invermere valley echo, december 30, 2015

ALLEYV CHOEThe Invermere

BERNIE RAVENCHRIS RAVEN1-866-598-7415TEAMRAVEN.CA

Offi ces in Panorama,Invermere & Fairmont

Maxwell Realty Invermere

$105INCLUDES GST

PUBLICATIONS MAIL REGISTRATION NO. 7856

Year In Review

A2 invermerevalleyecho.com Wednesday, December 30, 2015 The Valley Echo

Visit columbiavalleyarts.com for our current events calendar, or call 250-342-4423.

What does ARTmean to you?

Happy BirtHday to pynelogs!1914 - 2014

Celebrating 100 years

seasons greetings & Happy new yearFrom the Columbia Valley arts Council

GreG AmosSpecial to The Valley Echo

JanuaryIncinerator shutdown causes odour

An overheated incinerator at Tembec’s Skookumchuck pulp mill resulted in an un-pleasant odour pervading the Upper Colum-bia Valley in early January. An incinerator at the mill that burns non-condensable gases shut down automatically — as it’s supposed to — when the temperature of the gases it burns crept above 300 F (148 C), result-ing in the venting of the gases (a standard safety measure) for 11 minutes on the night of Thursday, January 8th before the incinera-tor was restarted. A wind blowing from the southeast at the time meant the gases left a lingering smell in Canal Flats, Invermere, Pan-orama and other parts of the valley on the morning of Friday, January 9th.

“We do apologize for the odour; it’s really difficult to avoid at times,” said Tembec act-ing technical manager Roger Puar.

The high temperature triggered an alarm that shut down the incinerator at 10:12 p.m. on Thursday night. The machine was relit and running again by 10:23 p.m.

Looser liquor laws welcomedFewer restrictions on consumers of alcohol

in British Columbia were announced.

Two changes came as of April 1st: certain grocery stores in the province were able to sell wine produced 100 per cent in B.C., and rural and private liquor stores could have

Did you welcome a new addition to your family in 2015? Show off your little bundle of joy in the January 22nd edition of The Columbia Valley Pioneer! Simply submit a high resolution photo of your baby (or grandbaby, niece, nephew...) along with the child’s full name, date of birth, weight at birth, parents’ names and a fun fact about the child. The cost is $35+tax, deadline for submissions is Friday, January 15th. For more information or to book your space, contact Amanda at 250-341-6299

or [email protected].

Babies of

2015

N EW S PA P E R


Offi ces in Panorama,

Invermere & Fairmont


$105INCLUDES GST

PUBLICATIONS MAIL

REGISTRATION NO. 7856

Wake up to a delicious

holiday breakfast 22

14Church homeowner

digs into local history

Max Kelly strikes a pose with a snowman at the third annual Winter

Celebration held by the Nature Conservancy of Canada on Sunday, De-

cember 13th at the Marion Creek Benchlands Conservation Area on the

west side of Columbia Lake. See page 2 for more on this gathering that

gives the public a chance to harvest their own Christmas tree .

NCC PHOTO

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCooooooooooooooooooooo

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVoooooooooooooooooooooooooooVoVVVoVoVoVVVoVVoVVVoVoVoVVVoVVoVVVoVoVoVVVoV llllllllllll..................

555555555555555555111111111111111111111

December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23December 23ththth

201520152015201520152015201520152015

Visit columbiavalleyarts.com for our current events calendar, or call 250-342-4423.What does ART

mean to you?

Happy BirtHday to pynelogs!

1914 - 2014 Celebrating 100 years

Cinefest @ PynelogsAstrix Sunday December 27th

at 2 pm & 7 pm

GREG AMOS

Special to The Valley Echo

As local population declines in the

wake of Canfor’s Canal Flats mill closure

in November, the village is adding its

presence to the valley-wide Resident At-

traction and Retention Advisory Com-

mittee to seek some new residents.

“This is a valley-wide program; we

should be at that table,” said Coun.

Paul Marcil, who has been appointed

as Canal Flats’ alternate representative

on the committee. Mayor Ute Juras has

been appointed as Canal Flats’ main rep-

resentative. The Village of Canal Flats

currently has 715 residents, though that

number has likely already decreased as

a result of the Canfor mill closure in No-

vember. (The 2006 census — the most

recent offi cial measurement of the pop-

ulation of Canal Flats — puts the offi cial

population at 700 people.)

In November, a $50,000 implementa-

tion contract for the resident retention

plan was awarded to Calgary compa-

nies MDB Insight and Splash Media

Group, who previously created a Resi-

dent Attraction and Retention Plan for

Salmon Arm, which helped that munic-

ipality’s growth go from being static to

increasing by nine per cent.

The resident retention plan arose

from the now-defunct Columbia Valley

Directed Funds Committee of the RDEK.

Though the committee is fi nished, the

valley-wide initiative to increase the

region’s full-time population has been

funded so far with leftover money from

the committee, meaning taxpayers in

valley municipalities and rural areas

are fi nancially off the hook for it.

The Resident Attraction and Reten-

tion Advisory Committee will meet

once more under local government di-

rection, before it is turned over to the

valley’s business community to contin-

ue the project.

Resident retention plan grows

STEVE HUBRECHT

[email protected]

The water system of three communities in the Columbia Valley will soon

merge, with the end result that all will now have Interior Health standards

compliant drinking water.

The Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) board of directors unani-

mously decided at their Friday, December 4th meeting to approve Commu-

nity Works Funds grants for the private Fairmont Hot Springs Utility Ltd.:

$39,000 for extending its services to Ogilvy Wills (the community across

Highway 93/95 from Fairmont Hot Springs Resort and north of the Riverside

golf course development), $145,000 for extending its services to Dutch Creek,

and $555,000 for the utility’s groundwater source development program.

“This is a good solution as we’ll have all three communities (Ogilvy Wills, Dutch

Creek and Fairmont) drinking (Interior Health standards) compliant water,” RDEK

chair Rob Gay told The Echo, adding Ogilvy Wills had long had problems with its

water because its wells are so shallow, and Dutch Creek has had problems with

its water intake because the creek it draws from tends to change its course.

