Dunahee tip was investigated: police

A recent news tip from an Oliver man about the Michael Dunahee disappearance was thoroughly investigated in 1995, said the Victoria Police Department.

Sgt. Alan Cochrane, from Victoria’s Unsolved Homicide/Missing Person department is conducting the Dunahee investigation, and said the tip recently given to the Oliver Chronicle was taken seriously – in the ‘90’s.

March 24 marked 15 years since the disappearance of the four-year-old boy from a Victoria playground. On that day, investigators and media announced a promise of a $100,000 reward for information.

Oliver resident David Barclay came into the Chronicle to report his belief that a man named "Derrick" was responsible for the disappearance. Barclay’s ex-wife, Debbie, confirmed that the man had admitted his guilt while drinking with the couple.

But Cochrane said they’ve already been down that road. He said the man had a suspicious enough background that he was looked at early on in the process.

"Derrick came up in our original file, and we looked into it," said Cochrane.

However, the man appeared in an Edmonton court on March 18, 1991, pleading guilty on a mischief charge.

"He has an airtight alibi," Cochrane said. "There is no way he could have been in Victoria."

Nonetheless, in 1995, the Barclays went to the Richmond RCMP with their concerns. The police took another look at Derrick, and reconfirmed that there was no way the man could have been responsible.

"They were told that outright in 1995," said Cochrane. "They had known they were providing you with false information. Derrick was in Edmonton on March 24, 1991."

Though false reports that lead to police investigations can lead to charges against the person reporting them, in this case there won’t be any.

"They didn’t come to the police to start another investigation," Cochrane said, adding Barclay didn’t go any further than contacting the Chronicle.

He said they have received 500 tips since March 24, and would like readers to know they very much appreciate any viable information that can be investigated.

"The biggest thing is, we just want to bring Michael home for the family," Cochrane said. "That is our number one goal."

Town willing to address needs of disabled

Oliver’s provincial Government Agent’s office doesn’t have front door access for handicapped people. Sure, there’s a wheel-chair accessible ramp, and automatic sliding doors, so disabled people can get in. But once inside, there’s nowhere to go except the washroom.

Marion Soames says this is just one of several things that need to be fixed in order to make the lives of disabled persons just a little easier – and she’s ready to work with the Town to make it happen.

In April, Soames, who has Multiple Sclerosis, submitted a list of four suggestions to the mayor. Though there are more than four issues that need addressing, she says she decided to start small.

"Let’s do it using baby steps," she said. "One step at a time."

Oliver Mayor, Ron Hovanes, responded by calling Soames right away, and asking her to come to a Council meeting in the near future.

"If we can help her in her efforts to address some of these concerns, we’re more than happy to give her time with Council," he said.

Soames’ list is quite simple and offers solutions to her perceived problems. It begins with more disabled parking stalls.

"There is one in the Fields Department Store parking lot, but the lines are so faded, they are hard to see," Soames said. "Unless someone pointed it (the parking spot) out, you wouldn’t know it was there." She adds that non-disabled persons will park in the spot without knowing it is for the handicapped. Her solution?

"Please paint the lines. It is a disabled spot, and it should be easy to see."

The parking lot at the mall houses two disabled spots in front of the Saan store, which are way too small and will not accommodate a walking device or a wheelchair, said Soames. "You park there and then you try to get out, and it’s just not going to happen."

She says the nearest properly spaced handicapped spot is across from the A&W, and so fixing the two smaller spots would be an ideal solution.

Another one of Soames’ concerns is at the Provincial government building, just up from the post office. It does not have proper front door access for the disabled. Once up the ramp (which is difficult to spot when approaching the building), and through the convenient sliding doors, there is nowhere for a disabled person to go except to the washrooms - or back outside.

The Government Agent office is down a set of stairs, and the Ministry of Agriculture is at the top of another set. Government Agent, Doug Blatchford, said, "Yes, they (disabled people) have access to the service, but they don’t have front door access."

Blatchford is referring to the ramp on the side of the building that was put in back around 1980 during one of the first handicapped drives. The ramp leads to a side door where disabled persons can use the buzzer and will then be helped from inside the back of the Government Agents’ office. He said that was the 1980 solution to the problem.

"We’ve done what we can at the local level for people given the configuration of the building to accommodate it."

Blatchford adds that when they did some renovations in 1995, there were plans to put in an elevator; however, government freezes eliminated the spending.

"An elevator would be a good thing for the public," he said. The ramp to the front door and the sliding doors were installed when the courtroom still existed on the main floor, but all the court proceedings have since moved to Penticton, explained Blatchford.

"The government is aware that there is an access problem to the building; however the funds are not available as the building is currently for sale."

Soames hopes the new building will indeed have an elevator.

"Let’s address it and get it in there. It is the 21st century."

The last item on her list is at the post office, where it is difficult for the disabled to sit down while they are waiting in line.

"There’s a button to get in (the door)," she says, "but if I don’t have my walker with me, it’s hard to stand there and wait."

A chair was very recently added, but Soames says if she goes to sit, she loses her place in line. She believes a number system - in order of arrival and for every person - would be a perfect solution, but lacking that, it would help if people were aware to hold a disabled person’s spot in line while they sat down to wait.

Soames believes it’s important to deal with the issues she’s brought to the forefront.

"As our population ages, we need to have these things addressed." She hopes something will be done.

Hovanes says, "These are very important concerns." He encourages Soames to lobby the above private interests, as unfortunately, they do not fall under the town’s responsibility.

"But if we can help her get her message across (to the private owners), then we are there to help. Safety issues take priority."

