40 years later, and I’m still trying

Armchair mayor column for The Kamloops Daily News, Saturday, July 31, 2010

Upstairs on the cavernous second floor of our building, among stacks of old bookkeeping records, spare coin boxes and various other odds and ends, are several pallets of what we call our “bound files.”

Once a month, we send out copies of each day’s edition of the paper for binding. Nowadays, electronic storage is a lot more efficient, but we still keep newsprint copies so future generations can see and feel the real thing.

Fittingly, I suppose, those bound files are almost directly overhead my main-floor office — within those old papers are 40 years of my life.

This coming Tuesday morning, Aug. 3, will mark exactly four decades since I reported for my first day of work at what was then the thrice-weekly Kamloops News Advertiser. I’m feeling a little morose about it, possibly because I could never have imagined 40 years would go by so quickly. Nobody else who worked at this paper then works here now; quite a few are dead; many current employees weren’t born yet.

And what have I got to show for it?

Well, a majorly rewarding career, for one thing, one that has allowed me to become more connected to my community than most people ever have an opportunity to do.

For another, I have this newspaper to thank for the love of my life, Syd. She, and many other people most important to me, came into my life through my work here.

I’ve had the joy of working in an ever-changing industry and a constantly evolving newspaper, and have made a decent living at it.

So, really, I have much to be thankful for and nothing to complain about.

The pages in the bound files from 1970 are yellow and ragged now. One of those editions, July 6, includes a front-page announcement that I’d soon be coming to work for the paper, and it sounded as though I was quite the catch.

“Mel is well-qualified in the newspaper field,” the story said. “He has a degree in Journalism from the University of Washington in Seattle and he has a number of years experience with B.C. Weekly’s (sic) throughout the province, including Prince George and the Vernon News.

“Mel is an avid curler and is looking forward to his new appointment.”

The story explained I would be the new city editor and senior reporter, and would be covering City council meetings.

The picture shows a guy in his mid-20s with heavy sideburns and clunky glasses. My “number of years” of experience in the business at that time totaled three and, actually, I hadn’t finished my degree yet.

Though I later took a couple of breaks from the paper, teaching journalism to college students for awhile (including a bright young woman named Susan Duncan) and then trying my hand at politics, most of the next four decades would be spent right here behind the editor’s desk.

The owner and publisher was Harry Francis, the best boss I’ve ever had before or since (no offence intended to bosses past and present). Newsroom staff included Norm MacDonald, reporter Dennis O’Rourke, sports reporter Tony Parker, photographers Lou Armstrong and Neil MacDonald, and Bette Lumsden, who wrote a column called Would You Believe and put together a page called Women’s World.

That was when newspapers still published pictures of cheque presentations and ran weddings and anniversaries as news items. We used to publish a lot of aerial photos. One of them shows the outermost boundary of development — the top of Columbia Street hill, where the last building you saw heading out of town was a nightspot called Hernando’s Hideaway.

Kamloops was a hotbed of controversy and news in 1970. The issue of the day was whether or not the Greater Kamloops area should be amalgamated into one city. Kamloops wanted to annex the Village of Valleyview, which set off a lingering round of accusations and counter-accusations of lies and damned lies.

It was a civic election year, too, with candidates accusing each other of secrecy, dishonesty and wasting taxpayers’ money. Compared to the early 1970s, today’s council meetings are like having lunch with Dear Abby and Miss Manners.

It was also the year the Thompson Park Mall opened with great fanfare. The big civic celebration was Kami Overlander Days. The Rube Band went to Japan for Expo, and hundreds of well wishers showed up at the airport to welcome them back.

Construction workers were just ending a strike; the posties were just starting one. The “instant” town of Logan Lake was under construction.

We were a city of firsts. Peter Wing was the first mayor of Chinese descent in Canada, Phil Gaglardi was the first provincial cabinet minister of Italian descent, and Len Marchand was the first First Nations federal MP and cabinet minister, all of them representing Kamloops at the same time.

Trudeaumania was sweeping the country. Three days after starting my new job, I headed up to the Cariboo with Lou Armstrong to follow Trudeau on a campaign swing around Barkerville, Quesnel and Williams Lake. I reported that he looked “natty.”

That story, accompanied by plenty of Lou’s photos, included my very first byline at this newspaper. My name was spelled wrong.

