Welcome to Lake Flashback. Reporter Sarah Simpson has been combing through old newspapers with the assistance of the Kaatza Station Museum and Archives so we can jog your memory, give you that nostalgic feeling, or just a chuckle, as we take a look at what was making headlines this week around Cowichan Lake in years gone by.
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This week around the Cowichan Lake area…
10 years ago
Money for the Lake's ball diamond! "$500K grant to help fund Centennial Park project" was the top headline of the July 31, 2015 edition of the Lake Cowichan Gazette.
"After sitting on the back-burner for over a decade, the Town of Lake Cowichan, along with Vancouver Island North MP John Duncan, announced yesterday (July 28) that proposed improvements to Centennial Park will finally be implemented thanks to a $500,000 grant from the federal government.
"Planned improvements to Centennial Park are extensive and include renovations to the baseball diamonds, dugouts and pathways, as well as the installation of field lighting....The town has previously invested money into Centennial Park, in order to raise pitching mounds, update the infield and attempt to deal with drainage issues, though McGonigle stresses that a 'major capital investment' is necessary in order to make an impact on the park."
"New committee looks to past for inspiration" was a page 2 story in the same paper.
"This month saw the formation of a new citizen committee in Lake Cowichan, the Old Lake Cowichan Committee. The group of five residents wants to steer the town towards a different future through organizing events, and they’re looking to the past for inspiration.
"Committee president Shelley Davies Coburn is fond of recalling 'the good old days' in Lake Cowichan, when the town was home to many family events like picnics, logging competitions and holiday celebrations like Halloween haunted houses and Christmas banquets.
“Everyone looks forward to Lake Days, and I just want to see more things like that,” says Davies Coburn. “When I was a kid, there was always something going on, it was awesome. Why shouldn’t the kids today have that too?”
25 years ago
"Pharmacist gets 20-months" was a big headline gracing the front of the Aug. 2, 2000 Lake Cowichan Gazette in relation to a long-standing story.
"A little more light has been shed on the bizarre case of a former Lake Cowichan pharmacist who pleaded guilty to ripping off the government. Last Friday in Duncan Provincial Court, [the pharmacist] was ordered to serve a 20-month sentence and pay back more than $265,000 to Health Canada and B.C.'s Ministry of Health Friday, for processing fraudulent prescriptions between February 1998 and March 2000.
"On April 10, [the pharmacist] pleaded guilty to claiming $253,879 from Health Canada's Non-Insured Health Benefits program, which compensates pharmacists for medical services rendered to First Nations people. But after her guilty plea, [the pharmacist], who at the time owned Peoples Drug Mart in Lake Cowichan, filed $13,596 in false claims with B.C.'s pharmacare program.
"The 60-year-old mother of two sat rigidly in the front row of courtroom one, while her husband... slumped in the back row of the room, listening as Crown prosecutor Stephen Cooke and defence lawyer Dennis Murray regurgitated the facts of the case and told Judge Brian MacKenzie what they thought was appropriate punishment. Cooke argued [the pharmacist] made 4,400 false claims to Health Canada by forging doctors prescriptions so she could collect compensation from NIHB without actually rendering any services."
In other news of the day, in a related story, "New owners dealing with the bad press" was another headline.
"It's tough enough trying to start a small business without having to deal with bad press about your store splashed all over the front pages of almost every southern Vancouver Island newspaper — especially when the negative ink has nothing to do with you. Sean and Erika Lucas bought the Lake Cowichan People's Drug Mart store on June 15th of this year.
"The couple moved here from Vancouver. 'We knew it was obviously going to be hard getting over this first little bump but we knew the community would be understanding,' says Sean, 26. The young couple were looking for a pharmacy on the Island and they liked this area. Sean says they wanted the Lake Cowichan store before they even knew about the trouble the previous owners had gotten into. Due to the looming court case, the local People's store was affordable.
"'We were ready to buy the store when all of a sudden the landslide (of allegations came up) and we kept hearing more and more and more of what was going on,' he says. 'A lot of it we're just finding out now. We know as much as you know from what's been written in the papers.' Sean says the fraud case was a rare incident and that all occupations have their bad apples. He says Erika has training as a hospital pharmacist and both of them vow to run an honest business."
40 years ago
With the Lake News staff on holidays this time 40 years ago, we look back once more to the July 24, 1985 edition of the paper to see what was going on about town.
"Clean up properties — or else" was a somewhat threatening headline!
"The Lake Cowichan RCMP will comply with a village council request that it enforce the Highway Scenic Improvement Act which provides for prosection of owners of unsightly properties. Constable Kett Yaeger, of the Lake Cowichan detachment, told council in a letter discussed at the July 23 meeting that the police will take action on complaints.
"'We would be pleased to receive any information on abandoned (or) unlicensed vehicles as noted by the village works crew or any other information or complaints that you might receive from the general public. Appropriate action will be taken on all complaints,' he said."
"Boy saved" was another headline.
"Former lifeguard, Josie Harrigan and Tricia Bourassa, the latter, the niece of Mr. and Mrs. H. Fitzpatrick of Lake Cowichan, saved a four-year-old boy from possible drowning after he reportedly fell off his air mattress, on the weekend. The boy was Derek Kaufmann, son of Mr. and Mrs. Rolf Kaufmann of Duncan. His parents reported Tuesday that he had recovered from the incident. The two women realized there was something wrong because the child was in the water and kept disappearing. "