See A3

Fairmont, Dutch Creek and

Ogilvy Wills water systems merge

OCALL EWSN

oooooo


Year in Review 2015Year in Review 2015

Kinsmen Beach in Invermere came alive with the inaugural Whiteway Winter Festival on Saturday, January 3rd, which was also the official start to the Columbia Valley’s new Winter in Motion festival that spanned the months of January and February. Photo by Nicole Trigg

Bryan Gerrie jigged his rod during the Kins-men Club’s annual fishing derby on Lake Win-dermere on Saturday, January 31st, trying to catch the biggest fish. A Banff resident, Bryan has been coming to the Kinsmen Ice Fishing Derby since it started 15 years ago. Photo by Dan Walton

The Invermere Valley Echo’s annual tradition of a Year in Review is back. This entire issue is dedicated to wrapping up 2015 with an overview of the most

memorable stories reported in The Echo throughout the past year.

invermerevalleyecho.com A3Wednesday, December 30, 2015 The Valley Echo





$105INCLUDES GST

PUBLICATIONS MAIL




14Church homeowner







NCC PHOTO



555555555555555555111111111111111111111


201520152015201520152015201520152015


mean to you?




at 2 pm & 7 pm

GREG AMOS














































ue the project.


STEVE HUBRECHT

[email protected]
















See A3



OCALL EWSN

oooooo


Year in Review 2015Year in Review 2015access to the same warehouse pricing as those oper-ated by the government.

“We’ve raised many issues (regarding alcohol poli-cy) on behalf of constituents,” said Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald. “We’ve been told to wait for reform packages and this is it after all these years.”

These and other planned policy changes — such as allowing minors to dine with their families in pubs, le-gions, and membership clubs — reflected a report of 73 recommendations put forward by Parliamentary Secretary for Liquor Reform John Yap.

“I don’t see any problems with it,” said District of Invermere mayor Gerry Taft said.

“B.C. liquor laws were outdated and this has been a long time coming,” said Doug Clovechok, president of the local Liberal Riding Association, who hopes to take the Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA seat for the BC Liber-als in the 2017 provincial election.

Bus stranded for two daysAn empty greyhound bus was stuck

on the side of Highway 93/95 just outside of Windermere for a couple of days in mid-January.

“It had a mechanical failure on Tuesday evening, at which time we called a tow truck to remove the coach,” said Greyhound senior com-munications specialist Lanesha Gip-son. The tow truck arrived on the morning of Wednesday, January 7th, but was unable to haul the coach. A second tow truck was called and the bus was finally removed on Thurs-day afternoon.

There were two passengers aboard the bus at the time it broke down. Both passengers and the driver were taxied to Cranbrook by Greyhound immediately after the mechanical failure occurred, which allowed the passengers to continue their trip on schedule from Cranbrook on another Greyhound bus.

“Because we are a ground transportation compa-ny; road failures occasionally occur. I don’t have an exact figure for how often it happens. However, we do pre- and post-trip inspections of our coaches to try to avoid these types of issues the best we can,” said Gipson.

Faster Internet service supportedAt a meeting on January 9th, the Regional District of

East Kootenay agreed to green light a Columbia Basin Trust offer to support up to 17.5 per cent of the cost of any potential project to bring high-speed Internet to rural parts of the Columbia Valley. FlexiNET and Wink Wireless had shown interest in projects that could affect Edgewater, Brisco, Spillimacheen and Canal Flats. Those areas would qualify for a federal government grant that would foot 50 per cent of the bill of bringing them an Internet “backbone.”

FebruaryWindermere development worries residents

A proposed zoning bylaw amendment for a new de-velopment in the Windermere area created concern among nearby residents.

Developers Jeb Ferster and Ed Goertzen had ap-plied for a bylaw amendment what would change

the zoning of the property for their proposed The Trails at Windermere development, which is in south Windermere.

“Generally the flavour of (the public hearing) was that there was some concern with the proposed devel-opment,” said RDEK planning technician Jean Terps-ma, adding about 25 people attended the hearing.

“One of my main concerns is that amendment chang-es the zoning from P2 (public parks and open space) to R5, which is the maximum density for residential zoning,” Windermere resident and public hearing participant Erin Reid later told The Echo. “It seems like an incredible amount of density on 17 acres.”

Herding dogs to help bighorn sheep migrate Herding sheep and policing priorities were among

the topics of discussion at the regular council meeting

in the Village of Radium Hot Springs on Wednesday, January 28th. The Columbia Basin Trust approved a grant to aid the migration of the local bighorn sheep herd. In working with a biologist from Parks Canada, herding dogs will be used to entice the sheep to mi-grate into Kootenay National Park, rather than set-tling in the urban setting. The practice is supposed to take place before the sheep begin lambing.

“Once that happens, they get too habituated,” Ra-dium Hot Springs mayor Clara Reinhardt said.

Fate of Canal Flats village discussedAt a February Canal Flats council meeting at the Co-

lumbia Discovery Centre on Tuesday, February 10th, a presentation was given by Canfor on the inherent reasons for recent layoffs, mainly attributed to a shortage of timber.

“They assured us that they will do everything they can to absorb all of the affected employees in one of their other operations in B.C.,” Mayor Ute Juras told The Echo. “There was a lot of discussion. As you can imagine, there are a lot of questions and a lot of uncertainty.”

“This will potentially force some of our residents to relocate at a time when the Village is trying to retain and attract residents to help our economy and keep the doors of our school open,” she added.

Local mountain guide featuredThe Echo ran a feature story on backcountry guide

Brodie Smith, known by many valley outdoor enthu-siasts who have brushed up on their backcountry

skills during avalanche training courses with him over the past several years.

Smith, who was born here in Invermere, has been an Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) certified ski guide and a professional mem-ber of the Canadian Avalanche Association for the past five years.

“For me it’s such a special place we have here in our backyard, and guiding is a way of sharing that experi-ence with others and seeing the enjoyment they get out of that experience,” said Smith.

Smith first skied on the slopes of Fairmont Hot Springs Resort and Panorama Mountain Resort. After graduating from David Thompson Secondary School, he took a job as a dishwasher at RK Heliski and soon began ski touring. Smith currently works for Cana-

dian Mountain Holidays (CMH) as a ski guide, runs his own private guiding business (mainly for hikers in the sum-mer), teaches avalanche courses and does industrial mountain safety work for oil and gas exploration companies around the world.

MarchDensity averaging debated

At its Monday, February 23rd meet-ing, Canal Flats council debated, but ultimately decided not to support, a regional district bylaw (No. 2593) that sought to close a loophole for rural de-velopment of bare land strata proper-ties. In response to a Ministry of Trans-portation and Infrastructure approval that permitted the development of a 25-lot subdivision at Whitetail Lake, about 28 kilometres west of Canal Flats, the Regional District of East Kootenay was

pursuing a bylaw to regulate density averaging on such properties, as a means to ensure the approval process stays with local government.

Canal Flats council’s response to the regional dis-trict was that “approval is not recommended due to reasons outlined below: decreased flexibility to ac-commodate site-specific circumstances.”

