It's hard to take a full year's worth of news, sports and arts and entertainment and condense it into a few pages in our Year in Review edition, but somehow we have done it.
Sure, there are probably a few things we missed, but can you blame us? I've been editor of Coast Reporter since January 2003, and I can honestly say I have never been part of such a huge news cycle as the one we encountered in 2008.
Here are just a few notable highlights.
Things started off in January with then member of Parliament Blair Wilson being kicked out of the Liberal party over the Election Canada scandal. And a piece of the Sunshine Coast gained critical acclaim in Chicago as Gord Halloran's work was the focal point of the Museum of Modern Ice winter celebration.In February, the Shoal Bay development went down to defeat after Gibsons council defeated the bylaw at first reading following public hearing.
Promised highway upgrades between Field Road and the Construction Aggregates conveyor belt in Sechelt were postponed by the Ministry of Transportation, and the botanical garden society announced its $1.5 million fundraising drive to build a garden in West Sechelt.
In March, Gibsons received word that $900,000 would be coming its way from the Ministry of Transportation for upgrades to Highway 101.
Friends and family mourned the loss of an extraordinary community-minded volunteer as Maryanne West passed away after a sudden stroke. Later in the year, the Coast Cable 11 studio at Elphinstone Secondary School was renamed in her honour.
In April, the new community centre opened in Gibsons, the Sunshine Coast Regional District started its recycling service review, and after a 47-year fight, Gibsons' resident Don Chapman will have his citizenship restored after Bill C-37 passed third reading in the Senate.
In May, Coastal Link Ferries announced plans (that never panned out) for a passenger ferry service between Gibsons and downtown Vancouver.
Two options were unveiled to the public for the Gospel Rock neighbourhood plan in Gibsons, and the Silverback development received approval from District of Sechelt council.
June was a very busy month with a public protest over the governance structure of the Sechelt community forest and a historic apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper over wrongs done to children at residential schools across Canada.
Just as we were catching our breath in the newsroom, July hit us with the Commission for Public Complaints clearing the Sunshine Coast RCMP of wrongdoing in the 2007 pepper spray incident on Sechelt Indian Band lands, a hazardous material incident at the Sundance Trailer Court, a crane accident at the Midtown Development construction site and forest fires in East Porpoise Bay and in Pender Harbour.
August saw the fire concerns continue as 40 cars were torched at the Sechelt fire department training site, a coroner's inquest into the death of Merrill Dixon near Deserted Bay in 2007 and the announcement of proposed water metering in Gibsons.
In September, Blair Wilson made the green leap, joining the Green Party of Canada, and Prime Minister Harper dissolved Parliament, setting an election for Oct. 14. The start of the municipal election campaign began in October after the federal election saw John Weston become the new MP for the area, and residents packed the community centre in Gibsons to protest B.C. Ferries sailing cuts.
Sweeping changes in Sechelt saw only two incumbent councillors elected in the municipal election and a new mayor in Darren Inkster. Tragedy unfolded in the skies as seven perished in a Pacific Coastal Airlines plane crash on Thormanby Island.
In December, we learned that the Sunshine Coast will be a stop for the Olympic torch relay in 2010, public consultation began for a proposed hydro electric project on the Tzoonie River, and Gibsons council candidates Brian Sadler and David Croal announced their Supreme Court petition against the Town of Gibsons over Local Government Act violations challenging the council results of the municipal election.
So what's in store for 2009? No one knows, but one thing is for sure, the Sunshine Coast is always unpredictable.
Here's to a healthy and prosperous New Year for everyone!
