The following public events are:

Wednesday, May 23rd – Arrowsmith Hall, 1014 Ford Road, Coombs
4:00pm to 7:00pm – Open House
7:00pm to 8:30pm – Workshop

Thursday, May 24th – Lighthouse Community Hall, 240 Lion’s Way, Qualicum Bay
4:00pm to 7:00pm – Open House
7:00pm to 8:30pm – Workshop

Saturday, May 26th – Cranberry Community Hall, 1555 Morden Road, South Wellington
12:30pm to 3:00pm – Open House
3:00pm to 4:30pm – Workshop

Tuesday, June 5th – Nanoose Community Hall (Library), 2489 Nanoose Road, Nanoose Bay
4:00pm to 7:00pm – Open House
7:00pm to 8:30pm – Workshop

You are also encouraged to visit www.ruraldevelopment.ca and fill out a short survey.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Mid Island News

Artists from 25 countries have mailed postcard sized art to the curator, Ed Varney of Courtenay, on the theme of “Hard Work – Work & Labour.” There are 125 artists from around the world who have mailed in their art and the artworks feature painting, printmaking, drawing, collage, photography and other media.

From rayjohnson.org:

“Mail art began in New York in the 1950s by art professor Ray Johnson and was seen as one of the new “communication arts”, a form of media aesthetics that evolved alongside video art.  It is in this precise sense that mail art could be said to only have “a present” – a present of communicational events, of uncontrollable exchanges, of things arriving and departing at unforeseen times and places, thanks to the medium of postal system, which, just like television, could be seen to distribute “signals” across the boundaries of time and space.”

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Mid Island News

“We should not forget that billions of people still lack a safe supply of water and access to safe sanitation. Canada and the United Kingdom are proposing the removal of an explicit reference to the right to water and sanitation for all from the first draft of the ‘Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development’ outcome document,” warned the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation.

Bottling water has now become a multi-billion dollar business for some companies including Nestlé. Recently, the City of Nanaimo received a letter from Nestlé regarding the City’s decision to stop having bottled water for sale in their vending machines. Check out Bottled Life for an indepth look at Nestlé’s tactics.

This is Drinking Water Week (May 13-19) in BC and a good time to appreciate our access to free, clean drinking water. Check out this infographic on the cost of urban water around the world.  As the temperatures start to rise, this is a good time to remind ourselves on a few ways to conserve this valuable resource.

• Running your sprinkler for just one hour can use 1,514 litres of water
• At 15 litres per minute, pressure washing for four hours can use 3,600 litres
• toilets account for 45% of all indoor water use in a typical residence and 20% of toilets leak
• a running toilet can leak 4 litres of water per minute which adds up to 5,760 litres per day.
• storm drains are not a part of the wastewater system – don’t wash your car near them

Here are some helpful links:

H2 House - how to detect water leaks around your home
Environment Canada water use calculator
Drinking Water Week - take part in the BC Community Water Challenge

.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Mid Island News

You are encouraged to take a survey about your locally grown food on Growing Our Future www.growingourfuture.ca. The online survey is open until June 11, 2012.

The Regional District of Nanaimo has a ‘Agricultural Area Plan’ that is intended to celebrate and expand local food production and identifying barriers and opportunities for growth in the local agriculture industry.  You can find out more about what’s being done to secure local food sources. Also, background reports and information are also available on the site.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Mid Island News

Here is times and locations of their scheduled broom cuts, every person makes a difference.

Their tagline is ‘cut broom while it’s in bloom’, so keep an eye out for those bright yellow blooms!

For more info go to www.BroomBusters.org.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Mid Island News

• upgrading old wood stoves
• installing domestic solar hot water systems
• rainwater harvesting
• grading site-cut timber for use in construction
• conducting home energy assessments
• installing a residential electric vehicle charging station

Those who achieve a high score on the Sustainable Development Checklist can be eligible for an additional incentive ranging in value from $500 to $1000.

Incentives are limited and available on a first come, first served basis.  Approval is required before you can claim rainwater harvesting.

For more information visit The Regional District of Nanaimo or email sustainability(at)rdn.bc.ca.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Mid Island News

Check out this list of Nanaimo shopping centres, plazas now added to this site.  As of June 1, 2012 new duty regulations will come into effect and many shoppers will be tempted to head south to do some major shopping. Hope this gives you more reasons to keep your money on Vancouver Island and support the local retail economy.

