The Shirley Community Hall is looking for class presenters

Do you or someone you know have a hobby, talent or activity you would like to share? We’re looking to fill up our monthly calendar at the Shirley Community Hall with more classes of all types. Rates are reasonable, and certain physical activities may even be available for subsidies through the CRD. For more information or to discuss, please contact Shannon, shansjams@gmail.com.

2019 January Quarterly Director’s Report

Season’s Greetings, Everyone!

We hope you’ve all had a wonderful holiday and are off to a Happy New Year. As always, it’s been a busy fall period for your OPSRRA Board. Here are some of the things we’ve been working on…

2018 All Candidates Meeting

We had a wonderful opportunity to hear our candidates for the CRD Director and Milne’s Landing School Trustee positions discuss their backgrounds, platforms and answer questions from the audience at OPSRRA’s all candidate meeting on September 30, 2018, at the CRD Regional Services building in Otter Point. The session was well attended by almost 60 people and we were also fortunate to recruit several new OPSRRA members.

The candidates

The audience

Jordan River and diitiida Welcome Signage

We’re very pleased to announce that we were able to secure funding for the new wooden welcome signage for Jordan River (JR) and diitiida through the generous donations of $1500 from BC Hydro, red cedar wood posts from Queesto, and an additional $1500 from CRD’s Grant-in-Aid Fund.

We are in the process of drying the wood posts, creating the wooden sign faces with the help of Murray Tompkins, and finalizing the signature wave design for the community.

We hope to have these signs set in place by this coming spring. This will help demonstrate to the public and travelers in the area that JR and diitiida still comprise a vibrant and culturally rich community.

Community Notice Boards and Existing Community Welcome Signs

OPSRRA also successfully received Grant-in-Aid funding from the CRD in the amount of $700 to repair and maintain notice boards in our three communities, in addition to the four large existing “Welcome” signs in Otter Point and Shirley.

Unfortunately, we did not have a lot of volunteer uptake from our membership to assist the small team working on it this fall and so we’re hoping to recruit volunteers to help out when things dry out this coming spring.

We need you to make it happen! If you would like to help us out with this project in any way, please contact our directors, Brenda at director1@opsrra.ca or Fiona at secretary@opsrra.ca.

Future CRD Regional Park Acquisitions Visioning Workshop

Your OPSRRA president, Bill Dushenko and director, Brenda Mark, participated in a workshop on November 9, 2018, at the Village Food Market Meeting Room in Sooke, to identify areas of high ecological and social value west of the Sooke River with the idea of supporting the development of a Land Acquisition Strategy for potential future CRD Regional Parks expansion.

The session was well attended and included other OPSRRA members attending in different capacities.

Regional Parks staff presented a landscape analysis using the best available ecological information to map and highlight areas with high natural/ecological values and potential for connectivity with existing parks and protected areas in the region. The workshop part of the session involved hearing, from the participants, any information or other knowledge missing in the landscape analysis, in addition to values on conservation and recreation in the Juan de Fuca, to better improve their analysis and development of a Land Acquisition Strategy. The Muir Creek watershed and its protection were particularly on the minds of many of the attendees.

We look forward to hearing more from the CRD on their strategy in the future.

Soil Deposit and Restoration Activities on Clarke Road

OPSRRA and concerned residents have been watching the activities of Granite Resources, which is proposing to deposit soil (up to 20,000 m^3) for the purposes of restoring a tributary to King Creek, as well as road construction to support a proposed subdivision on its 58 ha property along Clark Road (Section 42) in Otter Point.

The parcel was previously logged and cleared by the former owner under the Private Managed Forests Land Act resulting in damage to the creek and its riparian area.

A soil permit application has been submitted to the CRD for this purpose and will have been reviewed by its Land Use Committee (LUC) at its meeting on December 17, 2018.

It is anticipated that the overall condition of the property will be improved by the proposed watercourse and wetland restoration work. The CRD staff, in its report to the JdF LUC Meeting are, therefore, recommending “approval of the soil permit subject to the recommendations and conditions of the Environmental Overview Assessment, the conditions listed in the Approval for Works in and About a Stream from the Ministry of Environment, the conditions listed in the Permit to Construct, Use, and Maintain Access to a Provincial Public Highway from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, and subject to public notification”.

If this permit is approved and restoration activities continue, residents will no doubt be monitoring activities closely to ensure that the proponent is closely following specified conditions.

All the best for the coming New Year, everyone!

Applications for Membership Juan de Fuca Electoral Area Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission

Capital Regional District: Notice of Vacancy

The Capital Regional District (CRD) invites applications from residents interested in sitting on the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission to provide advice on parks and recreation in the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area.

East Sooke: 1 position
Otter Point: 1 position
Shirley/Jordan River: 1 position
Willis Point: 1 position

Where representation from the areas above cannot be achieved, a representative may be selected from the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area at large.

The appointment will expire December 31, 2020.

Meetings are held at 3:00 pm on the fourth Tuesday of each month at the Juan de Fuca Local Area Services Building, 3-7450 Butler Road, Otter Point, BC.

Send us a one-page summary telling about yourself, your area of knowledge and why you would like to volunteer on the Commission.

Deadline for receipt of applications is Friday, November 23, 2018.

Mail, fax or email your application to:

Mail: Juan de Fuca Electoral Area Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission, 3–7450 Butler Road, Sooke, BC V9Z 1N1
Email: jdfinfo@crd.bc.ca
Phone: 250.642.8100
Fax: 250.642.5274

All Candidates Meeting

Millions of our tax dollars are spent each year improving services and ideally making our community a better place to work, live and play.

