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If they were going to amalgamate, more Royston residents favoured Cumberland

Every Friday we feature Valley history taken from our back issues.

Five years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:

In a preliminary poll asking Royston residents if they want to amalgamate with municipalities, 82 per cent of respondents said they were interested in joining Cumberland, 12 per cent favoured Courtenay and six per cent wanted to stay with the Comox Strathcona Regional District. About 33 per cent of Royston Improvement District ratepayers responded to the informal survey.

The amalgamation issue came forward earlier in the year when Courtenay announced its intentions to take some of Royston into its borders.

Ten years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:

Rumours of star sightings were running wild in Courtenay during filming of the movie 24 Hours. Bev 'Betty' Archer at Betty's Place Cafe said she met Kevin Bacon and Courtney Love outside her establishment.

"They had come in on the float plane and were waiting for their transportation," said Archer, who snapped their photo.

Charlize Theron also starred in the film.

Fifteen years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:

Regardless of the identity of the principals behind Paoan Developments, Cumberland council was not thumbing its nose at the prospect of a specialty sawmill.

A development proposal and building permit for a 5,000 square-metre mill received a warm reception.

"I'd be proud to have that sawmill here in Cumberland," Mayor Harvey Brown said, noting the development could provide nearly 40 jobs and "industry taxes much-needed by this community."

The planned site was an eight-acre parcel on Ulverston Avenue.

Twenty years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:

A legal battle over Hornby Island trees was delayed again as a second judge urged anti-logging forces to hire a lawyer.

Raven Industries application for an injunction was adjourned in Victoria by Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Murphy so the protesters could hire a lawyer. Justice Randall Wong took the same position when the application appeared before him.

"I'm not happy with it but that's the way it has to go," Raven Industries lawyer Dan Graham said.

Raven was seeking an injunction so it could resume logging that was stalled by protestors.

Twenty five years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:

Kidney transplant hopeful Gordon Vye received some good news when Eby's Business Services of Comox and Vancouver Island Pagers donated a pager for him to carry.

With the pager, Vye and his wife Donna no longer had to stay home day and night waiting for news of an available kidney. He was to receive the pager on his 53rd birthday.

The pager and another development gave the couple a great deal more freedom to move around. Vye's kidneys failed in February after 20 years of steady deterioration. He no longer had to make weekly trips to Victoria for dialysis treatments, which he could administer four times a day with a home system called Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis.