Five years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
Most speakers at a public meeting in Courtenay opposed a recommendation to build a new regional hospital in a neutral location.
More than 250 people attended a public forum at the Filberg Centre to discuss the future of hospitals on the North Island. Citizens for Quality Healthcare co-sponsored a panel of speakers that included doctors and hospital staff.
The Vancouver Island Health Authority released a consultants' report about strategic options for acute care services in the North Island, which said a neutral location between the Valley and Campbell River would be ideal in terms of sustainability and quality care.
Ten years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
Premier Gordon Campbell named Comox Valley MLA Stan Hagen Minister of Sustainable Resource Management in his new cabinet list.
Hagen's was one of several new portfolios in the 27 ministries — which at the time was the largest cabinet in B.C. history.
Hagen's portfolio included some hefty responsibilities — many gleaned from former NDP ministries — including Crown land policy, archeology, and land and water use planning.
Other Vancouver Island MLAs acquiring cabinet posts were Murray Coell, Graham Bruce and Judith Reid.
Fifteen years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
The steel excavator bucket hovered for a moment, trembled, then bit hard into the roof, splintering the cedar shakes and tumbling bricks from the building.
It was June 6, the last day in the 70-years-plus history of the former city hall.
"I'm not excited to be the first person to take a whack at the old city hall," Mayor Ron Webber said from his seat in the orange excavator. "We've been in this building since I was on council. There have been good times and sad times. So much has happened here."
A fire gutted the building July 2, 1995, after which city business was conducted from offices around the community.
Twenty years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
Rural residents packed a meeting hall to back a move for a stronger say in local government. They came from all over Area B — Mission Hill, Kye Bay, Back Road, Nob Hill, Lazo and Little River — to support the formation of a rural residents association. Policing, roads, traffic, urban expansion, pollution and conservation topped the crowd's concerns.
"There aren't enough police," said Karen Dahle, urging the group to "stand behind more policing in the whole Valley."
"I feel very threatened by Comox," said a woman who lived just beyond the town's boundaries.
Dahle recalled the "anguish" of trying to tell Comox council how much residents objected to expansion into rural areas. Others worried about the impact of an 800-acre 'Block 72' development that was approved after it was brought into Courtenay.
Twenty five years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
The Arbutus TraveLodge became the first victim in a labour dispute involving the B.C. Hotels Association and the BCGEU. Manager Bayne Mann shut down the Courtenay hotel since there was no end in sight to the six-week-old dispute and because he was losing money.
Eighty employees of two local hotels, the TraveLodge and Washington Inn, were locked out May 1 when contracts broke off after eight months of failed negotiations.