Soames admits that she can’t do it alone. She says it will also take a lot of people writing letters to see results. "You can’t just sit back. For every person who speaks up, there are at least ten who don’t, but the silent majority is out there."

On the positive side, Soames says, "It’s easy to walk in our town. They’ve done a wonderful job of making sidewalks wheelchair and walker accessible; they’re all the way up the hospital now. And the addition of that beeping sound at the traffic lights...that’s a good thing."

Hovanes says, "The town of Oliver has been very proactive in making the community accessible to the disabled, and we endeavor to build a complete community that’s accessible to everyone."

Smart Growth on the Ground’s charrette next week

A process that began six months ago with ideas and a dream will come under public scrutiny next week. During the journey that began last November, facilitators from Smart Growth On the Ground (SGOG) and interested Oliver residents met on several occasions to hammer out a wish list for the town’s development over the next 30 years.

Subsequently, information garnered from those intensive, interactive monthly sessions over the winter had been given to a team of professional design planners and developed into a series of achievable blueprints for Oliver’s future in everything from agriculture to maintaining its small town character through a number of well-planned and sustainable moves.

Now, Oliver residents are being invited to visit, view and voice their opinions on the emerging snapshot of the community, as it will appear three decades hence. The SGOG team has arranged a series of three meetings and they will be held on three separate evenings next week. All three sessions will be held at the Oliver Legion Hall at 36217 97^th Street and participants can attend any or all of the free events.

A four-day charrette, or intense design roundtable, will run concurrent to these meetings that week, as the design team utilizes the feedback and input the meetings generate and incorporates those ideas into an official document, to be signed by Town and regional district officials.

The 24-member design team consists of four council members and staff, four elected officials and staff from the regional district, the representatives previously elected from the groups, and eight experts and representative of other agencies, such as the Ministry of Transportation and the Oliver and District Community Economic Development Society.

The kick-off session is scheduled for Tuesday, May 9, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Jodie Siu, SGOG outreach coordinator, said there will be two primary purposes to the evening: people will meet the charrette team and understand the issues they represent, and they will hear the instructions the team has been given.

"We’ve been running this public process since last November and all that is culminating in a set of design instructions that are intended to encapsulate what the public has told us," noted Siu. "So we’ll be presenting the highlights of those instructions and we’ll be able to get feedback from folks on whether these things match with your experience in the rest of the process. For instance, people can tell us whether there are things that have been raised (in previous sessions) and were left out—that kind of thing."

The second public meeting will be held on Thursday, May 11, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Described as a Mid-Course Review, it follows the second day of the privately-conducted charrette, and Siu called this session the best opportunity for public input.

Continued Siu, "The charrette team will be presenting what they have been working on so far. And that’s a critical time for people to come in and see the direction the team is taking and to make sure those directions are appropriate.

"So the mid-course is often the time for people to say, ‘you’ve forgotten this about X,Y, and Z,’ or to say, ‘this is the wrong way to go; we need to think in a different direction.’

"The input here is critical. The designs are in a very fluid state and they are only half way complete so it’s a real opportunity to influence the outcome."

Its format will partially mirror the group meetings of the winter sessions. There will be an open house component at the outset, then participants will break into the same small eight groups they gravitated to in February, and their elected representatives will sit down and discuss whether the group’s collective needs are being met or not in the charrette.

The more intimate format is a tried and true approach at this point for the SGOG facilitators, and Siu said they use it so they can have eight discussions going at once and get as much feedback as possible.

The final public information meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening, May 16 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Dubbed a presentation event, this is the time the team will show residents what they have accomplished during the charrette, which took place between kick-off and presentation, where they developed drawings, and took land use and design issues into consideration.

It will consist of a 30-minute open house during the first portion of the evening, where people can view the drawings and look at them in detail. Then the team will do a talk about what is being done, while the rest of the meeting will be devoted to feedback and questions.

"The thing that is important to know is there will be lots of drawings at that point, but they won’t be finalized, finished or adopted yet, so it is still an important opportunity for people to say, ‘I don’t like the direction in which you have developed this issue.’

"After the presentation, our team will go back and develop all the ideas into a document called a concept plan."

The plan will be several months in the making and then it will be submitted for approval.

And how did Oliver measure up in the preparation stages? Did the participants give the SGOG team the tools to do their task efficiently?

"It has been fabulous. People have provided really high quality input and have really engaged in the process and that makes our job very easy.

"At this point we have put together these design instruction; they are a reflection of the public input and we think they are a great set of instructions the design team can work with," stated Siu.

However, SGOG is about implementation and that takes years, she went on to say. "Our team will stick around as the town and the regional district begin that implementation process—and that’s the hardest part.

"It’s really very easy to come up with pretty pictures that have a future vision of the community. But to make those visions a reality is the hard part—and that will take place in the coming months and years."

Plant petunias; plant a tree for the future

Time to stop and smell the flowers. Pause, relax, take a deep breath and smell spring.

We are in a glorious time of the year. Cool nights and warm days have done their usual magic to our winter-tired landscape. The greys and browns have yielded to the greens in a thousand hues. Bright flowers are popping up everywhere and our tree fruits have worked their way through the cherries, apricots and pears with the apples preparing for the annual display.

Whatever magic drives the sap back into the trees and triggers leaves and flowers to seek the sun, also finds a harmony in the human spirit that lifts our spirits and stirs us to visit the nurseries, garden suppliers and hardware stores.

Don’t resist. Plant those petunias; plug in those carrot seeds. Be brave and plant a tree. Someone will enjoy it even if you don’t survive long enough to hang a hammock from it.

There is all the time in the world to worry about problems. For now just enjoy the kiss of spring.