Squamish wins
Squamish won big at the annual North Shore Zone Annual Festival of Plays, held May 12.
Between Shifts Theatre Society’s production Kayak first played to a packed house and received the only standing ovation at the festival held at Presentation House Theatre, in North Vancouver. Competing against four other productions, the crew from Between Shifts won for Best Backstage Crew; Best sound design (Michael Hewitt and Darrell Booth; Best Lighting Design (Hewitt); Best Overall Design (Hewitt and Janet Dundas); Best Supporting Actor Male (Todd Weitzel); Best Actor Female (Kathy Daniels); People’s Choice for Outstanding Performance (Daniels); Special Design and Construction Award (Juanita Dawn).
Hardwired for business?
Come out and talk business and economic development with Squamish’s Mayor Patricia Heintzman on Thursday (May 18). Heintzman will be at the Squamish Public Library from 7:45 – 9 a.m. for her regular Breakfast with the Mayor session. The theme is Hardwired for business; setting the right conditions for economic development.
The District has recently drafted Hardwired for Business, Economic Development Action Plan 2017-2019 and highlights of the plan will be presented at the breakfast.
Stated goals within the plan are for the District to work to support more people to be trained and employed locally; for diverse business growth and for Squamish infrastructure to meet the needs of employers and employees. The District will establish a Squamish Economic Development Steering Group and Economic Health Dashboard. The steering group would implement a skills inventory analysis – a review of present and anticipated labour skills demand – that will be measured against the current and anticipated skills available in the community.
Help for kids
Some vulnerable kids in Squamish may soon have more local support after council committed to a community partnership with The United Way of the Lower Mainland at its meeting Tuesday.
The partnership also includes the Sea to Sky school district, Sea to Sky Community Services Society, Squamish Nation, the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development and Vancouver Coastal Health.
The recommendation comes in part from the large number of children currently living in Squamish (about 4,000 kids from birth to 14 years old) and a study that found from 2013-2016 there was an overall increase in vulnerability in some Squamish Kindergarten-aged kids. The children were not deemed developmentally ready for Kindergarten. The United Way Avenues of Change initiative in Squamish will provide a maximum investment of about $500,000 over four or five years and involve four phases. The project will explore and identify actions to address community and neighbourhood issues, according to a report to council. Examples may be childcare strategies, campaigns and education; community networks and gatherings such as block parties. The community or area of Squamish – either north or south region – chosen will determine the nitiatives.
Cemetery fees increase
This is a weird one. Squamish has seen a disproportionate increase in non-resident burials and reservations for burials at the Squamish Cemetery.
So far this year, there have been four burials for non-residents. Last year there were none over the entire year. In 2015, there were five, total.
“Staff have found that the Squamish Cemetery is the least expensive for non-resident burials in the Lower Mainland and hypothesize that this accounts for the sudden surge,” District staff said in a report submitted to council. Given the limited space in the cemetery staff requested an increase in fees.
Council passed three readings of a fees and charges bylaw Tuesday night that would see the fees for burials and cremations for non-Squamish residents increase.
For burials, the increase for non-residents is from $1,700 to $5,400, and the cremated remains fee increased for non residents from $650 to $2,000. These prices are the average non–resident fees for all cemeteries in the Lower Mainland for 2016. The bylaw, which also includes increases for fees related to film productions and non-drywall asbestos, still has to come back to council for final adoption.
Zero Waste on the way
A ban on throwing out organics in the trash may soon be in place in Squamish.
Council authorized awarding a $20,000 engagement services contract to the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment to help implement Squamish’s Zero Waste Strategy.
On Oct. 18, council approved the Zero Waste Strategy in which waste reduction priorities are laid out, including implementing an organics disposal ban; ensuring recycling and organics diversion programs and services are available and convenient; instituting construction and demolition waste diversion guidelines and promote waste minimization. The bylaw for the ban has yet to come before council for final approvals. If the bylaw does not pass, the contract will ot be granted, according to District staff.
Changes to business park
Council adopted the bylaw that paves the way for changes in the Squamish business park at Tuesday’s council meeting.
The northwest corner of the Sea to Sky Business Park was rezoned from residential and industrial zoning to a mixed-used zone (MUD1).
Five properties are impacted by this change. “It is meant to be a transitional zone between industrial uses and the residential area that is to the north of the business park,” Jonas Velaniskis, the District’s director of community planning explained at the public hearing on the bylaw held on May 8. No one from the public spoke at the public hearing.
The new zoning allows for live-work units and affordable housing. “I think this is going to be a really cool area,” Velaniskis said, speaking of the potential of the northern business park in generations to come.
The bylaw also revises the District’s definition of “industrial use” and eliminates bulk fuel and gas storage and loading facilities and creates a separate use for those activities for Woodfibre LNG, which has an active application for that use. The bylaw also creates a buffer setback adjacent to Aspen Road.