Filtration at Paddy ryan reservoir costlyInstalling water filtration in the Paddy Ryan Reser-

voir would come with a price tag running into the mil-lions of dollars, it was revealed.

During discussion in a District of Invermere coun-cil meeting, chief administrative officer Chris Prosser brought up the cost in response to points raised by Invermere councillor Paul Denchuk, who had sug-gested (before learning of the costs) that installing filtration at Paddy Ryan would be more effective than offering rebates for filter installation in individual homes in Invermere that have water problems.

A 2011 report put the cost of water filtration for the Paddy Ryan Reservoir somewhere in the neighbour-hood of $15 million to $18 million, rising to more than $20 million dollars by 2023.

Parks Canada restoring region near radiumAt a regular Radium Hot Springs council meeting

on Wednesday, February 25th, Jed Cochrane, Parks Canada fire and plant ecologist for Kootenay, Yoho, and Lake Louise National Parks, discussed what he and his team were doing to reduce the potential for severe forest fires and to restore the native habitat,

Two young boys made the most of mild weather on Saturday, February 14th by playing ball hockey at the outdoor rink in Radium as part of the village’s annual Winterfest. Photo by Kristin McCauley






$105INCLUDES GST

PUBLICATIONS MAIL




14Church homeowner







NCC PHOTO



555555555555555555111111111111111111111


201520152015201520152015201520152015


mean to you?




at 2 pm & 7 pm

GREG AMOS














































ue the project.


STEVE HUBRECHT

[email protected]
















See A3



OCALL EWSN

oooooo


Year in Review 2015Year in Review 2015particularly in the areas closest to Radium.

Cochrane said that in Radium, Parks is fo-cusing on restoring two specifi c areas near Radium — the Redstreak Benches and Sin-clair Canyon — where controlled burnings would be taking place.

Possible boundary expansion eyed The idea of Invermere expanding its mu-

nicipal boundaries in the future garnered some attention during the Tuesday, March 10th council meeting. A group of citizens upset at changes proposed in a draft OCP bylaw debated the pros and cons of bound-ary expansion with councillors, but the discussion also touched on where such ex-pansion might occur.

“Why not expand east (to the opposite side of Lake Windermere) where there is a tax base,” asked councillor Paul Denchuk. An increased tax base, which would give the district an increased budget, was one reason councillors had put forward as a reason for expanding.

“We need to be realistic about expanding to the east side of the lake,” said Inver-mere mayor Gerry Taft at the meeting. “Do the residents there want it? No. Would the regional district director for the area want it? No. Would their taxes go up? Yes.”

Although Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) Area F director Wendy Booth — whose jurisdiction includes in the east side of the lake — was not at the meeting, she later told The Echo that “anything is possible for boundary expan-sion at some point in the future.”

At the council meeting, Invermere resident Dale Wilker suggested expanding to Wilmer “where there’s a tax base already set to go.”

Local cross section featured on CBC radioCBC Radio morning show, Daybreak South from Kelowna, hosted three live

broadcasts in the East Kootenay, including one from The Invermere Bakery.The local broadcast happened on Thursday, March 12th. Producers arranged to

have many of the valley’s top-of-mind subjects discussed, from the controversy surrounding Jumbo Glacier Resort to the successes of local entrepreneurs.

“The idea of speaking to a broad media like CBC that has a broad reach in order to get some fair and correct information out is an opportunity you always want to take,” said Grant Costello, senior vice president of Jumbo Glacier Resort. He later claimed that CBC has always taken a negative approach towards the devel-opment of Jumbo Glacier Resort.

“They consistently ask the same fi ve questions from what I call the Wildsight playbook,” he said.

Amid the low oil prices and relatively low Canadian dollar, Invermere mayor Gerry Taft and Columbia Valley Chamber of Commerce executive director Susan Clovechok were asked about how the valley is maintaining its tourism-driven economy.

“Generally, the outlook is cautiously optimistic,” Taft said. “Theoretically, with a lower price at the pump and stronger U.S. dollar, people might be taking trips closer to home, and it’s becoming easier for Americans to travel north.”

Other local guests on the Invermere segment of the popular morning show in-cluded artist Chloe Marson, Invermere Bakery owner Peter Banga, local artisan baker Andi Schoni, Valley Echo/Pioneer editor Nicole Trigg, the entire cast of The Visionary and The Ghost of Pynelogs, and District of Invermere event co-ordina-tor Theresa Wood.

AprilWater testing launched

The District of Invermere laid plans to test local water throughout the summer to determine the cause of taste and odour issues identifi ed by residents and visi-tors. Urban Systems unveiled a six-to-eight month plan to determine whether the taste arises from the water source (the Paddy Ryan Lakes near Westside Road) or from the water distribution system. Mayor Taft noted the problem seemed to be specifi c to certain neighbourhoods, and added that if heavy duty water fi ltration was required to fi x the taste, it could mean capital costs in the tens of millions of dollars to fi x.

Jumbo oCP gets fi rst readingThe Mountain Resort Municipality of Jum-

bo Glacier gave fi rst reading to its offi cial community plan (OCP) bylaw, after making a few changes to the fi rst draft of the bylaw, including the removal of a few single family lots. The OCP would guide future develop-ment of the community, which currently has no residents. (A public hearing on the OCP was held in June.)

Agreement benefi ts local fi shersA new provincial initiative starting April

1st dictated all revenue from B.C. fi shing licenses would go to the Freshwater Fish-eries Society of B.C., which spelled good news for all the Columbia Valley lakes stocked by the society. The change meant an additional $3 million in revenue for the group each year. Local lakes stocked by the society include Bear (with Eastern brook trout), Alces and Whitetail lakes in the Ca-nal Flats area; Cartwright, Dogsleg and Lil-lian lakes in the Invermere area; Dorothy

Lake in Invermere proper; Brady Lake in Fairmont; and Munn and Enid lakes in the Wilmer region (all with Rainbow trout).

Garden project realizedThe Rotary Gardens, a community garden in Radium Hot Springs consisting of

42 raised garden beds surrounded by a wildlife fence, was nearing completion after efforts from volunteers and Sunrise Rotary Club members. The garden was built behind the Parks Canada building (formerly an elementary school) in Ra-dium Hot Springs. Prior to becoming a garden, the space was often used as an informal soccer fi eld or dog-walking space. Including in-kind contributions and volunteer help, the total cost of the project was between $60,000 and $65,000, said project organizer Dale Shudra.

Job fair cancelled for Canfor employeesWith more than 80 employees facing mass layoffs at the Canal Flats Canfor mill

on May 4th, a job fair that was scheduled to be held for the employees on April 16th was cancelled, due to a general lack of interest.

