Thanks Kimberley

Wow!
It has been a crazy couple of days, thats for sure. Many thanks to all who called me on sunday morning with kind words and congratulations - that was awesome. I am deeply touched by all of the words of encouragement, thanks everyone.
Some people have asked and yes I will continue to use this blog. I will also use my darryloakley2011@gmail.com  for contact with everyone as well.
Thanks to my family Karen, Patti and Bryn for being my foundation of support through the entire campaign. My mother for being the best campaign cheerleader that a son could ever ask for. Many thanks to Loni and Vern Leinweber for helping with my campaign signs, and for their words of encouragement. Thanks to everyone who offered to place a sign on their front lawns. Thanks to Marthel Scand for being such as strong support for me - "you are the best Marthel".

To everyone who offered words of support and encouragement in passing on the streets and stores of Kimberley....many many thanks, it was wonderful to hear from you.    
Darryl Oakley

Kimberley... small town vitality.

Hello Kimberley!!

I think Kimberley is indisputably the best small town on the planet...and I want to be part of making it even better! If elected to Kimberley City Council I will bring a ton of positive energy to City Hall.

We cannot move forward as a healthy community - chock full of excellent services - unless we keep an eye on the financial health of our municipality. All the good things that we enjoy in our community stem from solid financial health, so we need to make sure our tax base stays healthy and that our surplus grows back to the (minimum) one million mark.

It's an incredibly exciting time for Kimberley! I want to be part of the team that supports our city and makes sure it operates in a sustainable, healthy manner - benefiting young and old.

Ultimately, I want to make sure Kimberley remains as the "Can Do" community that it has always been. Kimberley is a proud city, with a very proud heritage. It is an affordable, safe, clean place to raise a family.

Kimberley is the living definition of community vitality - and I will work to make it even better.

Darryl Oakley

Candidates Forum Nov 8th - What "Really" happened on the Mckim stage.

McKim School

"Life is sweet... life is sooo sweet". I thought to myself - many times, actually - as the council candidates forum started and progressed into the evening. The moments were precious, and I needed to hang onto them.  We were 16 individuals all doing our best to tell our stories to the packed theatre. For me (and I'm sure for others) it was a very special time. Although the light was toned down over the audience, I kept looking around as best as I could, picking out faces in the crowd that I recognized. It was a remarkable event for many reasons for many different people, but for me the energy, ambiance, camaraderie, and sheer love of community were in abundant supply. It was a night where my "sense of place" in small town Kimberley became cemented to a level that I could never have imagined. We were all Kimberley characters painting a picture of our sense of place on the living canvas called Kimberley. I think the capacity crowd that showed up appreciated all of our efforts to "paint".  Some of the candidates were painting with wild brush strokes, while others were more conservative, painting fine lines. All of the "painting" was extremely colorful and vibrant.
I could not have picked a more priceless place to sit: Kent on my left and Tim on my right. Right beside Tim was Craig. If this were a scene from high school, a teacher would have immediately sensed trouble with "that row", and split us up right away.  It has been many years since any of us had been a student in a high school. However, a sense of camaraderie and a sense of "we are in this together" - if for no other reason than our hearts sing in unison for this town.
Playful mischievousness on stage was tempered only slightly when Tim was asked to hold the mic further away from himself so it would not be so loud. Instead Tim did a "playful" sound check with the mic even closer to his mouth, causing the audience to cover their ears and complain. Realizing his impact, Tim glanced at Craig and I with a look of mild surprise, as he came back to his seat and said "whoops...I think I just lost a few votes". The look on Tim was priceless - because he loves this town as much as the rest of us - when he realized that while the "sound check" may have got him elected to student council in high school, possibly it may have a different effect with this audience.

Later, after I had described how my grandfather and grandmother had moved to Kimberley in 1920 ( in my opening remarks) and was on my way back to my seat that Craig leaned towards me and whispered; "when my turn comes, I'm going to start it with...in 1492...". 

And so as the evening evolved, and our (random) speaking order numbers were selected  and written down on a small whiteboard by Craig Campbell, Kent and I were a little surprised when both of our numbers were not showing up. We were simply not getting the chance to speak. Of course - eventually - everyone had a turn to speak, but not before a few "psst...psst" were sent towards Craig.             
      
The evening was truly full of beautiful, loving moments. For me one of those moments was seeing Mellisa speak so proudly about Kimberley, while coping perfectly with a condition that can hamper public speaking. As I sat listening to her, I could not have been prouder of anyone else on stage.

When Bev finished speaking, whispers of "right on, Bev" always followed her back to her seat. Her words were saturated with heartfelt moments.