OPSRRA has invited the candidates for this year’s local election (https://opsrra.ca/agms-special-meetings/) to introduce themselves, tell you how they hope to help and answer a few direct questions from our group.

Join us September 30, 2018, at 2:00 pm at the CRD Juan de Fuca Building in Otter Point, Unit 3, 7450 Butler Road. Everyone is welcome and refreshments are available by donation.

Website: Fresh new face for OPSRRA

In our 25th year of operation, OPSRRA is celebrating by launching an updated website.

The new site has a responsive design so it can easily be used either on your desktop, laptop, tablet or phone. It also is updated to the latest security settings - you’ll notice the full address is now https://opsrra.ca.

The new website includes a more robust business directory (https://opsrra.ca/community/business-directory/) to help our community shop local, where possible, and support our local economy. Let us know what you do—or your neighbour does—so we can add you to our list of resources for the region.

We’re also looking for community contributions, such as photos, calendar updates and news items.  Please email your contributions or feedback to vpresident@opsrra.ca

Community Notice Board Funding

OPSRRA was successful in obtaining funding through its Grant in Aid application to CRD in the amount of $700 for the maintenance and refurbishing of the 37 notice boards in our communities. If you would like to help our team with this project, please contact Brenda at director1@opsrra.ca.

Thanks to our volunteers Arnie, Bob & Dom who are diligently out there working to keep our local notice boards looking good.

We need more great volunteers to also help freshen up our Welcome to signs. If you’d like to help, please reach out to Brenda (director1@opsrra.ca) on our board who is spearheading this initiative.

September Quarterly Director’s Report 2018

Hi Everyone!

Well, our “tinder dry” summer has come to a close and fall rains are here again. We hope you all had a safe and enjoyable warm season! It’s been a busy summer for OPSRRA with many things going on.

All Candidates Meeting: September 30, 2018

OPSRRA has invited the Milne’s Landing School Trustee candidates for this year’s municipal election on October 20, 2018, to introduce themselves, tell you how they hope to improve our school system and answer a few direct questions from our community members. Also joining us at the All Candidates meeting will be candidates for JdF EA Director, and nominees for the Land Use Committee and Advisory Planning Council both for Otter Point and Shirley/Jordan River.

Please join us on Sunday, September 30, 2018, at 2:00 pm at the JDF Local Area Services Building (CRD) at 3-7450 Butler Road in Otter Point. Everyone is welcome and refreshments are available by donation.

Community Welcome Signs: Update and Call for Volunteers

OPSRRA has submitted a Grant in Aid application to CRD in the amount of $1,721.88, as well as a request for a similar matching donation to B.C. Hydro (total of $3443.75) for the creation of wooden “Welcome to Jordan River” signs, similar to what we currently have for Shirley and Otter Point. These will be posted at the west and east CRD boundaries of the community along the highway. We recognize the importance of this signage in acknowledging Jordan River as a growing and thriving community. The sign will also incorporate diitiida, the original landing name place of the Pacheedaht First Nation.

We are also still looking for volunteers to help out with maintaining our existing welcome signs in Shirley and Otter Point (now seven years old!). We have also successfully obtained some funding for this purpose (see below). If you are able to help out, please contact Brenda Mark (director1@opsrra.ca), Fiona McDannold (secretary@opsrra.ca) or Diane Foster (treasurer@opsrra.ca)

New OPSRRA Website

We are pleased to be celebrating OPSRRA’s 25th anniversary by launching our new updated website. The new site has a responsive design so it can easily be used either on your desktop, laptop, tablet or phone. It also is updated to the latest security settings - you’ll notice the full address is now https://opsrra.ca

Another enhancement to the new site is a more robust business directory to help our community shop local where possible and support our local economy. The directory will continue to grow over the months and we invite our members to be a part of this local resource. 

OPSRRA is also looking for community contributions to our website, such as photos, calendar updates and news items. Please email your contributions, feedback and/or business directory listing requests to vpresident@opsrra.ca.

Community Notice Board Funding 

OPSRRA was successful in obtaining funding through its Grant in Aid application to CRD in the amount of $700 for the maintenance and refurbishing of the 37 notice boards in our communities. If you would like to help our team with this project, please contact Brenda at director1@opsrra.ca.

Highway 14 Upgrades: Update

Your Board recently sent a letter to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure in August, along with additional earlier supporting documentation, as part of providing public input on Hwy 14 Corridor Improvements on behalf of emergency services. In this letter, we drew attention to:

1. Two particularly dangerous corners: Jordan River between Cold Shoulder and the gravel pit, around 11950 West Coast Highway; and Muir Creek, around 8800-9143 West Coast Highway which accounts for 50% of the region's accidents.
2. A request for wider shoulders at regular intervals along the highway to allow for safe pull-offs.
3. A list of existing shoulders which are crumbling away.
4. Request for a current traffic count in Shirley during the peak season to provide a better idea of traffic volumes and the wear and tear on these challenging roads.

Again, we’re constantly working to improve the quality of life our members enjoy in our communities, but we really need your help and involvement. If you wish to volunteer your time and assistance in any way, again, please don’t hesitate to contact us at president@opsrra.ca.

Enjoy all the pleasure that fall has to offer in our beautiful corner of the world, be safe and hopefully see you on September 30, 2018!