Happy Spring Everyone!
As the birds return and plants begin to leaf out and bloom, we hope you’re all happy, well, and enjoying the warm, sunny days outside as they come! It also looks like life is turning back to the “new normal” as many COVID mandates are lifted and we learn to live with this disease as a regular part of our life. As this new turn of events progresses, please continue to follow public health guidelines and hygienic practices as they evolve.
Reminder – Spring AGM and Call for Directors
As you may recall our annual spring AGM will be taking place on April 24, from 1:30 to 3:00 PM at Camp Jubilee (located at 9548 W Coast Rd, at the base of the Kirby Creek hill just before the Shirley Community Hall), so please mark your calendars. Our guest speaker will be Susan Zedel from Camp Jubilee talking about our hidden gem in the region. Please note that we’ll be using the accessible picnic shelter at the camp, so the AGM will be rain or shine, but that will mean all attendees will need to take a lovely stroll from the parking lot along a trail for about 200’ or so. Washrooms are near the parking area, so you may want to use them before proceeding to the meeting site.
We will be circulating the draft agenda to you, our members, in the coming weeks. We look forward to seeing you there!
Just a reminder that there are also board vacancies coming up this spring and we need your help. Normally at the AGM, we elect our new board of directors, so if you’re interested in running for a director’s position, wish to nominate someone, or have any questions about being a director, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@opsrra.ca.
It is a great opportunity to get more involved and connected with our great community. More about OPSRRA and the various roles.
Membership Drive
We are continuing our membership drive in 2022, including hosting booths at community events to get the word out about OPSRRA.
If you haven’t already renewed, please do so. It’s only $10.00 per person for five years and $10.00 per year for a business. You can do this several ways – by filling in the membership form, pay online, send an e-transfer to info@opsrra.ca, or even mail a cheque to the address below:
OPSRRA
c/o 9193 West Coast Road
Shirley BC V9Z 1G3
Also, if you know of individuals – new or otherwise – in our communities who are not already members of OPSRRA, please tell them about us and encourage them to join.
MOTI Road Upgrades
Temporary line painting was completed on the road segment of West Coast Road, west of Muir Creek in January and we anticipate that continued highway upgrade construction work will pick up again as spring weather conditions improve.
Increasing Park Space in Otter Point
Currently, the available park space in Otter Point is less than 20 hectares in a landmass of 3,344 ha ( 0.5%), only a fraction of the minimum recommendation of 12% for park and protected land areas. With continuing development and growing populations, it is becoming critical that the Juan De Fuca Electoral Area (JdF EA) and CRD Parks, responsible for regional parkland and its acquisition, start to look towards the acquisition of suitable parklands for recreation, as well as water resource and habitat protection.
The Directors of the Juan de Fuca Community Trails Society have written to CRD Parks about acquiring more parkland now and have urged the residents in our communities to write letters of support for this endeavour. OPSRRA also supports this initiative and we invite our members to add to the momentum by emailing your support for park land acquisition to the CRD Parks Committee and the JDFEA Parks and Recreation Commission. E-mail addresses for letters about the acquisition on land for parks are:
- Rebecca Mersereau, Chair Regional Parks Committee: rmersereau@crd.bc.ca;
- Larisa Hutcheson, General Manager Regional Parks: lhutcheson@crd.bc.ca;
- Mike Hicks, Regional Director JDFEA; directorJdF@crd.bc.ca; and
- Wendy Miller, Secretary for JDFEA Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission; wmiller@crd.bc.ca .
We would like to thank our members who have sent letters to date, your support has been deeply appreciated and has made a huge difference already! As the Capital Regional District (CRD) Regional Parks Strategic Plan is being updated, we would also like to encourage you to share your thoughts through their online survey which is open until April 4, 2022.
Water Survey and Issues
As you know, we wrapped up our most recent OPSRRA water survey at the end of 2021 with a total of 88 households responding. We’re just completing analysis of the results and comparing them with previous years (2015 and 2017) and hope to be reporting on these at the AGM or sooner. If you have any concerns or questions, please contact us at info@opsrra.ca.
Reminder – Fall 2022 Local Government Election
As noted in our winter report, the next election for CRD Directors is Saturday, October 15, 2022. Every four years the Capital Regional District (CRD) conducts local general elections to choose a Director to represent each of three Electoral Areas. Our current Director Mike Hicks was elected during the last election on October 20, 2018.
To learn more about how the CRD is governed, or if you’d like to run for Director, check out the CRD’s informative site: https://www.crd.bc.ca/about/how-we-are-governed
Community Signage Repair
As you may have noticed, our community signage team has temporarily removed the “Welcome to Otter Point” sign along West Coast Road, which will need repainting, in addition to its wooden posts replaced. We also hope to seek the assistance to help us safely re-install this sign, once work is complete. We would like to thank Murray & Pat Tomkins as well as Chris and Lynn Moss, and Gerard LeBlanc for all their hard work on this as well as our notice boards. They still need some volunteer help from you, our members, so if you’re able to help them out, please contact director2@opsrra.ca.
Enjoy the spring flowers!
OPSRRA 