to find out more and I’m still finding out more today,” he told the Echo. At the time he was living and working in Seattle, from where he set up a basic website on the topic and started posting information as he found it from various sources. It became almost an obsession, with each extra piece of the jigsaw creating a clearer picture of the people involved and an encouragement to find out more. In 2002, Bartholomew immigrated from the States and moved to the Comox Valley, and three years later he mounted a simple exhibit about his project at the Canada Day celebrations in Courtenay. That resulted in more pieces of the jigsaw falling in to place, and eventually he had enough information and sufficient artifacts to set up a mobile unit that he took to various locations and events on the Island. (Continued on page 4)
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All Aboard! That was the loud and clear announcement from Comox Valley Regional District on Tuesday with a unanimous vote to sign up to the Vancouver Island rail restoration project. As reported in Tuesday’s Echo, the CVRD was the last of the five regional districts along the CourtenayVictoria line to vote on whether to release its share of the money towards bridge and structure repairs. There had been last-minute doubts about which way the vote would go, even though the $392,000 contribution from the Valley is already in the bank. That’s because concerns had been voiced over whether the total amount being offered by various levels of government might not fund works as far north as Courtenay, so jeopardizing the planned restoration of passenger train services. But written as well as verbal assurances from the line’s not-for-profit owners, the Island Corridor Foundation (ICF), supported by documents from Southern Railway of Vancouver Island (SVI), the train operator, were enough to free up the Comox Valley cash, which was collected with last year’s property tax payments. In fact, two regional district board members who had raised doubts - Comox’s Tom Grant and Courtenay’s Jon Ambler - were at the forefront of suggesting the legal agreement to release the money should now be signed. The united vote followed a statement from the ICF’s executive director, Graham Bruce, that it was a condition of a $15 million contribution for track restoration from the federal and provincial governments that it was an “all or nothing” project. (Continued on page 2)
Campfire ban starts at noon today as conditions get dry By Michael Briones Echo Staff
A series of curved display panels lead people through a maze of both permanent and temporary displays, surprising many people who drop by, since many of the exhibits are not immediately obvious when viewed from the entrance in Comox Centre Mall.
This BC Day long-weekend is expected to be hot, humid and really dry. It’s definitely welcome weather for many, especially for those who like to go camping. However, the Coastal Fire Centre is treading on the safe side and has implemented a campfire ban that takes effect at noon today. The prohibition, which also includes open fires in an outdoor stove, will apply to all areas of the Coastal Fire Centre, with the exception of Haida Gwaii and the coastal area known as the “fog zone”. Media relations officer Marg Drysdale said they’re doing this due to increasing temperatures and no precipitation in the forecast. This is the second strong drying period of the summer, with lightning in the forecast through the long weekend. The fire warning rating north and south of Courtenay is currently high with some areas further north and mid-coast at extreme level. “It is drying out and it is getting to the point where these areas of a high are going to expand,” said Drysdale. Dry conditions have sparked some wildfires in the region. On Wednesday, Coastal Fire Centre crews battled a wildfire, 16 hectares in size, near Nimpkish Lake, approximately 32 km south of Port McNeill. It was a difficult task because the blaze was burning on a slope in a heavily-treed area. Attempts to douse the blaze from the air were executed. (Continued on page 2)