It was certainly not a shy group of residents that met District of Squamish council during the third in a series of town hall meetings at the West Coast Railway Heritage Parks CN Roundhouse Tuesday (Oct. 26).
There are no boundaries, Mayor Greg Gardner said at the beginning of the session. Well do the best we can to answer.
And locals took the mayor up on that invitation.
For almost two and a half hours, council members, 11 district staffers, RCMP Staff Sergeant Guy Pollock and Inspector Neil Cross listened as residents streamed one by one to the microphone positioned in the centre aisle flanked by around 50 community members.
First up was Wolfgang Wittenburg who, for several months, has fought to influence CN Rail into reducing its disturbances in local neighbourhoods plagued by whistle and shunting noises at all hours of the night.
Mayor Greg Gardner reassured Wittenburg that CN has taken steps to reduce railway operation noise some remedies included possible exemptions at controlled crossings.
Peter Harker, a downtown resident, was one of the harshest critics. He declared that his 18-month report card for council shows a big F for failure after he accused the local lawmakers of ignoring issues affecting the downtown area.
Coun. Rob Kirkham said he feels downtown has turned the corner in the last few years.
The bad news for downtown is behind us, said Kirkham.
He said Cleveland Avenue receives more funding than other areas, and it has never been more vibrant than it is now with a diverse group of young entrepreneurs setting up trendy new establishments.
Squamish Climate Action Network (CAN) co-ordinator Anna Santos pushed for commuter bus services to Whistler and Vancouver in the wake of Whistler councils decision to cutback its share of Squamish-Whistler commuter funding.
She wasnt the only one concerned with transit. A number of speakers touched on the state of the bus system in the community.
Gardner said the number of transit riders in Squamish is very low compared to the number of busses in the system which means the transit users are very heavily subsidized.
However, Heintzman said a comprehensive study is currently being conducted for Squamish by BC Transit.
A number of speakers also asked about spending issues.
Local resident Al McCabe said the financial resources arent in place to back up Squamishs title of being the Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada.
Former Squamish Oceanfront Development Corporation board member Nelson Winterburn asked about the municipalitys current debt load.
Last years debt was $20 million, said Gardner. An amount that he said is well below the credit available to the community. Squamishs manager of financial services, Joanne Greenlees, said the district currently has access to a lending rate of 4.2 per cent.
Coun. Patricia Heintzman responded to McCabes concern by pointing out that theres currently a high priority placed on replacing Squamishs aging infrastructure.
Our biggest challenge is we have a significant infrastructure deficit, Coun. Patricia Heintzman said.
We have a lot of roads, sewers, pipes that are 30-years or 40-years old. We built a lot of it and we dont have a lot of tax base to support that. Our biggest challenge is affording the town weve built. Were picking away at it little bit by little bit and trying to move some issues forward that sort of project us into the future but were playing catch-up big time.
The local leaders were praised for having damaged water pipes fixed. They were also praised for building new bus shelters and allowing cyclists to use Government Road while it was under construction.
Inquiries about job creation received the standard issue response from councillors about future employment gains based on potential partnerships and policies, including strong ties with the Squamish Nation, tax concessions and zoning adjustments.
A request for better utilization of our neglected logging industry was met with a promising reply from the mayor. He revealed that on his recent trip to China there was considerable interest in importing forestry products from Canada, including pre-finished wooden structures.
Locals also expressed their thoughts on priorities for Squamish.
An inquiry about the completion of the OSiem pavilion was met with a confession from the mayor that the structure was a soft project in terms of its priority relative to other projects. However, he guaranteed it would be completed by the deadline.
Jasmine Henczel told the elected leaders that the Adventure Centre is under-utilized and suggested the operating hours be increased.
Sea to Sky Adventure Company owner Jeff Levine called on council to find a way to install sidewalks to keep kids safe while they walk to school.
Squamish Helping Hands society co-founder Dennis Bartlett said the reputation of the community is blackened by thieves who steal from international visitors while they enjoy places like Shannon Falls Provincial Park. Bartlett encouraged council to come up with ways to cut down on the growing number of vehicle break-ins at parks.
The bottom line voiced by council was we are trying hard, but we can do better.
With files from Helmut Manzl
