“We need a major shift in how we think and deal with water,” said Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells on March 26, as he was introducing the public release of the Okanagan Water Supply and Demand Project. The release was held in Kelowna at the Manteo Beach Club on Okanagan Lake – and the 135-kilometre-long lake was visible outside the window of the packed meeting room. [...more]
“We have a great challenge ahead of us,” said former B.C. Premier Bill Vander Zalm on a recent tour through Osoyoos. Vander Zalm brought his “Fight HST” message to the Sonora Community Centre on March 28 to rally volunteers in the upcoming Initiative Petition drive to convince the provincial government to repeal the pending Harmonized Sales Tax (HST). Vander Zalm, as well as Chris Delaney, the lead organizer of the Fight HST campaign, spoke to about 150 people who showed up to the rally and the pair elicited cheers and clapping throughout the hour-long session. [...more]
The Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) is looking into the financial background of a project that brought power to a number of properties on Anarchist Mountain in the 1980s in response to concerns raised by several mountain residents. In 1981, a number of mountain property owners petitioned the RDOS to have power lines installed that would bring electricity to roughly 30 properties in an area including parts of Hewitt Road, Long Joe Road, Chapman Road and Observatory Road. [...more]
An Ontario-based ecologist who has worked to build 16 wetlands throughout the South Okanagan is hoping plans to expand Hwy. 97 north of Osoyoos won’t damage a small wetland area that is home to tiger salamanders and Pacific tree frogs. Sara Ashpole, a researcher with the University of Waterloo, is acting as a consultant to the B.C. Transportation Ministry as it prepares to build four new lanes of highway between Graveyard Hill and Dead Man’s Lake. Part of the highway expansion plan includes having an intersection off the new roadway at Road 22, right next to a small wetland. [...more]
OSOYOOS TIMES-March 31, 2010 It has to be asked whether roughly $2.3 million and nearly five years of work developing the long-awaited Okanagan Water Supply and Demand Project could have been used in a better way. With the Okanagan Valley facing increasing, serious challenges relating to water, the final results of this project needed to be powerful [...] [...more]
After more than two decades of planning and waiting, construction work on the Northwest Sector Sewer Project finally began on the morning of March 22. And while workers and heavy equipment were busy moving earth near the intersection of 104th Avenue and 81st Street, some residents in the area where the first phase of the sewer line will be installed were considering whether they would actually hook up to the project or not. [...more]
Several local leaders who attended an open house on the planned expansion of Hwy. 97 north of Osoyoos expressed concerns about the amount of money being spent on the project. The provincial Transportation Ministry hosted an information session at the Osoyoos Legion on March 17 focused on the proposal to build four new lanes between Graveyard Hill and Dead Man’s Lake. [...more]
It’s been roughly four months since the BC Ambulance Service (BCAS) made changes to its method of dispatching ambulances in Osoyoos. So far, there have been no catastrophic results, as initially predicted by ambulance paramedics represented by CUPE 873 – but it’s still risky, said Ian McCoan, an Osoyoos paramedic and the union’s local shop steward. [...more]
The Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) board of directors narrowly passed a contentious $40.4-million budget for 2010 at their March 18 meeting. A weighted vote of 66 per cent was needed to pass the budget and 69 per cent of the board’s votes were in favour of the budget. [...more]
Editor: Any thinking person can see that the opinion expressed by the minority of persons supporting this tax seems to be by those who obviously can afford to pay an extra seven-per-cent tax on almost everything including services. Being a senior on a fixed income puts me in a far different position and will stop me from [...] [...more]
