History of the Burn Pile

I started the first community burn pile more than 30 years ago. It was prior to the widening of the entrance end of the parking lot, and was on the lower level, between the road and the parking lot.

There were many village owners burning on their properties and in the ditch in front of their cabins. One owner from the coast was unaware of burning restrictions, and was "buzzed" by a BCWF helicopter. That could have been a great story in the "Chronicles of Mt. Hairy", had it ever been completed. I can still hear Joan's laugh as she told the story.

That first burn pile was easy to manage, as it was in full view of everyone going by. George cut a lot of his firewood from the burn pile, and it never really got too big.

After my time, the burn pile was moved to below the shop. That became an easy, out of site dump spot.

The "Idaho Group", the three B's, had plans to move the sewage ponds down the road, so they could develop real estate on the site.

They trucked hundreds of truck loads of fill from the current burn pile site to create a spot for the sewage ponds to be moved. That huge volume of soil was used to widen the parking lot, and most of it was dumped over the edge, eventually creating the overflow parking lot.

There were problems with how the debris was burned at the new pond site, and an excavator was brought in for considerable time to put the smoldering fire out. That is why you see piles of dirt with trees sticking out of it.

You will see in the AGM package, that council will not spend any funds outside the perimeter of the village. This includes no longer paying an equipment operator to push up the pile, or burn it.