With the Driftwood’s publishing date falling on Christmas Day this year, it’s an ideal opportunity to compile a Christmas wish list for Salt Spring.
A number of items are already in process, so we wish for them to be expedited in 2020 and for no unforeseen obstacles to arise in the meantime.
While Salt Spring continues to suffer from an acute housing shortage, a few developments have overcome most of the hurdles required, and two have even had official ground-breaking ceremonies. Hopefully the new Meadowlane seniors complex, Croftonbrook expansion and Salt Spring Commons projects continue to proceed without incident, and that more good news is on the horizon in the housing realm.
Another project we hope will flourish is the Wagon Wheel Housing Society’s non-profit laundromat in the Creekhouse complex in Ganges. Funds are still needed to see that come to fruition, so hopefully some Christmas season generosity will help speed up its opening.
The possibility of even part of Fulford-Ganges Road being repaved in 2020 is a present that many Salt Spring residents will be excited to open when the time comes, especially with dedicated space for walkers and cyclists up Ganges Hill and to Beddis Road being discussed.
More urgently required, though, is for line-painting trucks to come to the island as soon as possible in the spring. As drivers are in the middle of another winter of travelling blind after sunset, something needs to change so that lines are painted more frequently than the current Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure schedule allows.
A perennial wish is for ferries to run on time and not be overloaded. We know we’re dreaming a bit with this one. So what we at least hope for is no repeat of the true ferry mayhem that affected numerous Salt Spring residents when the Howe Sound Queen was retired in June. Bringing the Bowen Queen onto the Vesuvius-Crofton route in the spring will hopefully be the answer to smoother sailing next year.
Something that all community members could use more of year-round is kindness and understanding. Let’s hope the charitable theme of the holiday season continues as far as possible into 2020 for all of us.