PROVEN ABILITY TO GOVERN

•        By being part of the team that is removing 121 septic systems adjacent to our lake.
•        By representing Osoyoos on the RDOS Solid Waste Management Plan which changed our landfill from an indiscriminant “dump” to a well managed sustainable facility.
•        By being co-chair on the LRCU task force that will promote the use of and the safety of our lake.
•        By clearly demonstrating the ability to learn and adapt to ongoing changes and resolutions.

IDEAS, OPINIONS AND PROMISES (My Platform)

•           You have my promise to work diligently to preserve our community standards by paying attention to the citizens and businesses of Osoyoos.
•          I understand that the wellness of our community may be affected by the lack of quality jobs and affordable housing. My youngest son graduated from OSS and is a trade person that struggles  day       to day to remain in our community. Our future is dependent on finding solutions that solve and improve these circumstances. I offer you my commitment to make these “Top Priorities” over the next 3 years.
•          Respect for taxpayers is a priority for me. You have my promise to work diligently toward sound financial management so that tax impact is minimal.
•          I am a small business owner in Osoyoos. This experience will offer much toward sound financial management ensuring the best possible distribution of our tax dollars.
•          My family is a frequent user of our lake. With tourism being our largest industry and our lake being tourisms greatest resource, I feel it is mandatory for Town Council to become more involved in improving the quality of our lake water and to be relentless in pursuing new and better ways to govern the betterment of our lake. Osoyoos Lake is an important part of our lifestyle and economy and must be preserved for future generations.
•          The Town of Osoyoos is currently showing good financial performance when many communities in B.C. are not. However, it would be naïve of us to think that we are immune from global economic woes and the future may be challenging. No matter how tough things get you can depend on me to be there through it all.

“The mandate of Town council is: TO PROVIDE DIRECTION TO SHAPE THE FUTURE OF OUR COMMUNITY. I am prepared to accept that mandate”.

Words on paper…yup, a scene from a Hollywood movie…could be, an exert from a novel…might be. We’ve all heard different variations of this story, perhaps from an uncle or a grandpa. We all listen carefully to the words. Sometimes we show empathy, sometimes we show sympathy. We believe some of it but mostly we just carry on with our lives and don’t pay much attention to it. The person that spoke these words is alive and well. He’s old (87), lives close by (North Vancouver), is modest, not a braggart and, I suppose, feeling lucky that he’s here to tell the story.

I don’t know Frank Zantolas but he is so typical of the veterans that are often overlooked by us. Frank authored my opening words based on his experience on June 6,1944 (D-Day). He was (is)  with the 3rd Canadian Infantry that landed on Juno Beach on that very infamous day. Canadian troops suffered 1074 casualties with 359 dead on that beach, in a faraway country, a long way from home. He, in my opinion, suffered the ultimate horror. Not the kind of horror you see in the movies, the kind you experience in real life. War is hell and Frank is probably living it every day of his life. 45300 Canadians lost their lives in WWII. Countless more in previous wars and way to many since. I’ll place Las Vegas odds that not one of them wanted to die and probably died way to young. Fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles you name it they all gave their lives. He, along with every veteran who has ever put on a Canadian uniform, is/are the reason we are free and live in a free country. I don’t even know him but he’s my hero and I’ll NEVER FORGET him. We owe him.

Remembrance Day, for me, brings attention to the many veterans in our community and to their sacrifice. What they did is the reason why we live in a free society. November 11 is Remembrance Day in Canada and it’s important for you to remember the people who did what they did in the name of freedom. You owe them that much. Do it this year  because they are an aging group and, quite simply, you may not have many more opportunities. Show that you care by attending the Osoyoos legion Remembrance Day service at the Sonora Centre . The doors open at 10:00 am with the service starting at 10:50 am. And….if for some ridiculous reason you can’t find a poppy to wear call the legion @ 250-495-7447. Someone that cares about you will help you out.

What I’m really interested in is what you would do if you discovered, on a sunny spring morning, 2647 rats swimming in our lake. More on this later.

