A celebratory shout out on the Mayor's Social media page on Sunday got somewhat drowned out by the large fire on the waterfront from the weekend and the fallout from some of the coverage of it.
But for the Mayor and Prince Rupert City Council, Sunday also marked an important milestone, with the Mayor making note of the Three Year Anniversary for the City's plans for the Watson Island site.
The Mayor called attention to the three year mark with a short Facebook post and replay of the City's video of the days of demolition for the old Skeena Cel pulp mill site, now reborn as the Watson Intermodal Trade and Logistics Park.
The City's efforts on Watson Island also made for some of the narrative of the recent Budget Presentation of last week from the Chief Financial Officer, with Corrine Bomben making note that funds through Prince Rupert Legacy Inc., will be put to use towards some of the City's borrowing plans for upcoming projects.
Something which Councillor Wade Niesh picked up on. offering up comments that hailed the city's plans by way of their efforts on the Watson project.
"It's good to point out that the way this is going to work for the garbage dump is that it's not going to cost us any more money on top of the existing fees and also for the other dam project, it's covered by costs that are basically being paid by the hard work on Watson Island once again, so thank you"
At the same Loans tutorial of last week, Councillor Nick Adey also offered some thoughts on the large scale investments under review on Monday night, noting how the public may want and will need more information towards them
"Obviously these projects need to be clarified and explained in more detail for the public. so that they can form, informed opinions cause I'm sure there are lots of people that would have lots of questions about them
Though an argument could be made for the same kind of explanation and clarification when it comes to the city's ongoing efforts at Watson Island
Other than frequently telling us how well things are going for the city's investment, we have yet to see any kind of full presentation at a public Council session to bring us up to speed as to what is happening at Watson Island.
We have had the occasional video tribute and photo ops in recent years, but other than a line item on the occasional Financial variance report from the CFO, there has been little to be presented on the progress of the development of the site by the members of City Council.
As it is, other than the lease announcement for Pembina Pipelines from 2017 and their subsequent expansion plans, there don't appear to be any other tenants at the Logistics Park, something that was said to be under consideration back in 2017.
And if there are any newcomers to the site, the City has never shared the good news as to who they are and what capacity the Logistics park may currently be at when it comes to tenancy.
Nor have the city's residents been provided on any background towards the financials of the place and just how much the city's ownership is benefiting the community.
The City isn't shy it seems in sharing info about Watson, depending on who asks.
As we noted in February, the industrial site was recently the focus of study for the community of Burns Lake, which delivered this report on their findings from Watson.
Perhaps City Council could take some time at an upcoming Council Session to provide a similar presentation.
A session, where in addition to expanding on the good news of the progress at Watson Island that the Mayor made note of in his Facebook Post, would also allow for the Council members to maybe either ask some questions, or entertain them from the public, who after all make for the shareholders in the venture.
For more items of note on the Watson island Trade and Intermodal Logistics Park see our archive page here.
A wider overview of past City Council discussion themes can be explored from our Council Archive page.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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