News Leader News for October 14, 2008
TWENTY CANDIDATES FILE FOR FIVE COUNCIL SEATS
The jokes are already circulating about the upcoming Municipal All-Candidates Forum lasting two days to allow all candidates to say their piece.
The fact of the matter is that a total of sixteen candidates are seeking the four Councillor seats and an additional four Candidates are running for Mayor.
The official Declaration of Candidates issued late October 10th by Town of Princeton Chief Election Officer Patrick Robins shows that the four Candidates for Mayor of Princeton are Esther Donovan, Jim Manion, Randy McLean and Maria Sadegur.
Three of those candidates have previous experience on Town Council, McLean as the incumbent Mayor, Manion and Sadegur as Councillors in the current Council.
The sixteen candidates running for the four Councillor seats are Solana Allison, Frank Armitage, John Babiak, Jon Bartlett, Jim Bernard, Darrell Dobie, Jason Earle, Randall Gibson, Tom Guerster, Marilyn Harkness, Bob Hart, Rick Hudson, Ray Jarvis, Kim Maynard, Douglas Rebagliati and Dina Slowikowski-Campbell.
The only candidate with previous experience on Princeton Town Council is incumbent Ray Jarvis.
Dina Slowikowski-Campbell has been a Trustee of School District 58 (Nicola-Similkameen).
Speaking of the School Board, Chief Election Officer Patrick Robins has declared the three candidates who were nominated for the three Trustee seats elected by acclamation (in accordance with Section 76 of the Local Government Act).
They are incumbents Gordon Comeau and Ken Heuser and newcomer David Rainer.
In the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) Chief Election Officer Tracey Batton has declared two candidates elected by acclamation.
Electoral Area B (Cawston) incumbent George Hanson and Electoral Area D (Kaleden/OK Falls) incumbent Bill Schwarz were unchallenged for their RDOS Director seats.
In Electoral Area H (Princeton Rural) there are two candidates vying for the Director seat.
They are Brad Hope and Gerri Logan. Logan is the incumbent.
In Electoral Area G (Keremeos Rural/Hedley) there are three candidates: Elef Christensen, Joe Nitsch and Holly Tilstra. Nitsch is the incumbent.
The rest of the candidates for RDOS Director seats are as follows:
Electoral Area A (Osoyoos Rural) - Sherry Linn and Mark Pendergraft.
Electoral Area F (Okanagan Lake West/West Bench) - Sandy Berry and Michael Brydon.
Electoral Area C (Oliver Rural) - David George Evans, John Hack and Allan Patton.
Electoral Area E (Naramata) - Tom Chapman and Catherine Provost.
RDOS Chief Election Officer Tracey Batten has extended the nomination period (pursuant to Section 74 of the Local Government Act) for the Olalla Local Community Commission.
Only three candidates have indicated interest in running for the four Commissioner seats. They are Wayne Chapin, Flo Winfrey and James Winfrey.
The nomination extension for the position of Local Community Commissioner for the Olalla Local Community runs to 4:00 PM on Tuesday, October 14th.
In Keremeos there will be an election for Mayor but not for Councillors for the Village Council.
Chief Election Officer for the Village of Keremeos, Joni Heinrich, has declared the four candidates who put their names forward for Councillor positions as elected by acclamation.
They are Manfred Bauer, Charlene Cowling, Ed Minshull and Gary Thielman.
Bauer and Minshull were the incumbents.
The race for Mayor of Keremeos sees Kevin Andrews challenging incumbent Walter Despot.
SECONDARY SCHOOL WORKS TO KEEP GRADES
Teachers at Princeton Secondary School want every student to graduate, but keeping students in school is no easy task. Principal Bill Lawrence and councillor Sandee Blair attended the October 8 School Board meeting in Princeton to explain what they do to encourage students to remain in school.
Every student in the school is evaluated to find out whether the student is at risk of not graduating. The risk may include learning problems, attendance problems and/or behaviour problems.
Boys appear to be more likely to have behaviour problems, but any student may have a combination of factors which put graduation at risk.
Parents, teachers, counsellors and principal work with students to help resolve the problem. Lawrence said parents must be involved, as often the parents do not know the extent of the problem and do not know that their child is likely to drop out of school.
"Kids don't drop out in a day," Sandee Blair told school trustees, "They start in Grade 9."
She stressed the importance of starting to work with the student and parents as soon as a risk factor is identified.
The good news is that the majority of students identified as "at risk" in the past did stay in school and finish Grade 12.
WE NEED AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Councillor Ray Jarvis attended two major conferences recently where the main topic was the need for affordable housing. This issue has been raised in Princeton for the past six months, but it is a need throughout B.C.
Councillor Jarvis first attended the B.C. Council of Senior Citizens held in Richmond.
"By far, the topic that took up most of the agenda was housing," Councillor Jarvis stated at the October 6 Town Council meeting.
Seniors want housing they can afford. They want it appropriately located, well built, well designed and secure. They want it near accessible transportation.
The second conference Councillor Jarvis attended was the annual convention of the Union of BC Municipalities. He attended a meeting on affordable housing, where he learned affordable housing is an issue in municipalities throughout B.C. It is needed for rent, purchase, for the handicapped and the homeless.
Recommended possible solutions included tax incentives from all levels of government, compact housing for low wage earners, good design that contributes to affordability, increased funding from senior governments, and municipalities making use of their land and zoning to make affordable housing viable.
Both conferences noted poverty is a good part of the problem. Councillor Jarvis learned poor people spend 67 percent of their income on their household. Many seniors spend 30 percent of their income on rent alone. Twelve percent of all seniors in B.C. live on incomes below the poverty line.
An estimate 10,000 to 15,000 people are homeless in British Columbia. Part of the problem is welfare rates which have lost 25 percent of their purchasing power since they were set in 1996. A single person on welfare receives a maximum of $375 a month for rent and $235 for everything else, such as food, heat, power, and so on. Families on welfare, unemployment insurance and disability pensions are equally strapped for money.
In some cases, people face homelessness due to rent increases. In others, higher property taxes force them to sell and move.
