September NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
City West Internet Update
At the DIRA public meeting Sept. 8, Peter Spurr, member of the Hornby/Denman Internet Committee (which is not the former DIRA Internet Committee) gave an update on City West’s progress in completing the installation of roadside infrastructure. The information comes from a briefing given by the CEO of City West.
• City West will be moving their equipment by end of September from Hornby onto Denman where they will be working until end of the year.
• The 2021 census listed 881 dwellings; the news release that City West put out earlier this year when they got the money to complete the installation on Denman, said they had road connections in front of 759 homes, so “its not as if they are doing nothing”.
• Also important to keep in mind is that when City West first got the money installation began on Denman, lasting about a year. This year City West has been working on Hornby which is why there has not been a lot of activity on island.
• The work on Denman will consist of continued installation of the road infrastructure to the “flowerpots” in front of houses so that a home connection can be completed.
• Most of the cable will be on poles rather than buried. They will also be dealing with situations where it is necessary to drill under the road in order to connect houses on the opposite side to the cable.
• Areas to be completed by year-end are expected to be:
o Northwest Road
o Entrance road off Denman Rd. beside the Old School. Saturday Market area
o Wren Rd to Lake Farm
o Coho Landing
o North Central Rd
o Swan Road from Beadnell
o Owl Crescent
• Two areas are still waiting on approvals: extension of East Road and the Danes Rd-Point Rd area. If these approvals are not received, then work could be delayed when City West returns to Hornby at year-end.
• After some problems with outages, Denman’s cable connection will now be more secure with increased redundancy. Where Denman is now connected to Vancouver, Hornby will now be connected to Prince Rupert with an existing cable between the islands. Redundancy may further be reinforced by a connection from Texada.
• City West has now added a security program which can be found on their website.
• Peter Spurr provided a clarification further to the DIRA meeting on the question of the profits from the Hornby/Denman City West service that were promised to be returned to the islands at the time of the referendum. “For twenty years, City West was to rebate the CVRD 20 per cent of the net income from Denman/Hornby. In turn, CVRD is to provide this money to Denman/Hornby. The present plan is for the money to come to Denman/Hornby through the Rural Community Grants program. At this time, it is not known what, if any, funds will be rebated this year.”
The public meeting also learned of two other matters regarding committees where public participation is urgently required.
Pesticide Free Committee:
The committee has struggled to find members, to the point where long-serving Chair Ann Page was the only person left. With Ann’ s impending departure announced last June now in effect, Pesticide Free is legally defunct and ineligible to apply for the CVRD funding that has paid for broom removal. Under DIRA rules, a committee must have a minimum of three officers to legally function.
It is unfortunate because the role of the Pesticide Free committee members is not onerous. Their role is only to plan the broom removal which is carried out by a paid contractor. At a meeting of September 8th, DIRA executive decided to take a more direct approach with personal requests to various stakeholders on island, including ADIMS, the Garden Club, Denman Conservancy, and the Trails Committee.
Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness:
With the Edi Jonston stepping down, the committee is now looking for a new chair. Over the past five years, Edi has built up a network of neighbourhood coordinators who try to prepare themselves and their neighbours for emergencies such as earthquake. No one has stepped up to fill Edi’s place as yet and it is unclear if the CVRD, which funds the information program, is prepared to step in.
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