• Oak Bay started 2016 with a gentle reminder from emergency personnel to stop, drop and hold on, but don’t call 9-1-1.
“If you think it’s an earthquake, it’s an earthquake. Practice your drop cover and hold on,” said says Dave Cockle, Oak Bay’s fire chief and president of the B.C. Earthquake Alliance.
• After 20 years, Loranne Hilton left her role as director of corporate services and deputy chief administrative officer, to take the helm at Highlands.
• Oak Bay introduced two new faces among its staff, one in a new role and one filling a void left by a longtime staff retirement.
Debbie Carter became director of financial services, and Vicki Gannon filled the role of manager human resources.
• Dirt shimmers, dragons soar and one girl is tasked with stopping underworld beasts from stealing people’s shadows to nourish the hungry land, in a world directly from eight-year-old Maggie Wehrle’s imagination. Maggie’s story, The Underground Festival, won first place in her age category as part of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind’s annual braille creative writing contest.
“I was really happy. I was really glad,” said Maggie. “I like just being able to put my ideas onto a piece of paper. It’s fun.”
• Mayor Nils Jensen was vocal in his bid to re-look at McLoughlin Point for wastewater treatment.
“When it was revealed to the Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee that the new plans would be anywhere from twice as much to three times as much, I came to the conclusion that we should reconsider McLoughlin for a number of reasons,” he said. “One, we knew the costs. Two, we owned that particular property and three, it was zoned for sewage treatment.”
That site would later come back to the CRD table as a preferred site.
• Patricia Walker retired as Director of Financial Services for Oak Bay on Jan. 31 after 28 years working for the municipality.