Your OPSRRA Board held a retreat in May to discuss the path forward for the coming year.
Currently your Board consists of: Chris Moss –President; Christine Winsby – Treasurer; Kira Decyk – Communications; Lynn Moss – Membership; Stephanie Croft – Secretary
The Vice President position is vacant at present and we would welcome any volunteers to fill the post. For a full scope of the role, click here.
OPSRRA is fortunate to have non-executive volunteers assisting in their work, such as former OPSRRA president Cheryl Wirch-Ryckman, acting as our administrator of the OPSRRA website. If you would like to add your skills to our team to help our community, please reach out to us.
The Board reviewed the current Mission and Vision statements from 2023 and will continue with them for the coming year. This year the board will be adding Goals to further clarify priorities and OPSRRA’s work in the community
Mission Statement: OPSRRA works with our communities to preserve a healthy rural environment in which to live, work, and play.
Vision Statement: The communities of Otter Point, Jordan River, and Shirley working together to achieve a strong community, supporting residents and visitors in a sustainable manner
Goals:
- Education/Outreach – an educated and connected community can better direct our future. As such, OPSRRA hosts all candidates meetings for elections and presentations by experts on topics that impact the community. In addition, they keep all three communities apprised of issues that affect our region such as biosolids, water, invasive species, parks and land-use development that will impact quality of life.
- Advocating for our area – as rural unincorporated areas in an otherwise populous zone we need to remain vocal for our region to get change. OPSRRA has and will continue to advocate for improvements to roads, parks, anti-dumping, food and water security with all levels of government.
- Connecting Communities – this work is done through gatherings like the above meetings, OPSRRA’s business directory, community calendar and Neighborhood Notice Boards
Along with defining overall Goals, the board identified some short-term projects for the coming months including:
- Adopt a Board – running a campaign to recruit volunteers to help keep your neighborhood bulletin board looking clean and up to date. Click here to make sure you get your pick.
- Build a Board – as part of annual upkeep and clean-up of the 37 Neighborhood Notice Boards that OPSRRA manages, Chris & Lynn will be replacing some of the local boards. Have hammer will travel? Click here to join the build team.
- Sooke Museum Outreach – OPSRRA is working with the museum as they open the conversation on how best to serve our communities. One of two sessions scheduled for June 29 – 2-4pm at the JDF Services Building. The next is scheduled for July 9 at the Shirley Community Hall.
The Ministry of Transportation and Transit (MOTT) will be busy in our region this summer and sent us some updates and information about their plans. Owen Page is the Roads Area Manager for Vancouver Island District and he sends along the following information
There is about $500,000 allocated for road rehabilitation on Robinson, Tugwell, Michelson, Slingsby, E. Glen and Goudie (in order of repairs). Rehabilitation consists of high-shoulder stripping, ditching, culvert replacements and chip sealing. For those living on Ramsden, you’ll receive chip-sealing rehabilitation only.
Otter Point Rd between Sarah Drive and Hwy 14 is on the schedule for line painting and will be done before the end of September. As well, on the schedule is remediation of some of the worst pavement dips along Hwy 14 between Jordan River and Port Renfrew.
An upcoming larger project is an improvement on the intersection between Hwy 14 and Idlemore that may begin as early as Fall 2025. For more on the project click here.
For those who have been noticing the additional traffic along Hwy 14 past Sooke, although there are no permanent counting stations there are three short-count stations in between Otter Point Rd. E and Port Renfrew which collect traffic data every three years to detect changes in traffic patterns and volumes. We will make sure to request that they do that work in the summer, not the winter months.
If you’re noticing issues on your local roads, feel free to email Emcon Services directly. Or in the case of an urgent matter – say another sinkhole across the highway going to Jordan River – call 1-866-353-3136.
And OPSRRA would like celebrate a win for our region on the biosolids issue. The meetings, letters and survey responses seem to have had an effect. The CRD has made the decision to invest in a demonstration plant that will have the capability of thermally converting biosolids into biochar. This is to be done using the latest non-incineration, fossil-fuel free technology available. The CRD currently produces ~10 tonnes of toxic sludge daily. For more on this decision, click here.
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