“The Canfor transition team felt they just wouldn’t get attendance,” said Co-lumbia Valley Chamber of Commerce executive director Susan Clovechok. “I was really disappointed it didn’t go ahead, but I understand why it was cancelled. It’s hard for prospective employers who were to be at the fair to spend the time and resources if it doesn’t seem they’ll be talking to many potential employees.”

Grant sought for new community centreThe District of Invermere put in a request to the Union of B.C. Municipalities

Strategic Priority Fund for $6 million to put towards the new multi-use communi-ty centre and other projects, including $1.8 million for 13th Avenue revitalization

CBC Daybreak South host Chris Walker was in the Columbia Valley on Thurs-day, March 12th, hosting a live broadcast from The Invermere Bakery as part of an East Kootenay tour. Photo by Nicole Trigg

A volunteer work day on Saturday, April 11th at the new Rotary Gardens in Radium Hot Springs (spearheaded by the Radium Sunrise Rotary Club) drew a great turnout of 25 volunteers eager to get the new community garden project up and running. Photo submitted


SUBSCRIPTION RATESAnnual Subscription Rates (incl. tax)• Local (Canal Flats to Spillimacheen) $45.30• Offi ce Pick-Up $34.50• Canada $62.60 / International $182.00• Seniors (local) $34.50 / Seniors (Canada) $56.00

Six Month Subscription Rates (incl. tax)• Local (Canal Flats to Spillimacheen) $29.40• Seniors (local) $22.80 INVERMEREVALLEYECHO.com

InvermereValleyEcho

@TheValleyEcho





$105INCLUDES GST

PUBLICATIONS MAIL




14Church homeowner







NCC PHOTO



555555555555555555111111111111111111111


201520152015201520152015201520152015


mean to you?




at 2 pm & 7 pm

GREG AMOS














































ue the project.


STEVE HUBRECHT

[email protected]
















See A3



OCALL EWSN

oooooo


Year in Review 2015Year in Review 2015work and $65,000 to develop an Infrastructure Priori-ties Replacement Plan. Invermere chief administrative officer Chris Prosser noted council would be lucky to receive $2 million of the requested amount.

Columbia Lake development proceedsThe Regional District of East Kootenay gave first

and second reading to a zoning bylaw that would allow for a 17 single-family lot developments on the north end of Columbia Lake. The view lots would have lake access but no lake frontage, and would look across to Lot 48.

MayInvermere council wary of Interior Health

Asked at a council meeting to partner with Interior Health on their Healthy Community Initiative, Inver-mere council expressed skepticism that the partner-ship could translate into a downloading of responsibili-ties from Interior Health onto the district in the future.

The Healthy Community Initiative is a program that promotes healthy living options, in an effort to pre-vent people from needing to use more traditional health services.

Asked by councillor Justin Atterbury if a formal part-nership would be of any benefit to help with reduction in health services, such as the loss of Invermere’s di-alysis unit two years ago, the community health facili-tator responded this would be outside her role with Health Community Initiatives program.

east Kootenay highway maintenance petition makes it to VictoriaA Facebook-based petition with nearly 1,000 signatures demanding better main-

tenance on highways in the East Kootenay was brought to the B.C. legislature by Columbia River Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald. One of the founders of the Facebook group (Taking Back East Kootenay Highways) that spawned the peti-tion was a former snowplow driver for Mainroad Group who said the company was unable to make the highways safe (particularly in the winter) due to govern-ment restrictions. Highway 93/95 is a Class B highway in B.C., meaning it is given the second highest priority for plowing after a snowfall.

mP aims for addictions recovery weekFormer Kootenay-Columbia MP David Wilks introduced a private member’s bill

in the House of Commons seeking to declare the fourth Saturday of September as the start of Addictions Recovery Week. Mr. Wilks, who overcame years of alcohol-ism early on in his career as an RCMP officer, hoped the week would help those overcoming their demons be proud of what they had become instead of reflecting on who they’d been.

“I had come to the point in my life where alcohol was ruling my day-to-day ac-tivities,” said Mr. Wilks, who last drank 26 years ago and considers himself to be in a state of “long-term recovery.”

Directed funds committee winds downThe Columbia Valley Directed Funds Committee — a sub-committee of the Re-

gional District of East Kootenay — held its second to last meeting in May. The group, aimed at empowering communities between Spillimacheen and Canal Flats to fund projects of specific importance to the Columbia Valley, was slated to return under the control of Columbia Basin Trust after lasting three years. The Columbia Basin Trust took over final decision-making on the allocation of the funds.

mayor proposes resident attraction planInvermere mayor Gerry Taft proposed a major proj-

ect to his colleagues during a Columbia Valley Com-munity Directed Funds Committee Meeting on May 22nd — the development of a Permanent Resident Re-tention and Attraction Action Plan for the Columbia Valley. The idea was supported by board chair Wendy Booth, who put forward a motion to fund phase one of the action plan with $50,000.

“One of the biggest challenges to businesses in the valley is staying financially stable when there are not as many people around,” said Taft, whose proposal was to hire a consultant to do a literature review of efforts in other communities to increase their number of permanent residents, undertake independent in-terviews with community members to establish opin-ions, and create a plan for how to advertise the valley to prospective residents.

Taft said that the focus needs to be on attracting “nomadic entrepreneurs,” which he defined as people who do not have a location-specific job and who live in a place to enjoy the offered lifestyle.

“People have to be able to bring their own employ-ment and be self-sufficient,” Taft said.

Permaculture students drawn to Invermere Roughly 30 students travelled from across Canada

and the United States to participate in the comple-tion of the 72-hour Permaculture Design Certificate between May 15th and May 28th with experts Rob and Michelle Avis from Verge Permaculture and Adaptive Habitat, hosted by the Groundswell Net-

work Society in Invermere.“Groundswell is really pleased to be collaborating with Verge Permaculture of

Calgary,” said Groundswell Network executive director Bill Swan. “The principals, Rob and Michelle, are western Canada’s leading practitioners. Their expertise is known worldwide and these courses generally are in high demand.”

The program offered up a healthy dose of theory and hands-on learning about energy-efficient gardening and water management systems.

Ktunaxa lawsuit appeal against Jumbo reaches courtLawyers representing the Ktunaxa Nation appeared in the B.C. Court of Ap-

peal in Vancouver in late May to present their case against the Jumbo Glacier Resort development. The Nation argued the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects their religious freedoms, which would be infringed upon by the planned Jumbo resort. It was expected the decision on the appeal would take three to six months.