Just taking a walk around the major malls and plazas you can already see opportunities for lease.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Mid Island News

No 1. Mine Nanaimo 1900 (Western Fuel Company - Chung Collection UBC)

This week marks the 125th year since the fateful explosion at the No. 1 Mine in Nanaimo which killed 150 miners. For a hundred years, coal was the industry that drove the economy here on the mid Island.

Nanaimo Coal – how did it get here?

The earth’s plates began to collide with the North American continent as it drifted northwest around 100 million years ago, and chunks of the ocean caught in the middle, were forced upwards. Sediments eroded from the rising Coast Mountains were carried west and deposited into the basin between Wrangellia Terrane (most of Vancouver Island) and the continental shelf from 90 to 65 million years ago. Sediments and swampy layers were deposited, buried, compressed by subsequent layers, slowly turned to stone and finally tilted, folded and deformed.

Nanaimo Group of Rocks

One of the early miners noted:

“You don’t get straight seams.  They will go here and then all of a sudden they will shoot off to the left or right and they’ll take a dip this and you’ll find them two hundred, three hundred feet below going in a different direction.  And with this over burden of rock a tremendous amount of pressure in there, and to make matters worse, because this was a marine sort of environment, you get a tremendous amount of bacteria down there, marine bacteria, very high sulphur content, and that so that gets embedded in the coal, so you are starting to get hydrogen sulfide and along with other gases in there too, so they are very explosive mines.”

 

How it all began

In 1849, Snuneymuxw Chief  Ki-et-sa-kun told the Hudson’s Bay Company that there was plenty of coal in the Nanaimo area where his people lived.  James Douglas, the chief factor in Victoria, sent an exploration company led by Joseph McKay the following year.  He described the harbour as sheltered and deep. He noted there was a coal seam that was visible near the Snuneymuxw longhouses.

In 1852, James Douglas came north to Nanaimo on a canoe trip with several others to examine the coal deposits. The Snuneymuxw showed the location of three coal beds: the Nanaimo harbour, Protection Island and the third site at Midden Bay on Newcastle Island.

Douglas appointed McKay as the Chief Factor of Nanaimo and his first responsibility was to take immediate possession of the coal beds on behalf of the HBC.  On September 9, 1852 the Cadboro sailed with the first shipment of coal – 480 barrels.  Snuneymuxw Chief Wun-wun-shum had asked for one blanket for five barrels of coal, but in the end they were given a two-and-a-half point blanket for every twenty barrels.

In the early days, the coal could be collected from the surface with picks and shovels. Eventually, workers had to dig deeper and deeper, following the seams. There were three main seams discovered: Douglas, Newcastle, and Wellington.

In 1861, HBC sold its coal-mining rights to the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company  led by James Nicol, the brother of the last manager of the Hudson’s Bay Company mines.

References: web.viu.ca/geoscape; Nanaimo Archives; Black Diamond City Nanaimo The Victorian Era by Jan Peterson.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Mid Island News

National Geographic Sea Lion cruiser

The first cruise ship to Nanaimo is arriving this week. Here is the 2012 Nanaimo Cruise Vessel Schedule:

Pocket Cruisers:
May 2  National Geographic Sea Lion  Wednesday 1500 – 1900 hours
May 3  National Geographic Sea Bird   Thursday 1500 – 1900 hours

Large Vessels:
May 5  Norwegian Pearl  Saturday 0700 – 1700 hours
July 17 – 19  The World  Tuesday – Thursday 0800 – 0600 hours
September 15  Celebrity Millennium  Saturday 0700 – 1700 hours
September 26  Celebrity Century   Wednesday 0700 – 1700 hours
September 30  Sapphire Princess   Sunday 0700 – 1800 hours

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Mid Island News

If you live in the Eagle Point-Dover-Georgia View Heights-Brickyard community areas,  this is your chance to find out about a new neighbourhood group forming for the area.

The topic for the meeting tonight is on the housing project planned for 6025 Uplands Drive, Nanaimo.

Come and meet your neighbours, have your say, or just listen. Everyone in the area is encouraged to come.

Dover Neighbourhood Association meeting:

Woodgrove Mall Community Room (down hallway by Naturalizer or Flight Centre)
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 7:00pm

Mid Island News