I am increasingly humbled by the people whom I run into who mention they read my column regularly. My biweekly musings sometimes seem of little import, but I do write them earnestly and with vulnerability, hoping to inspire others to live the same.
But today, Dear Readers, I’m going to shock you with a column jam-packed with Tlellian news! Behold a Tlellagram worthy of its column title!
Fresh off my trip to Costa Rica, we held the Tlell Community Association Annual General Meeting! It was hard to believe it had already been a year since the last AGM when a ragtag team of Tlellians was brought together to see what we could do for our community.
This eclectic little collective of Sophie Peerless (Secretary), Stacy Brzostowski (Vice-President), Seth Cutter-Stovicek (Treasurer), Veronika Higlister (Member-at-Large) and myself, Janet Rigg (President), truly had a delightful time this year. We worked to improve communication with the Regional District, we brought the community together for Halloween, celebrated winter with a Tlellian Feast, and brought in the new year together!
There is more to do as we work to facilitate communication between the various organizations that hold interests around the Tlell soccer fields, as well as get high-visibility blue house numbers to every resident in Tlell. We also have a solid plan for a community cleanup day that would also be a BBQ and community get-together because no event in Tlell isn’t at least somewhat a party.
With the notable and sad exception of Sophie, whom we deeply thank for her year of volunteer effort (she kept us on track like you wouldn’t believe!), all of us are continuing in our respective roles. If you live in Tlell and love to take minutes while bringing the community together, come be our Master Scribe. (Yes, we all gave ourselves elevated names, for fun. You can call me Empress next time you see me 😉 Yes, it’s that much fun, and really, maybe a few hours a month of effort. It’s worth it!)
What is the holdup with the blue house numbers for Tlell properties, you may ask? The Regional District is working hard to get these to us. Unfortunately, and not surprisingly, some Tlell addresses are not quite accurate.
Possibly new information: Your address is not assigned to a house. It is assigned to the access point to your house (your driveway), and the exact number is the distance from the Skidegate Landing ferry terminal.
If you have a shared driveway, you will all have the same number. Some properties have designated a letter to distinguish the different dwellings. The Regional District is changing that to numbers: so if you’re an “A,” you will become “1,” etc.
We need all the residents of Tlell to verify their house number through the Regional District. Check out the Tlell Community Association Facebook page to get information on how to do that. If you don’t have Facebook, contact me.
We hope to have the new address signs available by late spring, so everyone knows where everyone is!
Finally, a striped dolphin washed up near the mouth of the Tlell River this week. This particular dolphin is rarely seen this far north, usually favouring tropical and subtropical climates. In fact, this is the second most northerly incident of this beautiful mammal washing ashore in the entire world, with only one incident in Finland believed to be just slightly more northerly than Tlell.
We don’t know what might have brought this fascinating dolphin to our shores. Perhaps it was getting away from the political madness plaguing the country to our south. Dolphins are smart, after all. And smart mammals head to Tlell!