JuneDTss comes up short in Fraser Institute rankings

David Thompson Secondary School (DTSS) earned an overall rating of 5.2 out of 10 in the Fraser Institute’s annual ranking of B.C. high schools. That was down significantly from 2014’s ranking of 6.0. DTSS is now barely hanging on to a yel-low classification from the Fraser Institute, given to schools that earn an overall rating of between 7.4 and 5.0. The yellow classification is considered the mark of a good school, according to the Fraser Institute, which has in the past routinely ranked private schools higher than public schools, leading some to accuse the Institute of a bias favouring privatized education. See A7

On May 23rd, Al Ostrander, the first-ever resident at Co-lumbia Garden Village, and Marjorie Stringer, who cel-ebrated her 101st birthday on May 23rd, helped cut the cake for festivities marking a decade of Columbia Gar-den Village since its opening. Photo by Breanne Massey


The two sides of Boxing Day

This year, our inspiration grew as we nurtured

our Greatness Seeds, which included courage, possi-bility, health, time, appre-ciation, calmness, releasing, giving and receiving.

As you reflect on 2015, there will be many memo-ries of happy times, fulfilling experiences, challenging op-portunities and possibly a few things you wish you could have done better. Only you know how well you con-tributed to your own sense of wellness; to your friends, family, community; and how you held up your part to be a good steward of our Earth.

Here’s the thing: life is about feeling bet-ter and better about everything. When your heart is expanding with love and gratitude for what is, regardless of the

circumstances, you are more open to receiving all things that will ignite you into feel-ing better.

Is it tough at times when “life” throws you a curve ball, when sickness, misfor-tune and disease knock at the door? Absolutely!

Even during those times, there are gifts, though they can be hard to see.

In 2015, there were many opportuni-ties when this gracious community came together, poured their love and support into the hearts of those in need, and sup-ported so many into feeling better. The members of this valley are incredible. We know that great and wonderful things happen when we come together to uplift, support and celebrate each other.

Now it’s time for the holidays and the

welcoming of a new year. Are you excited about it? What will be different for you this New Year?

Some of you will go with the flow, some of you will make and go after specific goals and some of you will do both.

I personally am ramping up my ap-proach to my own wellness and to being a better steward for the Earth in 2016. As I finish this last column for 2015 from my nature-inspired living office, I would like to invite you to join me in 2016 for a new series entitled “Go & Grow Greener.”

We will explore ways to be and do even better at taking care of ourselves, each other and this beautiful place we call home.

Elizabeth Shopland is a personal growth and development coach, a certified hor-ticulturist, and the co-owner of Shopland Grow & Bloom. She can be reached at [email protected] and 250-342-1124.

Reflection and renewal: preparing for 2016

NICoLe [email protected]

What’s not to like about the Christmas holiday season? Whether one is religious or not, the appeal of the end of Decem-ber is practically universal across North America and much of the Western world. Brightly decorated homes and Christmas trees, sparkling lights and glittering gifts, familiar carols and nostalgic traditions, festive gatherings, rapturous feasts and, above all, time off. No other time of year is marked by two statutory holidays in a row. However, while most are familiar with the real meaning behind Christmas Day, how many actually have an inkling as to what Boxing Day is all about?

In Canada, as well as the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, Boxing Day is known as a shopping holiday. Newscasts on December 26th are generally about the record-breaking lineups outside stores with slashed prices and discounts so low that many will sacrifice a relaxing holiday morning for the competitive en-vironment of getting to their prized item first in order to walk away with it for less money than what they would pay on any other day of the year.

But before the big sales, and shoul-der-to-shoulder crowds, what was this day all about? According to Wikipedia, there are competing theories as to how the name came about, but the one the Oxford Dictionary stands by is rooted

in England in the early 1800s when ser-vants, errand boys and postmen would receive a “Christmas box” the day after Christmas as payment for good services rendered throughout the previous year.

While generally considered a secular holiday, there may be a historical non-secular meaning related to the Alms Box placed in areas of worship to collect do-nations for the poor.

It’s great that workers today are given Boxing Day off — a tip of the hat to the past “Christmas box” charitable appre-ciation of work well done. But how ironic that alongside this tradition, Boxing Day has also evolved into the biggest tempta-tion across the Commonwealth for emp-tying one’s bank account.

NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT: Reproduction of any or all editorial and advertising materials in whole or in part is strictly prohibited without the written consent of the publisher. It is agreed by the advertiser requesting space that the liability of The Valley Echo, owned by Black Press Ltd. in the event of failure to publish an advertisement or in the event of an error appearing in the advertisement as published, shall be limited to the amount paid by the advertiser for only the one incorrect insertion for the portion of the advertising space occupied by the incorrect or omitted items only and that there shall be no liability in any event greater than the amount paid for such advertising.

BC PRESS COUNCIL – The Valley Echo is a member of the British Columbia Press Council, a self-regulatory body governing the province's newspaper industry. The council con-siders complaints from the public about the conduct of member newspapers. Directors oversee the mediation of complaints, with input from both the newspaper and the complaint hold-er. If talking with the editor or publisher does not resolve your complaint about coverage or story treatment, you may contact the B.C. Press Council. Your written concern, with documenta-tion, should be sent within 45 days to B.C. Press Council, PO Box 1356, Ladysmith,B.C. V9G 1A9. For information, phone 888-687-2213 or go to www.bcpresscouncil.org

#8, 1008 8 Avenue • P.O. Box 70Invermere, B.C., Canada V0A 1K0

Phone: 250-341-6299 invermerevalleyecho.com

2009

2009 WINNER

verifi edcirculation.ca

CMCAAUDITED

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the De-partment of Canadian Heritage.


DeanMidyettepublisher@

invermerevalleyecho.com

PUBLISHER EDITOR

Nicole Triggeditor@


BreanneMasseybreanne@


REPORTERS

SteveHubrecht

[email protected]

AmandaNason

[email protected]

ADVERTISING SALES

GRAPHIC DESIGN / PRODUCTION

Theresa Kains

[email protected]

ReniceOaks

[email protected]

ADMINISTRATION

Published by Black Press Ltd. at Cranbrook Daily Townsman

822 Cranbrook St. N.Cranbrook, BC

DITORIALE

UMOURHSomething on

your mind?The Valley Echo welcomes all letters to the editor and submissions from community and sports groups, as well as special community columns. Please keep your signed, legible submissions under 500 words. We reserve the right to edit for clarity, taste, legal reasons and brevity. Each submission must contain a daytime phone number and place of residence. Send email submissions to [email protected].

REATNESSGGrow Your

G

LIZABETHESHOPLAND

IFESTYLESL


NEXT WEEK’S QUESTION:Do you believe that making New

Year’s resolutions is an effective way of accomplishing your personal goals?



