Marching Forward Into A Number Of Highs And A Low

Taking a short breather on Miners Climb in downtown Princeton. I climb these stairs multiple times twice a week.

March 2021 was a busy month for me on several different fronts. In my political life, there were some very high points during the month. In my personal life, there were also a few highs but the month ended on a rather low note for me. However, I continue to march forward and will cross those bridges when I get there.

A Full Slate Of Meetings

It was what I would call a “normal” month of meetings for me. Out of ten that were scheduled, one got canceled and another I missed due to a scheduling conflict. Here is a look at that list.

Town Council Meetings

Monday, March 1 - 7:30 PM - Regular Meeting of Town Council (Town Hall)
Monday, March 15 - 7:30 PM - Regular Meeting of Town Council (Town Hall)
Wednesday, March 24 - 9:30 AM - Special Meeting of Town Council (Town Hall)
Thursday, March 25 - 10:00 AM - Special Meeting of Town Council (Town Hall)

Other Regular Meetings

Tuesday, March 16 - 7:00 PM - Skills Centre Regular Board Meeting - Skills Centre (*)
Wednesday, March 17 - 5:30 PM - Princeton Arts Council - Zoom Meeting (*)
Thursday, March 18 - 5:30 PM - Princeton Museum Society - Zoom Meeting

Other Events/Activities

Tuesday, March 9 - 3:00 PM - Signing of the MOU between Town of Princeton and Vermilion Forks Metis Association - Riverside Centre

(*) - denotes attendance at a meeting as the only member of Town Council

Some Details From The Town Council Meetings

During the March 1, 2021, Regular Meeting of Town Council, a presentation was made by Director of Economic Development, Gary Schatz on the “Value of Tourism to the Town of Princeton.” In it was data from a traffic study that was conducted in August 2020. Although it was during a COVID-19 restriction, it was determined that 2.25-million vehicles pass through Princeton annually. When the formula of 2 people per vehicle is used, that figure becomes 4.5-million travelers passing through the community. Based on the third-party travel website Budget Your Trip, the average daily cost to travel in BC is set at $152 per person which equates to each vehicle passing through Town as being worth $304 a day. If only one percent of those vehicles entered the downtown core or 22,500 vehicles, that would feed a potential $6.84-million into Princeton businesses. The numbers were equally staggering and encouraging.

During the March 15, 2021, Regular Meeting of Town Council, a lease between the Town of Princeton and the Interior Health Authority was approved. This paved the way for the establishment of the COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic at Riverside Centre. The lease permits IHA to use both the theatre and stage spaces to administer the vaccines from March 15, 2021, to October 31, 2021, at a monthly rate of $7,453.33 + GST + additional fees.

The Special Meetings of Town Council on March 24 and 25, 2021 were Strategic Planning Meetings with details to be announced at a later time.

Health Update

This was another good news/bad news month for me related to my ongoing health condition. I’ll start with the good. I began increasing the intensity of my exercise routine mid-month by adding short jogging intervals in my walks along the KVR. At first, it was quite honestly very painful. For those of you who do not know much about my history, I have “always” been a runner since high school and did some track and field activities finding mid to long-distance running to my liking. I have continued running off and on into my adult life. While living in Penticton in the early 1980s, I even entered several road races completing several 10k, 12k runs, and a mini-marathon race. Since moving to Princeton in 1986, I have been a part-time runner but have not pounded the pavement much in the past decade.

So, mid-month I started to incorporate light jogging into my routine. I count my strides in my intervals so I can keep them at the same approximate distance. I started with 200-stride intervals getting up to 8 of them into a session. Last week, I extended that to 300-stride intervals. Oh, and I now run up and down the stairs at Miners Climb. My times have reduced, but they will increase as my strength builds. Last week I did three trips up and down Miners Club where I ran all but the last 20-some stairs going in either direction. I haven’t changed my light weightlifting routine yet, and it is due for a slight tweak. Then last week I received some bad news. The urologist in Kelowna declined to perform the surgery on my kidney tumour. That puts us back on the VGH waiting list for the operation. As disappointing as that is - Kelowna would have been so easy for us - we are looking at this as a blessing in disguise. I could be waiting a year for this tumour to be removed, but thankfully it is growing slowly and that gives me more time to build my strength to shorten my recovery time.

Thank you to everyone for being supportive of my recovery from congestive heart failure and the complications I have along with that.