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Group wants input on QB fire hall

Qualicum Beach residents association wants to have its say on project

It’s not quite a call for a referendum, but the Qualicum Beach Residents Association has struck a committee to study the viability and costs of a new fire hall for that community.

A motion to ask town council to call a referendum on the subject originally floated around the room at the group’s annual general meeting Tuesday night, but it was later boiled down to the formation of the committee.

With Mayor Tuenis Westbroek in attendance, members of the association also spoke about their frustration with the direction of the current council, and even floated the idea of adding town councillors for the next election, an idea that was defeated once through referendum in the 2008 election.

Association President Bill Adkins made reference to “tension” within the current council and bemoaned the abolishment of advisory committees, something he called a “shock” and “unnecessary.”

In his report, Adkins also expressed his opposition to recent council moves to make changes to the OCP to allow for taller buildings and residences on the main floor of developments in the downtown core.

“We must work to preserve our beautiful small town,” said Adkins. “Developers should be asked to keep standards up to the surrounding community.”

In other news from the meeting Tuesday night at the Qualicum Beach Civic Centre:

• the group’s representative on the Federation of Residents Associations, Dave Golson, gave a lengthy re-cap of the evolution of the now-under-construction Oceanside Health Centre, and he raised alarms about palliative care, imaging services and ambulance service.

• membership chair Susan Porter reported the association has almost doubled its rolls from a year ago, now with 96 households and 160 people.

 

• Mayor Westbroek gave a slide show of developments in the town in, the same presentation he gave recently to the town council of Chemainus.