QUESTION OF THE WEEKAre you among the number of Canadian borrowers for whom

rising household debt is an increasing problem?

INVERMEREVALLEYECHO.com� �� Are you among the number of Canadian borrowers for whom Are you among the number of Canadian borrowers for whom � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � INVERMEREVALLEYECHO.com.com � � .com � .com� � � � � � � � � � Are you among the number of Canadian borrowers for whom Are you among the number of Canadian borrowers for whom � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � No75%

Yes25%

TREETSTHES

What are your New Year’s resolutions for 2016?

“To have more time off work.”

Christina MacDonald

”I hope to do more cross-country skiing this year.”

Joanne Irvine (pictured with Susan Rodewalt, right)

“I don’t really have any.”

Jesse Kendall





$105INCLUDES GST

PUBLICATIONS MAIL




14Church homeowner







NCC PHOTO



555555555555555555111111111111111111111


201520152015201520152015201520152015


mean to you?




at 2 pm & 7 pm

GREG AMOS














































ue the project.


STEVE HUBRECHT

[email protected]
















See A3



OCALL EWSN

oooooo


Year in Review 2015Year in Review 2015The average provincial exam mark

achieved by B.C. students in Grade 10 to Grade 12 was 69.5 per cent. At DTSS, students averaged 67.8 per cent on provincial exams.

rV resort concerns ariseAbout 70 community members

came to a public hearing for a pro-posed rezoning to create a seasonal RV resort in the Village of Canal Flats, speaking mainly against the proposal. A petition signed by more than 400 community members (in a community of about 700 people) was presented to council. Some spoke against the infl ux of visitors in the 151-lot resort making local streets more dangerous. Richard Haworth, the agent for proponent Benny Boyz Ventures, countered this point by re-minding attendees the resort will target upscale clientele, who will possibly be-come invested in Canal Flats through long-term leases.

“The quality of the clientele you get is based on the cost of the lease in some ways,” Mr. Haworth said. “We can’t control who leases, but we will have strong rules on the site, which must be followed.”

employment dips in the KootenaysEmployment fell by 11.8 per cent in the Kootenays in 2014, according to a report

released by the Chartered Professional Accountants of BC (CPABC) in June. The region had been experiencing a steady rise in jobs for three consecutive years, but the losses from 2014 exceed the 8,400 jobs created between 2011-2013. The report blames much of the decline on the weakened construction industry.

“In particular, the construction industry lost about four-tenths of its workforce,” Mike Calder, a chartered professional accountant said. “This is partly due to the completion

of several major projects in the region.”The report suggests that four main con-

struction projects, including the $900-mil-lion Jumbo Glacier Resort, should boost employment for the rest of 2015.

Jumbo not substantially startedGlacier Resorts Limited’s environmen-

tal assessment certifi cate expired on June 18th, after B.C. Environment Min-ister Mary Polak determined that the Jumbo Glacier Resort project was not substantially started.

“I have not had any discussions with my colleagues about my decision, with any of them, so I would not be able to com-ment on their reaction,” said Mrs. Polak in response to The Echo’s question of whether her decision would be met with opposition from within the BC Liberal party. East Kootenay MLA (and Energy

Minister) Bill Bennett has been a long-time supporter of the proposed ski resort.“There is no question that Mary Polak has made a decision that is going to have

colleagues angry at her, but it is the right decision,” said Columbia River-Revel-stoke MLA Norm Macdonald.

Jumbo Glacier Resort Mayor Greg Deck said he was disappointed in the deci-sion, and questioned what would happen to the $1 million that had been allo-cated to his council over a fi ve-year term.

“We exist to provide a municipal underpinning to the agreement between the province and Jumbo Glacier Resort, and if those necessary agreements are not in place, then our funding will be in question,” Mr. Deck said.

Affordable housing gets closerThe Family Resource Centre was given a $9,500 Columbia Basin Trust grant

See A9

The McToogle’s Trio rocked the 4th Annual Steamboat Mountain Music Festival in Edgewater on Saturday, July 25th. Photo by Nicole Trigg


WEEKLY Beat

Have an event you’d

like listed? Email it to: production@


THE

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 30TH

• 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.: Library on shortened hours Dec. 30, 31 and Jan. 2.

• 7 p.m.: Texas Hold ‘em Tournament moved to Wednesday 30th at Invermere Legion. $35 buy in.

THURSDAY, DEC. 31ST

• 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.: Invermere Library on shortened hours Dec. 31 and Jan. 2

• 11:15 a.m.: Invermere Library Pre-school Storytime drop in for stories and a craft.

• 12:30 - 3:30 p.m.: Invermere Library Lego Club. Drop in to build something great.

• 3 p.m.: Village of Radium’s 25th Birthday Celebration and New Year’s Eve Party at Brent’s Shack, Legends Field and Radium Hot Springs Seniors Hall. Hot chocolate, hot dogs, chili and birthday cake. Visit www.radiumhotsprings.com for details.

• 6:30 p.m.: Radium Hot Springs New Year’s Eve Fireworks at Springs Driving Range. Visit www.radiumhotsprings.com for details.

• 7 - 10 p.m.: Fairmont Hot Springs Summer pool party.

• 7:30 p.m.: New Year’s Eve Dinner at Panorama Great Hall, Dinner pricing is $54.95 for those 15+ years old, $19.95 for those 5-14 years old, children 4 and under free. Gratuity included GST extra. Reservations recommended call 1-800-663-2929. Visit www.panoramaresort.com/events/ for menu details.

• 9 p.m.: Bear’s Paw Bar & Grill at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort. No cover charge. A New Years Eve Glow Party with festive drink specials, champagne at midnight, music by DJ Wild Bill and a selfi e booth in the lobby. For more information email [email protected] or call 250-345-6063.

• 9 p.m. - 2 a.m.: Edgewater Recreation Society presents a New Year’s Eve event with Jaydee Hypnotist. Tickets $20 in advance includes New Year’s bling, midnight hors d’oeuvres and champagne, sold at Brisco Store, Pip’s Store, Simple Pleasures and Little Treasures, Home Hardware and the Trading Post.

• 10 p.m.: Fairmont New Year’s Eve Fireworks at the Historic Indian Baths.

• 11 p.m.: Family Neon Nye Party at Panorama Mountain Resort. Prizes for Best Neon Costume, Best glowing lip sync artist, and best neon guitarist. Free handouts, like kids pop, glow sticks and glow jewelry, appy bites and jello shots (non-alcoholic) and Full bar open for Adults.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 1ST

• 7 - 10 p.m.: Fresh Fridays Open Mic at Pynelogs. Showcasing young talent from the valley. All ages, licensed bar. First Friday of every month.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 2ND

• 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.: Library on shortened hours Dec. 29, 30, 31 and Jan. 2.

