Tragic losses and new beginnings
It's Christmas week as I write these words, and I have to say this is not going to be the same review of 2024 I was planning to write at the beginning of December.
In a single instant on December 14, the whole tenor of the year changed for Lions Bay.
We are people who live on the side of a dynamic, living mountain. We have been here before, back when we lost the Wade boys to a debris torrent on Alberta Creek nearly 42 years ago in 1983.
Back when we lost the gorgeous, intrepid seven-year-old Erin Moore almost exactly 10 years ago when she was out hiking with her family and friends above the village.
And here we are again, this time losing dear friends and neighbours David and Barb Enns, who had lived here for decades.
The Watershed is gathering memories of the Enns, and will post some of them in the coming week. If you have memories to share, please forward them to editor@lionsbaywatershed.ca.
Like those who came before, we mourn them, and we miss them. And we remember them.
In the days and weeks ahead, we will talk with each other, and work to find ways to keep people safe here in our little village. We will hope that nothing like this ever happens again.
And we will also find ways to support each other and the local groups that work so hard to help when things do go wrong: Lions Bay Fire Rescue (LBFR), Lions Bay Emergency Support Services (ESS), and Lions Bay Search and Rescue (LBSAR).
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The Watershed has been publishing stories for two years, and in that time we have covered many milestones.
We have welcomed over 16,500 unique visitors to our pages this year, reading our stories from 79 different countries. And though it has ended on the hardest of notes, 2024 has been a full and interesting year for our readers.
Our local news stories have included a large truck hitting a local home following a police chase, an electrical fire that blocked Mountain Drive for hours, a missing resident who was successfully located, a strangely-abandoned vehicle in the middle of Bayview Avenue, and the work of our local ESS team to educate residents about earthquake and other emergency preparedness.
On the political front, we covered every Regular (and Special) Council and Committee of the Whole meeting, plus a variety of other committee meetings throughout the year. We offered extensive coverage of the provincial election, including the historic Green Party of BC win in this riding and an interview with new MLA Jeremy Valeriote.
In a year that saw long-time village resident Norma Rodgers make a public call for municipal accountability, we covered the settlement of former CAO Peter DeJong's action against the Village, the long-delayed release of the 2022 annual general report, the suspension (and reinstatement) of local architect Russ Meiklejohn, and the fallout from the BDO audit of Village finances.
We said good bye to Corporate Officer Marina Blagodarov, and looked at the struggle to fill empty positions in the Village, including the Emergency Program Coordinator after the sudden departure of Phil Folkersen in June.
We featured the continued hard work of the Bear Smart committee to further wildlife education and documented the trapping and destruction of a black bear. We followed the ongoing issues with parking, including a grass-roots effort at relocation, as well as the Speculation and Vacancy Tax, the success of the Alberta Creek Water Project, the repair of the Village staircase and the Klatt Building upgrade.
We also covered the seemingly endless struggles with budget and taxation issues as well as the saga of the Lions Bay Beach Park project – still not underway despite tens of thousands of dollars already spent.
Regional events along the Sea to Sky on this site included protests over the Liquefied Natural Gas plant at Woodfibre, the housing of workers on a refurbished cruise ship known as the 'Floatel', campfire bans, wildfire watches and the Coldest Night of the Year march through Squamish.
Throughout the year we also covered infrastructure improvements advanced by our hard-working Public Works and Office staff, as they painted our street lines, flushed out our water mains and so much more; efficiently keeping things running behind the scenes.
We celebrated our local writers and artists, featuring a Leo Award for local composer Trevor Hoffmann, a music video win for singer-songwriter TYA, a nomination for YWCA Woman of Distinction for Irene Dorsman, and new books for Christine Read, Susan M. Mertens, Leigh Josephs and Kate MacIntosh.
We carried features for (and about) our younger readers, too, with a story on the successful Youth Write Club, and a look at how parents can address back-to-school blues.
We shone a light on local events including concerts from Minor Gold and Avataar, tai chi and dancing classes, visiting nature writer and scientist Vicki Earle, and the success of the Backyard Concert series as it reached a milestone 125 performances over more than 15 years.
Lions Bay success stories outside the Village included a peek at Maddi Pollock's World Cup cycling endeavours, the disability-positive siblings behind Simon's Soapbox, and the success story behind Dr. Thomas McLaughlin's efforts to ensure young people can be home from hospital over the holidays.
We featured former Mayor Douglas Miller's practical route to an act of kindness, as well as the generosity of local teens Harry and Archie Hardy. Mary Brown addressed the grief that comes of losing a loved one, that for her grew from the loss of her son Michael, and we remembered the lives of Helen Nogatch, Alice and Michael Tickner, and David Tan.
As a news source that is written, researched and published in Ch'ich'iyúy Elxwíkn (Lions Bay), on the traditional and unceded territories of the Skwxwú7mesh uxwúmixw (Squamish Nation), we endeavoured to shine a light upon and lift up Indigenous voices in business, the arts, and local events including the display of the Witness Blanket, memorial events such as Red Dress Day and the arrival of new Skwxwú7mesh language kits at the West Van Memorial Library,
Of course, in a publication called The Watershed, nature often takes centre stage, and we featured stories on our amazing atmosphere, our bird-friendly status, the Howe Sound Biosphere, our Butterflyways and gardens, citizen of the year Val Morton, the fallout from our stormy autumn, water conservation efforts, and the whales who visit our waters.
We also highlighted stories on local hospitality efforts toward hikers with new drinking-water facilities, an anonymous local carpenter who quietly builds places to sit along the trails, and our Search and Rescue team who have helped dozens of hikers in distress this year. And we reminded our readers of the hard work of Lions Bay Fire Rescue chief Barret Germscheid and his team.
Every month we welcomed new residents, cheered the arrival of new babies, delighted in our local coastal canines (and this year, one canine wanna-be), and printed some astoundingly gorgeous shots from Lions Bay photographers.
As always, it is our goal to thoroughly cover Lions Bay for you, our readers, and to celebrate all the things that make living here so special. We are careful to share only information that is verifiable, to promote critical thinking and to provide a place for the civil exchange of views and opinions.
If you have enjoyed reading The Watershed this year, we encourage you to join our small but mighty band of subscribers, whose support keeps independent journalism alive in this village. We look forward to sharing all that is ahead for you in 2025.
Happy New Year!
I would like to reiterate what John has said. The time and effort you put into this publication is beyond astonishing! Do you find any time to sleep?
You have done an incredible job of covering the news in Lions Bay over the past year, in an unbiased, informative and accurate way..
I really appreciate all the work you have put into making this a news source worth turning to.