I didn’t write my first column till Aug. 24 when I filled in for Norm MacDonald, who penned a weekly tidbits piece called Here and There. I wrote about the opening of a school at Red Lake, suggesting it represented “the growing disenchantment with the closeness and rising disadvantages of suburbia.” (Sadly, that school closed not long ago; I guess disenchantment with suburbia lost out.) A second item took a City rep to task for disparaging comments he’d made about young people in connection with an application for a coffee house permit.

My own column didn’t launch until Jan. 6, 1971. I called it Mel Rothenburger, maybe so I could make sure my name was spelled right.

In that first column, I wrote about, what else, local politics — specifically, the increasingly nasty dissension between local politicians. I noted that City councilors couldn’t even agree on the adoption of the provisional budget at their inaugural meeting. “. . . 1971 could be another unproductive year of bickering among council members,” I predicted.

I promised “to do my best to always write a lively, informative, interesting, accurate and fair column.”

Tall order, but I was careful to add, “I’m not saying I’ll make it, I’ll just try.”

Forty years later, here I am, still trying.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress 

No-show politicians disappointment at CIB

Armchair Mayor column for The Kamloops Daily News, Saturday, July 24, 2010

The Communities in Bloom judges were here this week.

Now let’s talk about who wasn’t here. The mayor, for example.

First, though, let’s deal with “Thomas,” who thanked mayor and council on our website a couple of days ago for “blowing money on this garbage.”

Thomas, maybe you’d like Kamloops to go back to the days when it was known as just another pulp mill town in a beautiful natural setting but with an urban streetscape that left much to be desired.

Maybe you’d rather save a few bucks on taxes and close our parks, rip out our flower beds, let the streets turn to potholes, and shut all our recreation and cultural facilities.

Maybe you just don’t get the connection between a beautiful city and a safe, livable city.

No, Thomas, you couldn’t be more wrong. Communities in Bloom is both a visible reminder of how far we’ve come, and motivation to keep going. It gives us a plan.

The Kamloops CIB committee should get a 10-bloom national award for being the best in the country. It’s packed with people who know what they’re doing — they know how to be gracious hosts and how to present the city at its best.

They deserve better than to have what they do called “garbage.” They deserve the support of the entire community. That’s why political support is so important.

I don’t necessarily think a few no-shows during the two days judges Wendy Maurer and Jim Baird were in town will damage our chances of winning the award for the bloomingest city in Canada.

But, given that community participation is always a big part of Communities In Bloom, I think it bears saying that we could have done a little better in that department.

Let’s start with Mayor Milobar, who was missing in action. Communities in Bloom is a big deal — the mayor needs to be a part of it.

I usually have trouble finding fault with the mayor, but he wasn’t there when the judges were looking at the entries in the pot-planting competition, including his own. He didn’t attend the Beautify Kamloops presentations. He didn’t host the judges as the mayor of the city usually does. He wasn’t at the wrapup banquet.

This is because he decided to take the week off. Work-life balance is important. I don’t begrudge anyone, even politicians, a holiday but when you’re mayor, you pick your spots. When you’re needed on the job, you stay on the job.

Coun. John O’Fee ably filled in for Milobar here and there as deputy mayor, but when a councilor stands in for the mayor it simply draws attention to the fact the mayor didn’t come.

Speaking of deputy mayors, O’Fee won the council pot-planting contest that’s part of the whole CIB schedule. Not bad, since he never went near the pot.

The contest is a fun thing, with members of council teaming up with sponsors who pay the costs of the plantings, and with a member of the City’s parks staff to see who creates the most ostentatious, sometimes most outrageous, pot planting.

Though various councilors did attend other functions, several were unable to participate in the contest to much extent this year, which is unfortunate. Disappointing for sponsors, and for the parks staffers who do the work.

(My own council contest partner, John DeCicco, went the extra mile, transplanting stuff from his home garden to spruce up our entry, though it was a losing cause. And it should be mentioned that Coun. Tina Lange worked flat out with the CIB committee during the judges’ visit.)

Again, we must keep in mind that councilors aren’t full-time employees, and they sometimes have other things to do that conflict with their civic duties. But. . .

Another thing about non-attendance. CIB can’t happen without a lot of good corporate sponsors. Less than a third of them showed up for the banquet, and it was obvious by the empty tables. Financial support is important, but so is being there. That room should have been packed.