• 11:15 a.m.: Invermere Library Pre-school Storytime drop-in for stories and a craft.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8TH

• 9 p.m.: Bear’s Paw Bar & Grill at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort. Join us for live music by Smokin’ Ray & The Detectors. Blues, R’s n B and more.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 9TH

• 9 p.m.: Bear’s Paw Bar & Grill at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort. Join us for live music by Smokin’ Ray & The Detectors. Blues, R’s n B and more.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 12TH

• 6:30 p.m.: Westside Legacy Trail Open House at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort, Pine Room. Come and experience what the WLT is, how it will impact the valley, and show your support. Snacks and refreshments will be served.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 15TH

• 9 p.m.: Bear’s Paw & Grill at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort. Join us for live music by Swillbillies with blues, folk and pub-style tunes.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 19TH

• Columbia Lodge No. 38 meets every 3rd Tuesday at 8 pm. Sept through June. 1301 7th Ave, second fl oor above Lambert Kipp.

• 7:30 p.m.: Florian Hoefi ner Group at Pynelogs Cultural Centre. Tickets are $20, $10 for students and are available at Tiffany’s Thredz and at Pynelogs. Call 250-342-4423 for more

HOURS

INVERMERE LIBRARY

• Tuesday: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m • Wednesday: 10 a.m - 8 p.m.• Thurs – Saturday: 10 a.m - 5p.m.

RADIUM LIBRARY

• Tuesday: 6 - 8 p.m.• Wed - Thursday: 1 - 4 p.m.• Saturday: 10 a.m. - 1p.m.

WINDERMERE VALLEY MUSEUM

• Tuesday: 12 - 4 p.m.

INVERMERE THRIFT STORE• Thurs - Saturday: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

RADIUM THRIFT STORE

• Thursday: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.• Fri - Saturday: 12 - 4 p.m.

SUMMIT YOUTH CENTRE

• Tuesday: 5 - 9 p.m.• Wednesday: 4 - 9 p.m.• Thursday: 5 - 9 p.m.• Fri - Saturday: 6 - 11 p.m.

FREE tutoring available and vol-unteer tutors needed. Contact the

Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy [email protected]


Find the Fan

ROCKIES WISHES YOU A HAPPY

NEW YEAR

Home Games

CELEBRATING 37 YEARS IN THE KIJHL!

VS. GOLDEN ROCKETS

Saturday, 2nd

7:30 pm

VS. CRESTON THUNDER CATS

Saturday, 9th

7:30 pmDON’T FORGET 50/50 TICKETS

SAVEANYWHERE.

Introducing the New Save.ca Mobile Cash-Back Feature. With exclusive offers for the brands you love & $5 cash-out minimums

through PayPal, you’ll never go shopping without your smart phone again!

Get Cash Back in 3 Easy Steps

Visit save.ca/cashback to Learn More

1. Browse & ShopBrowse the mobile app

for your favourite brand’s offers, and purchase

them at any store

2. Upload Receipt Take a photo of your receipt and submit it

through the app

3. Get Cash Back! Once you reach just $5, the money you save will be transferred into your

PayPal wallet

In partnership with

SAVEANYWHERE.







them at any store


through the app


PayPal wallet

In partnership withSAVEANYWHERE.







them at any store


through the app


PayPal wallet

In partnership with

SAVEANYWHERE.







them at any store


through the app


PayPal wallet

In partnership with

Geoff HillMaxWell Realty Invermere

[email protected]

250-341-7600





$105INCLUDES GST

PUBLICATIONS MAIL




14Church homeowner







NCC PHOTO



555555555555555555111111111111111111111


201520152015201520152015201520152015


mean to you?




at 2 pm & 7 pm

GREG AMOS














































ue the project.


STEVE HUBRECHT

[email protected]
















See A3



OCALL EWSN

oooooo


Year in Review 2015Year in Review 2015towards creating more affordable housing in the Columbia Valley after approval was given on June 22nd. The money was to be used to implement parts of the Need and Demand Assessment Study the Family Resource Centre had completed in June 2013.

JulyForest fire causes evacuation

A single home north of Spillim-acheen received an evacuation order from the Regional District of East Kootenay on July 4th after a sizable fire started in the area. The wildfire was estimated to be about 54 hectares in size. As of July 6th, there were 35 firefight-ers, three pieces of heavy equip-ment and a helicopter employed to fight the blaze. As crews con-tinue to fight the fire in Spillim-acheen, others prepare for the impending threat of wildfires across the East Kootenay.

Water upgrades near completion in Canal Flats

Residents in Canal Flats, Eagle’s Nest and Painted Ridge anticipated a mid-August comple-tion date for a major water system upgrade project — the biggest the village had taken on since being incorporated in 2004. The project cost a total of $2.7 million.

“We (received) $400,000 from the province through their Towns for Tomorrow program,” said chief administrative officer Brian Woodward. “The rest is $2.3 million, which the village borrowed. (Residents) will pay it off over the next 30 years.”

The merged water system would bring potable water to Eagle’s Nest and Painted Ridge for the first time, ef-fectively meeting the provincial standards set out in the Drinking Water Protection Act of 2006.

Wilks declines debatesReacting to NDP candidate Wayne Stetski’s suggestion

that all four federal candidates in the Kootenay-Columbia riding co-ordinate on a series of eight debates across the riding, Conservative candidate David Wilks refused to take the bait.

“I am not going to move forward with the NDP sugges-tion,” said Wilks, who attended just three of seven sched-

uled debates in the run-up to the 2011 federal election.

New development approved in radium

A request to begin a five-year-long construction period in or-der to rent out short-term holi-day cabins near the Husky gas station was brought to Radium Hot Springs council’s attention.

Martin and Karen Wartbichler submitted an application to council on July 9th to develop property at the junction of High-way 93 and Madsen Road for a commercially zoned permit with multiple unit accommodations and single-family dwellings. The Village of Radium Hot Springs is-sued the development permit to the Wartbichlers.

“It’s to allow the construction of five commercial or residential short-term or long-term rental cabins with an area that’s ap-propriately zoned,” explained Radium chief administrative officer Mark Read, noting there were conditions to the permit from Arne Dohlen, director of planning and development ser-

vices, such as wildfire mitigation to occur on the for-ested property.

