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Joe's up for one more

Regional district chair has experience to spare
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Joe Stanhope ... continues to look after the interests of Area G

Regional District of Nanaimo Chairman Joe Stanhope is giving it one more kick at the can and will be seeking re-election in electoral Area G.

Stanhope admitted with five terms under his belt, three as board chairman, he has been at it for a while and this will likely be his last term serving French Creek, Dashwood and Englishman River.

“It’s amazing how quickly time goes when you are busy. The doctor says I’m good to go for another three years.”

Stanhope said when he took on the position it was for two reasons; the decline in the fish habitat in French Creek and the pollution control centre in French Creek and while those issues have been resolved he stated there are others that he would like to take on.

“I want to con

tinue to look after the interests here and continue to make things better if I can,” he stated.

He said his goal is to protect the quality of life for area residents and that has been his mantra all along.

He points to the traffic light at Lee Road and the Island Highway as one of his big accomplishments and said he lobbied hard for the stop light that enables motorists to turn left onto the highway with a comfortable degree of safety.

“It was an awful situation and it wouldn’t have changed because the ministry of transport said their traffic counts didn’t warrant a light.”

He said he made several trips to Victoria to meet with officials from the ministry of transportation before they agreed to install the traffic light.

Stanhope added he has also been instrumental in acquiring parkland.

He said there were no regional parks when he started and now the RDN has over 2,000 hectares of regional park and combined with community parks that adds up to 10 square miles of park.

“I lobbied hard for parkland on the Little Qualicum River Estuary and the Englishman River Regional Park,” he admitted.

He added securing Moorecroft Regional Park was no easy task.

 

“That was a tough one but we pushed it through. Normally it takes years for something like that to happen.”