The Canada Goose is a majestic bird. An awesome flying creature. We all have seen the film of the geese flying alongside the ultralite plane. Wings a flapping. Graceful. Steadfast in their determination to keep up with the pilot, who, if I remember correctly, is their daddy (or mommy) because he was the first thing they saw after birth. I’m not convinced about how a goose can tell the difference but what do I know. Canada goose is the actual name of the bird and, in most people minds, a reference to where the bird is from. It is a good conclusion but, in fact the Canada goose is found all over the world. It’s not our national bird as most think (actually it’s the Common Loon in case you were wondering). The one component of the ultralite film that is missing is what is happening at the rear of the goose. An average goose produces  3 pounds of feces (from now on referred to as poop) a day. Goose poop is particularly nasty stuff. It’s even a few steps up the nasty scale from dog poop. You step in it and you know it right away. Geese are indiscriminate creatures. They poop everywhere, anywhere they want and, whenever they feel the urge. Flying, swimming or, waddling, it doesn’t matter. They are incredibly adept at pooping with unbelievable accuracy when flying. Moving cars, speeding buses and mothers walking strollers are no challenge. “Splat”, first time every time and never a near miss. They are also, apparently, very good at making heroes out of airline pilots who fly over the Hudson River in New York.

On January 2, 2010 a bird count took place in our area and it was determined that there are 2647 geese pooping with proliferation on our streets, on our sidewalks, on our trails, in our lake, on our cars,  our rooftops and, if you dare to look up, our foreheads. Let’s just simplify it and say they are pooping everywhere. Why is this important? Well, I’m going to use a highly complicated mathematical equation to help us understand the complexity of this matter. Here goes…. try to follow my logic: 2647 X 3 = 7941.

I need to take a break and say a few things before going further. I apologize for references to pounds. I know, we live with the metric system but 7941 pounds sounds more impressive than 3602 kilograms. Also, I am a humane person who loves animals and I’ve never (that I can remember) mistreated an animal. I am a carnivore and I appreciate how and why cows, chickens and, fish end up on our dinner table.

My point is… we have a serious problem in our community (a quick Google search will tell you that this is a problem all over the world) with not many solutions. Back to the rats. If you were walking on our beach with your kids, your mom and dad or, friends and came upon a hoard of 2647 rats indiscriminately broadcasting 7941 pounds of rat poop everywhere (what an image that congers up) you would immediately go into panic mode and do something about it. Within a short period of time it would be headlines on CNN and our neighbors to the south would be dispatching a fleet of Blackhawks to take care of the problem. Afghanistan, Iraq, nuclear proliferation in Iran, and wacky leaders in North Korea would become secondary news. Poop is poop, What’s the difference between rat poop and goose poop??? It’s our (actually it’s your problem) problem and we need to do something. In our community we spend zillions of dollars safely treating human waste. Do the residents of Osoyoos make 7941 pounds a day? What an interesting question.

PLEASE HELP!!! OFFER YOUR IDEAS AND OPINIONS. PERHAPS SOMEONE IN OUR COMMUNITY HAS THE ANSWER.

 The current state of our economy in Osoyoos has a degree of uncertainty to it. We often get involved in our daily lives and don’t pay attention to the importance of recognizing that we can make a difference. It often seems that dwelling on the negative is the only choice we have but, you know, that’s not true. Osoyoos has its economic difficulties. We would be naive to think that we are immune to the pressures of a worldwide economic crisis….and I choose that word carefully. A brief look at our monthly building permit reports would cause any financial expert to cringe.

It always amazes me when individuals have a vision. Most would think that starting a business during these times of uncertainty is not a wise thing to do and may come with challenges over and above normal business startup woes. Well, go figure, in little ole Osoyoos we’ve had 4 businesses start up recently.

I know, it’s shameless, but I’m gonna plug these businesses anyway.

 1.     FEATHERED FROG—Offers handcrafted soaps. A catch phrase from their website says “Stop whatever you’re doing and take a bath”. They are located at 8317-Main St.

2.     BIA BORO—A women’s fashion store located in the same building as the Pizza Factory.

3.     MUTTS ON MAIN—All breed dog grooming located at 5702–Main street. Took our old dog Jake and they did a first class job.

4.     INDIE LULU—featuring a wide variety of goods in one of those kinda of stores that everyone likes. 7608-Veterans Way. Another catch phrase that I like: Funky not Junky

So, I’ve ranted on many occasions about shopping local and how important it is to our community. Afterwards the most common response is “what do you expect me to do..Osoyoos doesn’t have this kind of store or this type of service and every business charges too much… and so on and so on”.

These four businesses are filling previously empty spaces in our town, employing people from our community, the owners are living here—shopping here—paying taxes—and their kids are attending school and each one is trying to be a good corporate citizen all while experiencing the many pitfalls of running your own business in Osoyoos.

