A news reporter cannot cover a municipal council meeting as if it was live theatre.
That said, the best council meetings in the mind of a reporter are EXACTLY like live theatre – drama and dialogue.
Any council observer will be familiar with that agenda item enticingly named “council reports.” This is usually the crowd’s signal to turn on the snooze alarm and have a little doss.
Too often these reports in a small municipality are simply snapshots of various councillors’ daytimers.
On this day I went to this meeting.
On the next day I attended that open house.
Two days later I went to a ball game and had a hot dog with relish.
This is not a phenomena unique to Princeton. It happens in many towns.
So it was particularly refreshing, Monday, to note there was a lot more meat on the bones of some of the reports given at the regular council meeting.
There’s that desire, you see, to want to know what happened at these meetings, who said what and was anything decided and what can you tell us other than the fact that you were there?
It’s been happening more and more, over the past few months, but the most recent meeting was exemplary.
Councillor Barb Gould actually began her report by categorically stating she was not going to give a list of meetings and dates, but rather wanted to share some concerns she’s heard from residents about the proliferation of urban deer.
She discussed the latest deer count and gave some information about deer in fawning season. She discussed the role of the town’s seasonal Wildsafe BC co-ordinator and encouraged residents to continue to report incidents of human-wildlife conflict in order to support Princeton’s bid for more coverage from the provincial conservation service.
Likewise councillor Randy McLean brought forward two issues that have been on his mind, one of them related to pro-activity regarding landslides.
Mayor Spencer Coyne (who really enjoyed the unsanctioned swim meet at the Centennial Pool and gave full marks to Crimson Tine Players for their presentation of House on A Cliff) also shared some solid information about the coming rollout of the primary health care model.
These are the kinds of things people ought to expect from “council reports.”
The public would likely give it a good review.
-The Similkameen Spotlight
