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It seems to me

While browsing through an old Barriere Bulletin newspaper dated, Thursday, January 11, 1979, we came across this editorial written by editor George Haskins
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Proof of the rapid growth in the population of the Barriere area in the past year is evident in the new telephone books which have just been issued. By my count, the number of telephone listings on the Barriere exchange has increased from 724 in last years book to 831 in this years book. 107 new telephones installed in one year is a lot of new families and businesses starting up in this area.

All this happened without apparent evidence of any major new jobs. How many connections will be listed in next year’s phone book when some of the projected new businesses now considering setting up in the industrial park, in the new complex underway at the Barriere General Store, some of the mining operations that are on the verge of opening up are all listed in the book?

Whether you like it or not, the area is forging ahead rapidly and it may not be too long before many of the desired services we have been looking for are here, such things as a full time medical clinic, (the clinic has already announced it is open three days a week), a Drug Store, a bowling alley, a curling rink, expanded retail services such as pharmacist, furniture store, shoe and clothing store, a Realtor, a dentist, resident doctor, veterinary clinic, an automobile dealership, sports shop, building supply center, etc., etc., the lack of which forces so many of us to go to Kamloops to shop.

The development of B.C.’s number three industry, the Tourist industry, will soon hit this area with a bang, and we will see visitors in our midst summer and winter, all leaving dollars in the area to provide jobs for our local residents.

The new sixteen unit motel now under construction will be hard pressed to meet the demand even in the first year.

In order to ensure that the growth in this area proceeds in an orderly way, and we have some say in the types of new business and industry that join us as residents of this area, we should have an organization that can deal with them, encourage them to settle – join us in our efforts to keep this , the greatest place in B.C. to live and at the same time grow with the times.

Possibly our Improvement District could be expanded into an Incorporated Village, maybe we should be thinking of incorporating the Fire Protection area into a municipality, but above all we must form some sort of organization that will be able to somewhat control our own destiny.

All these natural attractions that we are blessed with do not belong to us, they are part of the assets of the Province of B.C., and much as we would like to preserve them for our own use, we are not entitled to nor are we going to be allowed to do that.

The best we can hope for is that we as residents, will have some say in how they are going to be used. The apathy that has been shown locally over the past few years toward forming a local organization to assist in our development will only encourage the unscrupulous to take advantage of the assets we have and to wrest them from our control, if we do not watch over them for us.

So far we have been fortunate that any development that has been made has been by our own citizens, or developers who have a high regard for the area as a whole, but it will not be forever thus.

We must form a group that is strong enough to demand consideration when development is planned in our area. We must have a body who can say to such auto-minus bodies as the Federal Postal Department, “No, you cannot put the Post Office on that small lot without any provision for parking” so that we who live here can prevent traffic problems which we have to live with.

The group would consist of local people who would be far more aware of problems than some outside developer or government department and could prevent some problems before they start.

We have grown beyond the stage where “Big Brother” is going to come in and build a bridge just a few feet above our water intake, without any consideration of what the effects to the water service would be, we who live here could have advised the Post Office Department that to build a new post office where they did, without any provision for parking was only to invite a problem.

These are two of the problems that have been dumped in our lap in the past few years that could have been prevented if there was some local agency that could have been consulted before they were created.

It seems to me that it is obvious that there has to be a representative body of the residents of the area set up to meet with and discuss future development of the area before it happens. It matters not what we call the organization as long as it represents the residents of the area as a whole and is capable of protecting the residents from needless problems that will continue to come from growth of the area. It is time we put aside our resentment of newcomers proposing ideas, and resisting them because they come from newcomers, the need for an organization of some sorts is obvious, let’s put our collective heads together and try to form one.

STAR/JOURNAL NOTE: It sounds like George Haskins was hoping for incorporation to come sooner than later back in January of 1979. However, it took the town another 28 years to finally vote for incorporation with The District Of Barriere becoming a Municipality on December 4, 2007.