And, by the way, Kevin Krueger wasn’t there, either, though Terry Lake was.

Meanwhile, kudos to the Graffiti Task Force, which played a pretty big role in putting the best possible face on our city for the CIB judges, but was inadvertently left off the list of acknowledgements at the banquet.

Maybe the only reason any of this is worth mentioning is that anything less than 110-per-cent  participation is unusual for our community. When Kamloops has something going, Kamloops shows up.

So, Thomas, please rethink. Don’t be a no-show. Maybe you should listen to “wildlifegirl76,” who commented after you, “Thank you, Mayor and Council, for making our community beautiful. This fills me with pride and makes we want to continue to live, spend and volunteer in my own community. A wise investment.”

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

‘Like night and day’ as ACC looks elsewhere

So, what’s happening lately with Aboriginal Cogeneration Corp.?

I’m glad you asked.

The company Kamloops didn’t want was wined and dined (literally) this week in Prince George. After a visit with the town council and economic development arm in Golden, ACC president Kim Sigurdson flew into the Prince for a whirlwind round of meetings.

He met with Mayor Dan Rogers, bankers, economic development types, potential funders and other business people, as well as the president of a prominent local environmental group, and attended a chamber of commerce luncheon.

“It’s like night and day,” Sigurdson said from Calgary airport yesterday as he waited for a connection back to Winnipeg. Drawing an obvious comparison to his experience here, he added, “You can talk to these people.”

Hugh Nicholson, president of the Prince George Downtown Business Improvement Association, called it “a very good day, very productive. . . Prince George really stepped up.”

In addition to setting up meetings, the DBIA hosted a reception at the local Ramada, giving Sigurdson a chance to meet people from local business and community circles like Canfor, realtors and others including John Bowman, the president of the College of New Caledonia.

Also at the reception was Marie Hay, president of the medical staff at Prince George Regional Hospital, a professor at the University of Northern B.C., and new president of a group called PACHA, the People’s Action Committee for Healthy Air.

Sigurdson described his discussion with Hay as cordial and respectful. “I don’t think she and I are going to go fishing but she’s a nice person.”

He acknowledged that Hay has a major concern about industry locating in what’s known as “the bowl” — the central part of the city rimmed by hillsides that can create inversions. But ACC is looking outside the bowl, not in it, Sigurdson says.

The conversation was probably timely, since Hay and PACHA have been indulging in a little of the old misinformation that has dogged ACC from the start. The PACHA website declares that “the gasifier would be constructed in Prince George’s downtown bowl, an area designated as a sensitive airshed by the Ministry of Environment.”

In making note of the opposition to ACC here by the now-defunct Save Kamloops and a group of local physicians, PACHA neglects to mention the project got the stamp of approval from the Environment Ministry, health authority and B.C. Lung Association.

“We cannot support an increase in industrial expansion like this within our airshed,” Hay writes on the site. “Should this industry attempt to come to Prince George, PACHA and other citizens’ coalitions for healthy air will be ready to stand and fight for the protection of our community, where others may not.”

Of course, such comments are based on an assumption that a gasifier significantly adds to air pollution, which isn’t born out in science.

The PACHA site includes a poll asking if people support a gasification plant in P.G. With about three dozen votes so far, the no votes outnumber the yes by about two to one.

Meanwhile, over in Kicking Horse Country, Sigurdson met with the Golden town council and the board of Golden Area Initiatives, the local economic development group. Those I spoke with there are cautious.

GIA board president Karen Cathcart said her group’s discussion with the ACC head was “an information session. . . . purely looking at the opportunities and whether or not there would be a fit in the community.”

Mayor Christina Benty said the meetings were aimed at starting “an appropriate community dialogue.”

What’s next? Sigurdson has to deal with the upcoming appeal of his environmental permit scheduled for Kamloops in September, then get a new permit for whichever location he picks (he says Prince George and Golden aren’t the only areas he’s looking at).

His provincial and federal funding remains in place, but he figures it will take another six months to put the whole thing together.

Madsen, by the way, has asked that the hearing be extended by seven more working days, which would make for 12 days of hearings in all. That’s long even by some of the more complicated Environmental Appeal Board cases.

The request arrived in Victoria on Wednesday and is on the chairman’s desk for consideration.

