At approximately 9:30am this morning, a man was walking up the hill towards Tsaxana with three dogs when the dogs began barking furiously.  He turned around to look behind him and saw a large cougar no more than 10 ft away with it’s head and ears down and tail up, looking as though it was preparing to lunge at him.

The male started to run away and witnessed one of the little dogs being grabbed by the cougar and taken into the bushes.

RCMP have attended the area and BC Conservation are on their way with dogs to track the animal.

There have been other cougar sightings in this same area, as well as one report of a cougar seen with a house cat  in it’s mouth.

Nootka Sound RCMP are urging the public to avoid walking in this area for the time being until the cat is located.

The Gold River Fire Department has indicated that the fire started in the kitchen area of the China House, and that it is not suspicious in nature.  The Insurance Centre, the Veterinarian Office and Village Video have also suffered major fire, smoke and water damage.  The Gold River Deli (at the south end of the building) was left relatively undamaged.

Thankfully, a resident in the Gold Crest Apartments saw the fire around 4:00am and called the Fire Department.  Our volunteer Fire Department worked tirelessly throughout the early morning and the rest of the day to save the building and keep the fire from spreading to other businesses.

For now, Edie Merlo of Village Video is looking for a temporary location, and is asking residents to drop off any rentals you may have directly to her or her daughter Deanna.

Dawn Dakin, owner of the Deli, says she expects the Deli to be closed for about a week, due to electricity issues.

Our hearts go out to the Tran Family, Edie, Loretta, Dawn, Dr. Proctor and all the staff that have been affected.

Thank you to the Gold River Fire Department for your long hours and dedication to our community – we are truly lucky to have you all!

After careful consideration, Hudson’s Bay Company has announced we will wind down our Fields store operations.  In December we announced the closure of 26 Ontario Fields store locations, which will close in February 2012.  We will wind down the remaining 141 store locations across the country in phases, with closures complete by Fall 2012.   This is a strategic decision by Hudson’s Bay Company to focus on growing our other banners: The Bay, Lord & Taylor and Home Outfitters.

Fields was proud to serve the many communities across Canada where our stores were located and would like to thank of all our customers for their loyalty.

Hudson’s Bay Company would like thank all Fields Associates for their dedicated service.

Tiffany Bourré
External Communications Manager
Hudson’s Bay Company

There will be town meeting to learn about Smart Meters on Wednesday January 18th at 7:00 PM.

It will take place upstairs in the Mezzanine Lounge at the hockey arena.  We will have some video presentations and handouts. Please come out!

She will be deeply missed by her three daughters: Terry (Joe), Connie (Darrell), Tracy (John), her six grandchildren: Amanda, Tyler, Courtney, Trevor, Clayton and Levi, and also her four great grandchildren: Damon, Kassidi, Rhiannon,and Quinton.

A Celebration of Life will be held for her in Gold River on the 7th of January at 1:30 pm at the Community Centre with a tea following at the Legion Ladies Hall.

Letter to the Editor,

In July 2011 the Honorable Terry Lake, Minister of Environment gave permission to the GVRD to use Waste to Energy technology to deal with its ever mounting garbage problem.  With Cache Creek landfill closing 2016 time is of the essence and this is the election for politicians and voters to make garbage an election issue.

The Fraser Valley communities have made it clear they will not tolerate/permit any further erosion of their air shed and the Greater Vancouver politicians seem hesitant to take a stand on how they want to deal with their garbage moving forward.  The technology currently on the table is Waste to Energy, but the debate is, should it be an in-region solution or an out-of-region solution.

A small village on Vancouver Island is in a dramatic economic decline.  This is the GVRD’s opportunity to be a knight in shining armor.  The Gold River Power project, a state of the art Waste to Energy facility has the ability to completely change our circumstance.  We need the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) created from processed waste to make the Gold River Power Project a reality and help our Village become stable and grow into the future.  The construction phase would boost our village economy in the short term, and the resulting permanent jobs would enable us to grow and stabilize into the future.  Think about it, one hundred permanent jobs to a struggling community of 1300 would be the beginning of a new foundation for Gold River.

A pay it forward answer with urban community giving a helping hand to a small rural village.  The communities of the Greater Vancouver Regional District would be helping Gold River while Gold River would be helping deal with a huge garbage can sitting on the doorstep of the GVRD.

The hard work is all done, the permits and licenses and First Nations approvals are all in place.  On this issue our community is unified.

So to you campaigning politicians, make GVRD’s garbage part of your platform and make Gold River your solution.  To you voters in the lower mainland ask the garbage question of your local candidates, find out where they stand and let them know what the correct answer is.

Brad Unger

Mayoral Candidate

Village of Gold River

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