You can be an important part of economic stability in our community by supporting these and all the other businesses in Osoyoos. Give them a chance..by doing so you become an important part of a stable and prosperous Osoyoos.

Our lagoon is changing to a marina. The $533,000.00 tender was awarded to Greyback Construction of Penticton at the January 17, 2011 council meeting. This is a 50/50 cost shared project with Osoyoos Shoreline Developments (Watermark Resort) with the Towns portion coming from reserves. When completed our community will gain a first class marina with much improved boat launching facilities.

CLICK ON THE IMAGES FOR A LARGER PICTURE

Following is a “cleaned-up” version of my speech given at the CSAT sustainability workshop in the Sonora Centre on January 14, 2011… 

Sustainability is a wonderful and complex subject. The many aspects of sustainability can and will be the very essence of the way we do and think about all things in a municipality in the coming years. 

Sustainability is a valuable tool that will provide guidance to administrators of all levels as we move toward dealing with our many environmental issues in Osoyoos. The Town of Osoyoos has been honing its sustainability skills in an attempt to improve environmental matters in our community.

 With this in mind, I would like to offer a few words on how Osoyoos applied sustainability techniques to address a huge environment matter in our community.

 The Osoyoos landfill historically was a hole in the ground that allowed almost without restriction the indiscriminate dumping of all materials. There was an abrupt wakeup call when statistics revealed that we, in fact, were filling that hole at an alarming rate and harming our environment almost to the point of embarrassment. Osoyoos residents were adding over 749 kilograms per person per year. This statistic placed Osoyoos residents in the top one percentile in the world. A statistic that, by anyone’s standards is not acceptable. By comparison the US average is 700 kgs, Spain 400 kgs and Mexico 310 kgs. It was estimated that our landfill would close in less than 5 years. The cost of purchasing landfill land is so out there that it is never going to happen in our community. At that point the harsh reality was “5 years of life left in the landfill” and that was not an option. Immediate steps were necessary to lengthen the life of our land fill and to vastly improve our negative impact to our environment. It was also necessary to have a vision of where we wanted to be years into the future.

 Sustainability techniques were introduced. Some were intentional and some not but sustainable none the less. Following is a synopsis of what we did as a community:

 1.      An RFP was offered in an attempt to secure a qualified, experienced and, cost effective landfill operator.

2.      Changes were made to existing by-laws reducing curbside bag pick from two to one.

3.      Changes were made to existing by-laws allowing unlimited curbside pickup of recyclable materials.

4.      Tipping fees were leveled with surrounding landfills to discourage using our landfill because it was cheaper.

5.      Recycling areas at the landfill were made more user friendly and efficient.

6.      Residents and retailers were encouraged to discontinue the use of one time use plastic bags.

 At this time, because of these changes we now have a first class landfill contractor in place who has turned our hole in the ground into a well-run, efficient, organized and profit generating facility. The curbside volume reductions have encouraged residents to recycle, reuse and compost. Increased tipping fees have discouraged using the Osoyoos landfill because of reduced costs. The improved recycling area is an efficient method of landfill diversion. Resident engagement has vastly improved the overall health of our landfill and has helped reduce negative impacts to our environment.

 Admittedly, we did not set out with sustainability in mind. But by introducing the three key components of sustainability: those being the SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND, ECONOMIC and a realization that the project must be bearable, equitable and viable we have achieved a measure of sustainability with our landfill.

 So… the good news is a recent reevaluation in September 2010 by the RDOS has indicated that our landfill now has a predicted lifespan of 20 to 25 years.

 So…sustainability can and does work.

Well, I admit it, I’m a texting addict. I text anyone, about anything, at any time, on any subject only stopping if I’m in fear of angering the recipient. Or, occasionally I’ll stop when one or more of the following threatens my little life:  when my wife threatens to leave me (for a better texter with a bigger keyboard), lack of sleep, losing my job or, living in squalor. Also, I am a Facebooker (which sounds like something you’d do to someone’s face in the 60’s). Now, just when I thought I was managing my addictions, I’ve started Twittering. Tweeting was slow at first but now I live in constant fear of missing one of my followers or someone I’m following tweet (man…was that a hard sentence to put on paper).I can’t get over it, after all these years of life I have a serious addictions…

Trying to cram the meaning of life into 160 characters one text/tweet/FB comment at a time.