This went on all night, one speaker after another bravely grabbing the microphone and sharing their priorities and love of community with the audience.
In McKim theatre on Tuesday night, the sound system may have been too loud once in a while, but the environment was saturated with a heaping dose of "Sense of Place", and - after all - that is what makes Kimberley such a special little town.
Darryl Oakley        

  

1000 hours

Purcell Soccer Park, Marysville

Never underestimate the power of passion!  

I remember a conversation with Pete Campbell, Andy Gray, Paul Daprocida and Mark McKinley a few years ago. I listened while they described  their dream of a high-quality, multi-field soccer park, able to accommodate major tournaments. We were standing on the site, surveying what was then a small softball/soccer combination, with more weeds than grass. I loved the idea and the concept, but honestly I could not fathom that a workforce of volunteers could actually get this monster project going, let alone done. It needed, massive amounts of fill, many many hours of heavy equipment time just to carve the plateau so that instead of accommodating one field, there would be enough room for three full soccer fields. It would also need a ton of grader time, just to level all this dirt, let alone fine- tune the soccer field to just the right angle.  At first glance, I had a hard time imagining how this could get done... the equipment time alone was in the tens of thousands of dollars, let alone the cost of the underground sprinkler system, the time to trench all the fields, and the time and cost to seed. It was a massive project that boggled my mind.  And then they described their vision of the timberframe clubhouse, with massive deck and large rock landscaping, overlooking the fields. I was having a hard time imagining this stuff. I even remember city council commenting after being briefed on the project, "It seems rather ambitious" came the cautious reply from council.

Soon enough, various key players in Kimberley were involved - including Teck, who just so happened to be looking for clay for Cow Creek and was willing to pay for the heavy equipment to move it. When I heard of that stroke of good luck from Pete Campbell, I realized that this was no pipe dream - it was going to happen.

 Fast forward to this past spring and summer. Volunteer work crews spent countless evenings and weekends on site at Purcell, digging out trenches, cutting and gluing irrigation pipe, weeding and raking, planting hundreds of huge trees... the list of things to do seemed endless. Volunteers appeared out nowhere, even members of council showed up ready to work. My mother-in-law even made fresh Huckleberry pies for all the crew one Saturday - a hit with all the volunteers!

The fields have grassed- in beautifully, the trees love the drip lines that Pete and Andy hooked up to them, and plans are in the works for major soccer tournaments, starting with the Julyfest tourney next summer and continuing on with high school soccer. The Purcell soccer complex is already a much talked about success story, and it hasn't even  been used yet.

Last month I heard Pete talking clubhouse again... it doesn't end! (and -I'm sure- it will get done)

Something that hasn't been talked about is the volunteer time. In a small town, if you want to get something done you just go do it, regardless of time. That's the can-do attitude, for sure. I know that Pete and Andy each put in massive amounts of time in this project - as much as a thousand individual hours. Now that's mind boggling...but not surprising - this is Kimberley and these are very passionate people, after all!

Well done you guys!

Darryl Oakley

       

   

Kimberley Trails Society

  Moes Canyon

If you are wondering what the new face of Kimberley looks like, who the next generation of trail stewards are, you simply needed to see the gathering of 60 plus people at the Kimberley Trails Society AGM at the Kimberley Nordic Centre on Tuesday (Nov 1).   It was an environment bursting with energy and enthusiasm, with a young and senior mix, including many toddlers walking around wearing their their brightly knit toques - wonderful! PP presentations updating various trail projects around Kimberley included an update on a downhill mountain bike course West of Horse Barn Valley. Images showed some of the bermed corners constructed of slab rock - built to last approximately 500 years!!!

The Kimberley Trails Society was formed in 2009 to develop, maintain and protect recreation trails in around Kimberley, primarily for non-motorized use. The Society already has some excellent experience working with various key players in order to develop new trails and protect older ones. Some of the descriptions included   how Society members worked with Tembec in Lois Creek to preserve trails while logging was taking place. Wayne Pelter described a - work in progress - new trail along the St.Marys river to be named after James Ritchie, a true labor of love dedicated to Jim. Wayne's description of required trail work was full of emotion, dedication and love for Jim - very moving.    Others described potential trails along the south side of St.Marys river.  The list seems endless - wow!

So what does the future hold for this grassroots organization? The future is very bright, members described a goal to eventually employ professional trail builders, based in Kimberley, much like Squamish has done.

By the looks of things Kimberley's adventure trail map is going to grow. Now here is a small industry with a bright future! 

Roy Moe Sr. would have been very proud of this dedicated group.

Kudos to the Kimberley Trails Society.  https://sites.google.com/site/kimberleytrailssociety/

Darryl Oakley