Every Friday we feature Valley history taken from our back issues.
Five years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
Ten Courtenay Home Depot employees picked six of six winning numbers to win a grand total of more than $4.4 million. Each pocketed $446,059.
The win was discovered in Nanaimo by office pool manager David Morris. When he used the self-serve ticket checker he thought the group had won a small sum — until he saw the display screen.
“I saw too many numbers,” Morris said in an interview with the BC Lottery Corp. “I gave the ticket to the retailer, who checked it and said ‘I don’t have enough money to pay you!”
Ten years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
A group of investors, city officials and the media attended what was supposed to be the first flaring of the first-ever coal methane gas well in B.C., near Piercy and Condensory roads. Priority Ventures president Neil Swift had hoped to provide a visual impact but the equipment did not arrive in time.
“This is the first of what we hope will be dozens (of wells),” Swift said, noting the potential for a trillion cubic feet of gas from the Sable River to Campbell River.
Fifteen years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
Persistence paid off for a group of Vanier teachers and friends who won $217,017 in the 649 lottery.
The Vanier 649 Club of 35 people had placed the same number every Wednesday and Saturday since forming in 1989.
Each contributor pocketed $6,200.50.
“I figure we’ve put in about $600 each since ’89,” trustee Butch Rivers said. “We’ve won about 1,000 per cent of our investment.”
Twenty years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
School trustees cut programs and services in a bad news ’92-’93 budget.
“Everything has been gone over by the board and it wasn’t an easy thing to do,” school board chair Danny White said. “At some point they have to make a decision…there is no money there.”
Overall spending rose to $51.5 million in 1992, six per cent ahead of ’91-’92 spending, but that wasn’t enough to handle inflation and a growing student population.
Twenty-five years ago this week in the Comox Valley Record:
Directional signs pointing travelers to the Leeward Pub’s cottage brewery ruffled feathers at Comox council.
Aldermen voted to have signs at the corner of Comox Avenue and Anderton Road torn down and returned to the Ministry of Highways.
The signs — requested by the pub and erected by ministry road crews — violated a bylaw that banned commercial signs on boulevards.