Texting, Twitter and Facebook are an obsession in our world that is unequalled in anything we know or understand. Pause and think for a minute, in three clicks of your handheld PDA you can convert Canadian dollars into Mauritian Rupees and, if needed, the reverse. There are over 500 million Facebook users with 50% of those using Facebook every day. A recent conference I attended was devoted entirely to the necessity of educating everyone in social media and without it we would cease to exist (life as we know it) within two years. What a daunting thought that is. I’m cashing out and moving to the eastern slope of Mt.Mckinley for a few years until this is all over. It’ll be a tough life for a while but we’ll emerge as a better and stronger race of folks (if we, in fact are lucky enough to survive). The bus leaves next Tuesday…be there or else??? Times and departure locations to follow….

Sometimes when you blog (like this one) you have to be serious and get to the point. Sometimes my posts digress into rants and, I’m probably going to do that now. Lately, I’ve received a lot of positive comments about the subjects addressed in my blogs and many have suggested that I, once in a while, comment on something else other than Osoyoos “stuff”. In all fairness, I do get less than positive comments that question my sanity, motivation and, sincerity but I am going to press-on anyway.

Harsh reality set-in over the Holiday(please note that I have carefully avoided using the word Christmas in an effort to be politically correct, and that may be fodder for future posts) season when texting with my kids and grandchildren.  I realized that I wasn’t talking to them. You know what I’m talking about…that thing that happens when we position our tongue in a certain way and curve our lips in a particular fashion and words come out. I’m not an anthropologist (I sure hope this is the right word) or anything close but I believe that speech is one of the primary distinctions between us and monkeys. We’ll need divine intervention to save us if monkeys learn how to text. Texting, Twittering and FB’ing allow us to convey words to others without emotion (a key human trait) and often we add a cryptic nature to our messages so that the recipient doesn’t really know what we’re trying to say.

Recent studies provide an unbelievable statistic: We (active users) average 123 texts each day. That’s over 3000 per month. I can’t think of one thing that I do more of other than blinking and breathing and I’m not even sure about that??

So…what’s wrong with this? Well, the jury is still out on this one. Perhaps nothing is wrong with texting etc and may, in fact, encourage an individual who would otherwise not communicate to do so and that is a good thing. I would really like to hear from you, maybe you could help me and others answer the following questions:

1. Is texting stifling our ability to put our thoughts on paper?
2. Are we losing a key element of humanity…the ability to communicate through conversation?
3. Is it possible for us to have a meaningful relationship with others by texting?
4. And lastly, will monkeys ever learn to text?

 So that’s my rant (I told you so). Your comments even if they are critical ones are appreciated and welcome.

WARMEST REGARDS.

So, at this time of year when everyone is making up top ten lists on every subject imaginable, I get this one shot back at you. Here are my top ten things you can do to make Osoyoos a more sustainable and environmentally stable community:

1. GO THROUGH YOUR GARBAGE—Before taking your garbage to the alley for pick-up ensure that there are no recyclables or compost material in the bag. It’s your garbage and your responsibility. This simple action will prolong the life of your landfill by several years.
2. IDLING CONTROL—All the science (and there’s a lot of it) says idling for more than 10 seconds uses more fuel than restarting your vehicle. It’s a no-brainer and the reduction of GHG’s is enormous.
3. SHOP LOCAL— If you want a strong local economy, great community services and, a vibrant main street then keep your dollars local and whenever possible shop local.
4. WATER CONSERVATION—You can make a difference. Xeriscape wherever possible, install low flow shower heads and faucet aerators, replace all toilets with ultra-low dual flush systems, fix leaky faucets and pipes, re-fit all outdoor irrigation with drip systems, know and understand the source of your water and, educate yourself on water conservation.
5. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT— Become engaged in “things” that are important to you…it’s how you get stuff done in our community. 
6. VOLUTEER—Many organizations that do very important and beneficial things in our community rely on volunteers. Get involved.
7. COMMUNICATE—As a councillor one of the most important things to me is hearing from residents about their ideas and opinions.
8. BE CREATIVE—You are the best source of creative and innovative ideas that can make our community a better place.
9. STOP COMPLAINING —Walt Disney said it all when he was asked about his success. “I woke up one day and decided to stop complaining. My motto then became… stop talking and, start doing”. We could all benefit from that advice.
10. TOURISTS—Treat your tourists as you would your best friend. Tourism is our biggest industry and the driving force behind our economy. It’s what we are so let’s do it well.

Yeah, I know..there goes that damn CJ telling us what to do again but if you’ve read to this point then I’ve done my job. If you even pause to think about one of the above points then I’m happy.

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