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www.comoxvalleyecho.com Tuesday September 23, 2014
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Volume 20, No. 76
Architect Steve Cohlmeyer said the plan focuses on “making it easier to get there, making it fun and making it a place to enjoy.”
Comox gets chance to see preliminary plans for Marina Park Revitalization By Michael Briones Echo Staff The Town of Comox has a beautiful waterfront along the harbour that it wants to develop to boost downtown vitality. It’s an unexploited asset that could potentially be vital as a community and tourism destination. The town has commissioned Cohlmeyer Architecture and the Algis Corporation to come up with a plan to re-develop Marina Park. The objective is to improve the park and waterfront area, as well as enhance the connections between the park and Comox Avenue. After several months of working with stakeholders, council and staff, a preliminary design of the plans was presented at town council last week as well as at an open house held at d’Esterre Seniors Centre in Comox. Mayor Paul Ives tweeted that the open house had a good turnout and that the design plans received lots of good feedback from the public. Architect Steve Cohlmeyer said the direction they took in from the meetings they’ve
had in the last ten months is that although the waterfront contains a lovely open space and supports many valuable activities and has delightful views, it does not meet its potential as an important community and tourism destination. There is little orientation information along the waterfront and between the park and downtown. As well, the issue of accessibility is also a concern, especially for those with limited mobility. It is difficult to access without a car and there are no public transportation services between downtown and the harbour. It has limited on-site commercial services leaving visitors with few reasons to go there and even fewer reasons to stay. The preliminary designs address these issues. Cohlmeyer said it focuses on “making it easier to get there, making it fun and making it a place to enjoy.” One of the main attractions of the plan is the creation of a village plaza or square, south of the gazebo. It will be the main focus for public events and private functions. It will feature two buildings adjacent to each other capable of catering to 50 to 75
people to provide services for the community, non-profit, recreational and private groups. The buildings will also include substantial roofed areas to facilitate use by small-scale temporary vendors. The design also calls for the relocation of the children’s playground to make it an integral part of the life of the village, the creation of a new treed “central plaza” that will include benches, a fountain, a re-built wood promenade and the totem pole as a focal point. In order to attract pedestrians from the downtown core to the waterfront park, trails and paths are going to be improved. They will include treed areas and a promenade as well as visible signage and public art to indicate what’s in store and also to make the walk to the gazebo more inviting. They will also include softly-sloped trails, rest areas and benches. The project carries a preliminary cost of $1.6 million. Once plans are finalized, the town will fund 25 per cent of project and it will apply for grants from Island Coastal Economic Trust, and Western Economic Diversification Canada to cover 25 per cent and 50 per cent of the project respectively.
Volunteers hit the streets tomorrow to raise money for Raise-a-Reader On Wednesday, September 24th, between 11:30 and 1pm, over 30 community volunteers will be on the streets of Courtenay and Comox handing out a special literacy edition of the Comox Valley Echo in exchange for a donation. Each dollar raised goes to local literacy programs. Last year, through local sponsorship, donations, fundraisers, and the Raise-a-Reader Day exchange of the special edition newspapers for donations, the Comox Valley raised over $20000. The Ministry of Education leveraged these funds by approximately $10000 for a total of $30000. This year the Raise-a-Reader Committee hopes to increase that amount to enhance and expand community-based literacy programs such as 1000x5, the Family Literacy Outreach program, the Essential Skills program for youth, and adult literacy programs. Volunteers will be situated at multiple sites throughout the Comox Valley including: · Walmart Mall · 4th Avenue and England St., Courtenay · 5th Street (Continued on page 2)
Former Cumberland Fire Rescue Chief dies suddenly By Drew A. Penner Echo Staff A longtime Cumberland firefighter who rose through the ranks to become chief died suddenly Saturday, Sept. 20 while at home. Ken McClure was puttering around his Golden, BC yard with his wife Gaetane when he suffered a cardiac arrest, just hours before his 56th birthday. “I’m lost to be honest,” she said in an interview with the Echo. “Totally lost.” As emergency responders tried to revive her husband all she could do was try to focus on his voice in her head walking her through the crisis, just as he would at the 250 calls a year he attended with the Golden Fire Department. “I was visualizing one of the calls he was on,” she said, noting it was hard to go through that experience alone since the two of them have always done everything together. “It’s
Fire Chief Ken McClure what your spouse is there for.” McClure was born in Comox and attended GP Vanier and North Island College.
He joined the Cumberland Volunteer Fire Department in 1985 and took a job working as a paramedic. McClure met his future wife while attending to an elderly resident whom she cared for. Their first date was at the Kingfisher Oceanside Resort and Spa, and from there they never looked back. “That was the first day of the rest of our lives,” she said. “We’ve seen each other every day since.” His wife will always remember the positive impact he would have on people. “He was giving in every way,” she said. “He’s just the type of person who made friends with everybody. He walks into a room and everyone knows Ken.” McClure rose through the ranks of the Cumberland Fire Department and played an important role in elevating the roadside vehicle rescue skills of the service, leading a competitive
automotive extrication (Auto-X) team to international acclaim through the late 90s and into the new millennium. “He just kept excelling in the fire department,” remembers Cumberland’s current fire chief Mike Williamson. “We worked our way up to going to the worlds in competition a few times.” The desire to excel in auto extrications arose out of a deeper desire to keep the community safe, Williamson said. “We didn’t know much about Auto-X and the new highway was coming through,” he said, explaining the importance of developing fire skills within the department was key to the Genesis of their team. “We didn’t care if we won.” It took about three years but the successes began rolling in. “We kept training and training and training,” he said of the Thursday and Sunday nights spent down at the
junkyard and the seminars given by coaches. “We used to call ourselves the junkyard dogs we were down there so much.” McClure captained the team as it went on to win the Western Canadian Championships in 1999. Williamson glances at the trophy as fond memories of the man and their time together surface. “The Village had a big dinner for us because we won the Western Canadian Championships,” he recalls, noting over the next few years the team went on to go to the worlds in Prague. “We were a well known team across Canada and most of the northern United States and Europe.” McClure had taken up a job with the Village and was promoted to fire chief in 2004. In March 2011 he started work with the Town of Golden as fire chief and had been working there ever since. (Continued on page 2)
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