An Osoyoos man is facing possible charges of production of a controlled substance for the purposes of trafficking after police uncovered and dismantled an alleged marijuana grow operation on Oleander Drive on March 10. Several members of the Osoyoos-Oliver RCMP executed a Controlled Drugs and Substances Act search warrant just before 10:30 a.m. that morning at a small white bungalow at 4219 Oleander Dr. [...more]
The Okanagan Valley could be facing another summer of low river levels and reduced lake and groundwater storage due to below-average snowpack levels around the province. “If you’re in the Okanagan and you need water, pray for rain,” said Bill Kuhnke, the manager of forecasting information for the B.C. Environment Ministry’s Water Stewardship Division. [...more]
Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) officials were put on the hot seat on the evening of March 15 at a standing-room-only information session on the RDOS’s proposed 2010 budget. Roughly 70 people from rural Area A, most of whom are Anarchist Mountain residents, crowded into a room at the Sonora Community Centre to bring up their concerns about taxation rates, a lack of services and some alleged accounting discrepancies to Mark Pendergraft, director for rural Area A, Bill Newell, the RDOS’s chief administrative officer and Jim Tarves, the acting finance manager for the RDOS. [...more]
The South Okanagan Chamber of Commerce is looking for a new office in Osoyoos because it can no longer afford to stay at its current location on 85th Street. Chamber President Chris Scheuren said the organization still wants to maintain a presence in town and will move out of its current office on April 1. [...more]
Editor: Sadly, as Canadians, we have blindly accepted that our politicians lie – and they do so because they know they will get away with it. The Fight HST organization began because of just such a lie. In my opinion, defending the HST is, in effect, sending a message to our children (and others) that it is okay [...] [...more]
The Town of Osoyoos is ready to take more control of what is happening on Osoyoos Lake – and on March 15, the public will have an opportunity to give its opinion of a proposed water zone bylaw at a public hearing. Osoyoos town council gave first reading to the bylaw on March 1. “Water zoning will give the town the ability to be proactive in the management of moorage activities on Osoyoos Lake through enforcement, when required,” states a staff report by Steve Shannon, an assistant planner with the Town. [...more]
The provincial Transportation Ministry has proposed a possible compromise to address the concerns of fruit stand owners who say they’ll lose business due to a planned expansion of Hwy. 97 north of Osoyoos. The Dhaliwal family, flanked by several neighbours and supporters including Lakhvinder Jhaj, who ran for the provincial NDP in this riding during the last election, arrived at Boundary-Similkameen MLA John Slater’s Osoyoos office on the morning of March 6 and were presented with a new preliminary design for the planned expansion of Hwy. 97 to four lanes between Dead Man’s Lake and Graveyard Hill. [...more]
By Paul Everest - Osoyoos Times Part of the 2010 provincial budget announced March 2 includes a proposed tax deferral for homeowners with children under the age of 18 that will come into effect in the next few months. Although the proposed deferral program would give families the option of deferring all or part of their annual property taxes, a local accountant said people who opt to take part in the program could be digging themselves a large financial hole. [...more]
The Olympic Torch Relay may have already come and gone, but there was definitely a sense of “passing the torch” at Destination Osoyoos’s annual general meeting on March 5 at the Watermark Beach Resort. “There’s nothing more constant than change,” said Derek Noske, now wearing the title of past chair of the Destination Osoyoos (DO) board. [...more]
Editor: Let me establish right in the beginning that I have no intent to criticize any particular individual within the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS). The RDOS staff are generally intelligent, hard-working, enthusiastic, imaginative and want to be productive and do a good job. However, they are not doing a good job for the residents of Anarchist Mountain. The [...] [...more]
