Recovery advocate Jerome Abraham passes away at 49

Beginning this week’s column on a sad note, I send my condolences to the family and friends of Jerome Abraham who died this week at hospice house following a two-year battle with cancer.

He was only 49.

Jerome, one of the few people in Penticton who was recognized by only his first name, was a former resident of Discovery House who battled addiction, cleaned up his life and became the executive director of the home for men facing challenges with alcohol and drug addiction.

Under his direction, Discovery House went from one small house to three separate buildings, in total 22 beds. He was a community leader on recovery.

Thanks to the efforts of Jerome, along with staff, volunteers and community supporters, countless lives were saved.

I vividly remember covering a city council meeting in person on the night when the Winnipeg Street house was approved back in about 2015. As usual for a public hearing, new neighbours crabbed about their concerns. In a unique twist, all the neighbours from the first Discovery House were in attendance and spoke in support of the expansion.

“You have nothing to worry about. These guys are the best neighbours we’ve ever had,” was the common statement.

Indeed they were.

Jerome’s philosophy was for men to reconnect with their families. Many had lost contact with spouses, their children, siblings and parents.

He was also a skilled fundraiser in a market where there’s a lot of special events. Two of his best were the Christmas lightbulb campaign and the Father’s Day family event at Skaha Lake Park – complete with a celebrity dunk tank.

I knew Jerome on a professional basis and always enjoyed our conversations. He was thoughtful and deeply cared for the residents of Discovery House and others in the community who were experiencing homelessness.

Jerome Abraham is now gone, but his legacy will live forever in our community.

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Rolling Stone just released a unique top 100 list ... the best Beatles solo songs of all-time. As we all know, each of the Fab Four went on to release many solo albums and many were good.

Rolling Stone’s picks: 1. Maybe I’m Amazed (McCartney), 2. God (Lennon), 3. Give Me Love (Give

Me Peace) (Harrison), 4. It Don’t Come Easy (Starr),

5. Mind Games (Lennon).

My all-time favourite, albeit an obscure pick, is

Wanderlust from McCartney’s 1982 masterpiece Tug of War. It didn’t make the list.

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The greatest knockout punch in recent Canadian history.

“You had an option, sir. You could have said, ‘I am not going to do it. This is wrong for Canada, and I am not going to ask Canadians to pay the price.”

Brian Mulroney to Liberal prime minister John Turner at the 1983 leader’s debate. The election was won at that moment. Turner had no chance of recovering.

The Conservatives went on to set a record for most seats won in a federal election.

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Speaking of Conservatives, Pierre Poilievre is making his third trip to this riding in less than nine months when he hosts a coffee meeting at the Penticton Senior’s Drop-In Centre on Saturday morning.

The Conservatives, who’ve yet to hold their nomination meeting, obviously want to win this riding. Maybe the know something the rest of us don’t.

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I caught the new Dune: Part Two movie this past weekend. I’m surprised I’m still not sitting there.

It is long, but extremely well made and Montreal filmmaker Denis Villeneuve has done justice to the source material.

The original 1984 version by David Lynch remains, to this day, the only movie I ever walked out on.

We now return you to Bonanza, already in progress.

James Miller is valley editor of Okanagan Newspaper Group.

We know there is a demand for housing and we know Penticton is growing. And now the city is taking the steps to meet the challenges of accommodating all the predicted growth in a sustainable, planned fashion by updating the Official Community Plan.

The Official Community Plan, if you’ve given it any thought, might seem like a document that gets talked about every few years and is a guide on how Penticton will grow into the future. Chances are you haven’t given it a lot of thought.

Now zoning, that’s something people pay more attention to. Over the years, that’s been the mechanism that decides how communities grow: where apartments go, where businesses can locate and when to make changes in what goes where. Zoning also means public hearings, where people have an opportunity to express support or opposition to plans in their neighbourhood.

That’s all about to change. The Official Community Plan will become a much more important document in guiding how we move forward and we want your input into the changes that are proposed.

The provincial government has made significant changes that will impact Penticton and we’re in the process of updating our bylaws to meet them.

Key among the changes is the provincial mandate that will allow construction of multi-units on all single- and duplex-zoned lots and that local bylaws be changed by June 30 to reflect this decision.

Put simply, that means there will be no zones in the urban part of Penticton that are limited to single-detached homes or duplexes. Other zoning regulations, such as setbacks and building heights, will apply but up to four units will be allowed to be constructed.

Another provincial change is the ending of public hearings for projects that are consistent with the existing OCP or mixed-use developments where the project is more than 50% housing.

And that’s why the process we’re going through now -- revamping the Official Community Plan -- is so important. Public hearings will still be held on changes to the OCP moving forward but this document is going to be the guiding factor in how housing gets built.

Penticton, fortunately, was ahead of the game. Council struck the OCP Housing Task Force last year to provide ideas and suggestions on how we can meet the demand for housing in a sustained way that is attainable and accessible for all residents.

They came back with 18 recommendations that are now being developed into the OCP and include topics like removal of parking requirements in the downtown, supporting more density at key areas and along major roads, and increasing the allowable height of buildings in certain areas of the city.

As part of the task force’s work, a series of neighbourhood meetings were held throughout the city last fall and now we’re coming back to show you the proposed changes.

The goal is to educate you on the changes and what the impacts will be in your part of the community. You can find all the details about the proposed changes and the dates for your neighbourhood by going to www.shapeyourcitypenticton.ca

There is also going to be a council open house on March 20 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre, where council and staff will be on hand to discuss the OCP changes as well other issues like the leash-optional pilot project and public safety.

We know change is coming and this is your chance to influence how that growth is going to happen.

Julius Bloomfield is the mayor of Penticton.