Every Friday we feature Valley history taken from our back issues.
Five years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
A provincial NDP government would revisit the North Island hospital issue with proper consultation, party leader Carole James said.
She was referring to a Vancouver Island Health Authority process that led to a 2006 announcement that a new hospital would be built near the Dove Creek Road, Island Highway intersection. While hospitals in Comox and Campbell River would be downgraded, a new facility in the regional district would serve the entire North Island.
Ten years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
About 60 students at Highland Secondary in Comox protested an ongoing teachers’ contract dispute. Some students waved homemade posters. One dropped his drawers behind a cardboard sign that read, Legislate This!
Teachers across B.C. prepared to hold a walkout to protest the Liberal government’s imposing a new education contract.
Fifteen years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
The body of a 35-year-old Cumberland woman was discovered in the Pidgeon Lake Landfill.
Jaclynn Patricia Patterson’s remains were unearthed after a two-day search of the site. The search was initiated after Courtenay RCMP received information that Patterson might have been murdered and her body dumped in the landfill. She was last seen at the Cumberland Hotel at about 9 p.m., Feb. 19, 1996.
Twenty years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
A missing man, who had allegedly faked his own drowning at Kin Beach, surfaced in Chilliwack.
Coast Guard, 442 squadron and RCMP air and rescue craft spent more than 12 hours searching for Corey Babcock, 33, after the Chilliwack man was reported missing from the Kin Beach boat launch Jan. 14.
The search was called off with no trace of the missing man. But Babcock was alive and well when he tuned himself in to Chilliwack RCMP. He had been charged with the robbery of a Chilliwack jewelry store.
Twenty five years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
Norman Leung, a Valley resident since 1950 who ran Leung’s Grocery Store, was named Citizen of the Year at the Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce awards.
“It was quite a surprise,” said Leung, a past president of the Kiwanis Club who received a standing ovation. “I didn’t suspect it. I’m sure there are a lot of other people who deserved it, but I’m honoured to accept it.”