One more update on ACC. After our story on concerns being expressed by Domtar about some wood chips left on the ACC site on Mission Flats, Sigurdson posted a comment on our website in response to some other readers, saying “Regarding our facility in Kamloops, there is no fire hazard there and we have not left Kamloops.”

This prompted same worry that maybe ACC would try to set up in Kamloops after all. Sigurdson confirmed yesterday he has no intention of putting a gasifier in Kamloops, but his multi-year lease won’t expire for quite some time, so he’s looking at other possible uses.

Hence, ACC hasn’t left Kamloops.

Armchair Mayor column for The Kamloops Daily News, July 17, 2010

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

Thank the Lord for saving us from broken skateboards and marshmallow roasts

Armchair Mayor column for The Kamloops Daily News, Saturday, July 10, 2010

In another example of its anal obsession with rules, the City bylaws department eclipsed the Abby of Aberdeen fiasco with another display of over-zealous application of the law this week — this time over a broken skateboard.

There are two sides to this story, but the punch line is plain ridiculous.

In one corner we have Charlotte Shaw, who may be the most famous skateboarding mom in Kamloops. In the other corner, we have Brian Cassell of City bylaws. Yes, the very same who prosecuted Abby the Golden Retriever for wagging her tail at passing school children and stepping on a City sidewalk while she was doing it.

To refresh our memories, Shaw is the mother of longboard skater Nikolas Marshall, who’s had his share of run-ins with the long arm of the (by)law. The pair fought, and lost, a battle in May to have the City’s skateboard bylaw relaxed so skaters could travel freely down the hills of major Kamloops thoroughfares without regard to personal or public safety.

I happen to agree with City council on that one, but jeez louise, while rules are necessary, reason is kind of important, too. We seem to be over-legislated and over-enforced in this town.

Anyway, Marshall has received frequent warnings about skating in all the wrong places. On one occasion, when he was approached by a bylaws officer, he launched a fast get-away, tearing through an intersection without stopping or looking out for traffic.

At the time of her son’s appearance in front of City council, Shaw also complained about the City’s authority to take skateboards away from skaters caught in violation. Of particular annoyance was a $500 fine she’d received for littering in connection with an incident at the bylaws office involving her son’s skateboards. Yes, I said littering.

Details of that incident came out this week in bylaws court. In support of the $500 littering fine, the court was told that not one, but two skateboards had been impounded from Nikolas because he hadn’t paid a previous $100 fine.

One of the boards was broken. When Shaw went to make bail for the good board, she was informed she’d have to pay $50 rather than the usual $25 because there were two boards. She said she didn’t want the broken board, so would pay only $25.

Verbal push came to verbal shove, and Cassell informed the court that Shaw got mad, uttering on more than one occasion the B-word expletive. (If that is cause for a fine, Mayor Peter Milobar would be in front of the justice of the peace looking at a handsome penalty. The fine multiplied, perhaps, by the number of times his use of the term was reported in the media and by the number of people who heard him.) But Shaw paid the $50. As she left, she planted the broken board in the garden by the front door of the office.

“Cassell said he tried to chase her down and get her to take the broken board away but Shaw drove away,” The Daily News reported. “Two days later bylaws officers issued her a $500 littering ticket.”

If we accept the definition of a skateboard as litter (the City bylaw on that defines litter as “any refuse or any offensive matter”), one must nevertheless be flummoxed at Mr. Cassell’s decision not to simply pick up the abandoned board/litter and deposit it in the office trash. Elapsed time: oh, maybe 45 seconds, and get on with the day.

But no, this was somehow worth the Corporation of the City of Kamloops’ time and resources to take the woman to court on a littering charge. This, despite the fact the bylaws office had no authority to insist on double payment from Shaw on the skateboards.

The City’s bylaw says it can seize a skateboard for up to 60 days, after which the owner “may” redeem it by paying the $25 fine. If not, it becomes the property of the City. No “musts” or “shalls,” nothing about all or nothing.

Therefore, the littering charge — under a different bylaw — came as a direct result of the City ignoring the fine print of its own skateboarding bylaw. How absurd is that?

And don’t even get me started on the lecture meted out by JP Joan Hughes, who called Shaw’s behaviour “childish” and “definitely littering,” and suggested she needed anger management. Our reporter Robert Koopmans, who sat in on this example of Kamloops justice, will have more to say about the JP’s court behavior on Monday, both in respect to the skateboard case, and a marshmallow roast that also ran afoul of the City.

