COAL CREEK HISTORIC PARK ADVISORY COMMITTEE
FEBRUARY 22, 2011 MINUTES

Present: Lillian Tosoff, Carol Snaden, May Gee, Grace Doherty, Josephine Peyton, Florence Bell, Ray Iwaasa, John Leung, Joyce Lowe
Regrets: Marie Lowe, Imogene Lim

1.Motion to approve the agenda with correction of "Gerry" to" Jerry" Wong (John/May). Carried.
2. Motion to adopt the January 25 meeting minutes (Flo/John). Carried.
3. Unfinished Business
a. Lunar New Year Dinner comments: event sold out, entertainment well received; children were involved in the program, Kevin Fletcher good emcee.

b. Heritage Faire comments: Although our committee was invited to have 2 tables, displays were instead done for Chinese heritage (John, Joyce, May) and Japanese heritage (Ray, Donna). Lillian reported that proceed at the door up from last year. Carol reported that the marching band did well serving refreshments. Photos distributed by John.

c. Jumbo's Cabin signage update. Meaghan's e-mailed response read out (see forwarded e-mail). The e-mail has been forwarded to David Durrant as well. Given that the time frame is not sufficient to have finished signs in place and there is no assurance of Village funding, options for temporary signage for the event were discussed. John has a large sheet of Corplast and Grace has another. May has prepared photo posters of the early days of work in the park and others have photos of our many activities. Grace will add to next meeting agenda.

d. Park boundary walk. A request was sent to retired surveyor Rocky Williams to accompany committee members on a walk of the park boundaries. This had been discussed with him last year. No response to date.

e. Pavilion opening
1. School involvement:
Action: Lillian will contact Kathryn Chung of Cumberland Community School about their making paper lanterns or doing other projects. Lillian will loan the lantern she made.
Grace to send invitations to the local schools inviting them to participate, leaving it to them to decide what they'd like to offer


2. Parking, transportation:
Public Works leveled the road in, graveled a small area at the rail grade for parking and dug a swale on the west side of the road to prevent further erosion from water.
Various options to get guests safely in and out of the event were discussed including use of ATV/ golf cart shuttles, bus or car-pool transfer from the CRI parking lot, using the open area until close to the event start then keeping vehicles away from the pavilion area; using one or both road allowances on Comox Lake Road; using the lot across from Jumbo's cabin and the foot of Camp Road; opening a foot path from the open area to the pavilion so that guests are not walking out narrow Shan Gai as vehicles are driving in.
Action: Flo and Grace will look at possibility of a footpath loop back to the pavilion to allow parking in the open area.

3. Ongoing site work
The ground around the pavilion has been filled and leveled. This addresses the liability issues we were concerned about with the sharp drop off around the structure. It also gives a firm base for the 5th picnic table outside and opens up Haa Gai Road again. It was partially obscured by the humped gravel on the south side of the pavilion base. The fire hydrant has received vintage replacement parts, which will be noted appropriately as Imogene recommended. The brown and gold heritage park sign that May designed was given new 10' posts and moved up to the Comox Lake Road entrance.

4. Donor plaque, picnic tables
Two proofs of donor plaque circulated along with costs. Members agreed that the cast aluminum would match the rock and pavilion best. That option was also felt least likely to attract metal thieves. It is considerably cheaper while still coming with a lifetime guarantee on durability. Various revisions were suggested and noted on the copies.
Action: May will contact Engrave-It about the revisions. Grace will e-mail proofs and notes on revisions to May.

5. Programs- ceremony, reception
Grace gave general summary of guest list to date. The Village will send invitations to the various levels of government and other dignitaries. Grace will send PDF of invitation out to committee members but asked that names of people to be invited be sent to her so that there isn't duplication or people left out.
Ceremony comments- limit politicians to 2 minutes; include speakers from the picnic reunion group and our committee, a local historian and someone to honour John Leung.
Reception- Joyce has contacted local dim sum provider who will heat items at the reception; May asked about a cake, Carol suggested keeping it a social event with no formal program, Ray supported this from experience at our last reception and the group concurred.

6. Media releases: Grace will contact Meaghan Cursons about timing and content.

7. Souvenirs
May suggested tabling this until our March meeting



New Business
a. Nelson Chinatown Plaque Project
Copy of information received from Imogene circulated. May suggested responding a description of our park.
Action: Grace to send this information.

b. Disc Golf in the park
Initial response to e-mailing of this information was positive, members supporting increased visits to the park, family-oriented activity and the supposed low impact of the informal course set up. Discussion focused on issues including erosion of areas near the "holes", the weight of the discs used (not necessarily plastic Frisbees) causing damage to trees; potential conflict with other park users and opening the door to other groups installing equipment or otherwise conflicting with general park use. A major concern raised was the lack of cultural connection. Ball playing would be consistent with early Chinese and Japanese settlement and is mentioned in the Park Projection Study as a use in the open area of Chinatown but this activity would be out of place. The group agreed that allowing informal use of the park is all right but formally sanctioning it not a good idea. It would also be premature to do this before a park plan is in place.
Action: Grace to forward comments to David Durrant in response to his request for our input.


5. Next Meeting: March 22, 2011

6. Motion to adjourn (Ray)





Grace Doherty, Acting Secretary