In that one, Barnhartvale dad Mathew Simons lit a campfire to roast marshmallows with his son last winter as they were working on a backyard skating rink. A neighbour complained, firefighters arrived, and Simons was handed a violation notice for breaking the City’s backyard burning ban.

One has to think a warning might have been appropriate rather than a charge. He did beat the rap this week due to the fact the fire guys couldn’t properly identify him as the culprit, but he didn’t escape a tongue-lashing from Hughes.

The phenomenon of bylaws creep in which more and more rules of behavior are legislated into existence by our municipal lawmakers is, I suppose, the price of an ever more-complicated society. However, this zero-tolerance-take-no-prisoners approach is totally alien to how the bylaws system is meant to be.

Bylaws are supposed to be there when we need them, not to be wielded like a club at the first sign of non-compliance.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

International friendship always a good thing

 

Sitting with Coun. Minoru Fujita at KJCA dinner Friday night.

Some people question the usefulness of our Sister City relationship with Uji, Japan, but who can argue against 20 years of friendship between two cities located on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean? One of the stated purposes of our agreement with Uji is to “contribute to world peace.”

There’s no more worthy objective than that, and no better way of doing it than to foster understanding through friendship. The more people know each other as people rather than media headlines, the less likely there will be misunderstanding and conflict.

After several days of visiting in Kamloops, including attendance at Canada Day, the latest Uji delegation has departed. Mayor Isamu Kubota and two Uji City councillors flew out yesterday, while a citizens’ group moved on for a visit to Banff.

Friday night, the Kamloops Japanese-Canadian Association hosted the delegates at their cultural centre for dinner. It was like a 20-year reunion. Several of those in attendance had been part of the original Uji delegation to Kamloops in 1989, or the return delegation to Uji a few months later. Former City of Kamloops administrator Joe Martignago told a funny story about how then-mayor Phil Gaglardi had worried that I’d criticize the trip in The Daily News as a waste of money, so Joe suggested they invite me to go along.

I did, and worked my butt off filing stories back home about the value of the trip (Gaglardi ended up not going, and the delegation was led instead by then-councillor Ron Watson, who also attended on Friday night). I’ve been a supporter ever since, so maybe Joe’s plan worked.

Many others at the Friday dinner had become part of the relationship in the years that followed the signing of the Sister City agreement in 1990, and the renewal agreement in 2000.

Mayor Kubota and I were the signatories to that 2000 document. Genuine friendships have been formed over the past 20 years, friendships that have endured. The warmth in the room on Friday night was accompanied by a tinge of sadness at having to part company. That’s always the case with those whose friendship you value.

But, as several speakers, including Kubota and Mayor Peter Milobar, said, the relationship is strong and should last for another 20 years, or 100 years or even longer.

A wonderful evening with our Uji friends

Canada Day is such a special day. This morning, I’m enjoying looking over the photos our Daily News readers have been sending in of their experiences from yesterday.

Syd and I had a wonderful time last night at a City dinner for the delegation from Uji, our Japan sister city. Mayor Kubota and councillors Fujita Minoru and Asami Kenji accompanied the large delegation, renewing many friendships.

Renewing friendships with Coun. Fujita and Mayor Kubota.

Mayor Peter Milobar presided, and it was great to have former mayors Cliff Branchflower and Terry Lake there as well; former City administrator Joe Martignago came up to attend, too. In fact, the room was full of people — both from Kamloops and Uji — who have been part of the Kamloops-Uji relationship during the past 20 years.

Mayor Kubota is a warm, gregarious man with a ready smile and an infectious laugh. He jokingly noted that during the 10-plus years he’s been mayor, Kamloops has had four mayors, but he declined to reveal the secret of political longevity. As it’s been many years since a Kamloops mayor has left office due to a defeat at the polls, maybe we just wear them out a lot quicker than they do in Uji. By the way, when he’s at home in Uji, Mayor Kubota keeps up to speed via The Daily News on what’s going on in Kamloops. 

Thanks to Kamloops First Lady Lianne Milobar for taking the photo that appears in this blog. That’s Coun. Fujita on the left and Mayor Kubota on the right.

We’re looking forward to another  dinner for the delegation this evening with the Kamloops Japanese-Canadian Association.