12-hour highway closure concerns Invermere councilInvermere council sent a letter to Columbia Valley RCMP

to find out more about the circumstances surrounding the closure of Highway 93 near Radium Hot Springs fol-lowing a fatal motorcycle accident earlier in the summer.

The discussion at council was sparked by Invermere mayor Gerry Taft at the Tuesday, July 14th council meet-ing, when he pointed out that the highway is the major ar-tery for visitor and tourist traffic coming into Invermere from Alberta. He said it was shut for 12 to 14 hours after the accident, which killed Jarret Wetyk, 29, of Calgary.

“Personally, I think (the time) is excessive,” Taft said, adding that if a similar incident happened in the park and shut the highway for a similar timeframe on the Friday or Saturday of a long weekend, “it would have a huge impact on us.”

Taft said not only are the valley’s many tourism-depen-dent businesses dealt a blow in such circumstances, but that it can create heavy traffic on unofficial detours (such

A triathlete emerges from Lake Windermere at James Chabot Provincial Park on Sunday, July 12th after completing the first leg of the Heart of the Rockies Triathlon. Tragedy struck during the 2015 event when a 53-year-old male swimmer from Calgary suffered a heart attack during the swim portion of the competition. Photo by Katie Watt

A Calgary resident passed away last weekend aftersuffering a heart attack during the swim portion of theHeart of the Rockies triathlon.


IMAGINE INVERMERE COMMUNITY SUSTAINABILITY PLANSeeking Members for The Imagine Invermere

Implementation CommitteeThe District of Invermere is looking for up to three (3) members of the public to volunteer for a two (2) year term to guide the implementation of the Imagine Invermere Integrated Community Sustainability Plan, (ICSP).

Imagine Invermere (II) is the District of Invermere’s Integrated Community Sustainability Plan that was developed to provide guidance towards a sustainable and resilient future for our community. The II ICSP identi� es community priorities and strategies which guide decisions and actions towards the sustainability goals.

Membership on the committee will be for a two (2) year term from the date of appointment.

To be eligible, you must be a resident of the District of Invermere.

Successful candidates must possess a strong sense of community service, willingness to work respectfully as part of a team and have good communication skills.

The Imagine Invermere ICSP Implementation Committee duties shall include:

• Recruiting community partners for Imagine Invermere and for meeting with existing partners to communicate success stories and to look for ways to move Invermere closer to its vision of sustainability;

• Reviewing the action inventory priority list (a component of Imagine Invermere ICSP) and making recommendations for action implementation

• Organizing local activities and actions that promote sustainability and or move Invermere closer to its vision of sustainability contained within the ICSP

• Liaising with residents who wish to discuss Imagine Invermere and its constituent parts including its sustainability objectives, community priorities, strategy areas and associated descriptions of success statements, action inventory implementation and monitoring

• Planning the monitoring and annual reporting on Imagine Invermere• Considering sustainability issues or concerns referred to it by Council

Detailed terms of reference are available for review at the District o� ce or at www.invermere.net The Imagine Invermere ICSP policy document is also available for review on the Districts web site or can be made available at the DOI offi ce.

Interested persons are invited to submit written applications on or before December 31, 2015 at 4:30 p.m. to:

Chris Prosser, Chief Administrative O� cer914 – 8th AvenueBox 339, Invermere, B.C. V0A 1K0Email: [email protected] • Phone: 250-342-9281 ext 1225

DISTRICT OF INVERMERE914 – 8th Avenue, PO Box 339

Invermere, B.C. V0A 1K0Tel: 250-342-9281 • Fax: 250-342-2934

DISTRICT OF INVERMERE914 – 8th Avenue, PO Box 339

DISTRICT OF INVERMERE





$105INCLUDES GST

PUBLICATIONS MAIL




14Church homeowner







NCC PHOTO



555555555555555555111111111111111111111


201520152015201520152015201520152015


mean to you?




at 2 pm & 7 pm

GREG AMOS














































ue the project.


STEVE HUBRECHT

[email protected]
















See A3



OCALL EWSN

oooooo


Year in Review 2015Year in Review 2015as on Westside Road, in the case of the motorcycle accident) which creates the potential for further accidents.

According to Taft, a coroner or police traffic analyst sometimes has to come from as far as Vernon for such incidents, and he said such a delay would not be found on a major road in bigger urban centres.

“I think we should be able to expect a higher level of service here,” said Taft, suggesting the district send a letter outlining its concerns and expectation of re-opening roads faster.

Local crackdown on distracted drivingColumbia Valley RCMP contemplated doing a blitz downtown to crack down

on distracted driving, after the conclusion of a four-week public consultation on distracted driving by the provincial Ministry of Justice in July.

More than 10,000 submissions pointed to using phones and other mobile de-vices while driving as a significant problem.

“It’s on the rise here in the valley. We’re seeing more and more of it. It’s pretty bad,” said Columbia Valley RCMP Staff Sergeant Marko Shehovac. “People just don’t seem to get it, that it’s not a smart thing to do.”

The current fine for distracted driving in B.C. is $167 and three penalty points taken off the offender’s driver’s licence.

AugustYoung bluesman rises to prominence

The Echo profiled local blues musician Eli Beingessner, 21, a rising star in the local music scene. A musician since the age of three, Eli gravitated towards the blues guitar because of its ex-pressive nature. Eli performed a stunning set at the 2015 Steamboat Mountain Music Festival in Edge-water in July, notable for his string solos, unmistakable musicianship and stage presence. Eli had also recently released an album, titled 6 foot 2 Wild and Blue.

Adventures while water sampling During an outing on August 7th, Lake Windermere Ambassadors program co-

ordinator Megan Peloso and volunteer Dustin Amaral ran out of gas just minutes from shore while attempting to collect samples to examine the oxygen levels of the lake water. The pair were able to get a tow from other mariners in the area, and the water samples showed oxygen levels were among the highest at any point during the year, thanks to prolific plant life.

“Worrying is like a rocking chair; it’ll give you something to do, but you won’t get anywhere,” said Amaral after the incident.

radium sewer and water rates riseAn increase in water and sewer rates in Radium Hot Springs was deemed neces-

sary by the village council at its August 12th regular meeting.The Village of Radium Hot Springs passed Bylaw No. 413 to revise and impose

new rates for the sewer regulation and user charges at the meeting.

The village also passed Bylaw No. 414 to impose user rates and charges for water ser-vices to reflect the rate changes tied to that of sewer costs.

Wilmer park made officialWilmer Community Park (better known to

locals as Selkirk Park) became an Electoral Area G park under the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) in August. The park, which is about four hectares (0.03 square ki-lometres) in size, is bisected by a steep ra-vine running from the town’s main street to the wetlands and is heavily wooded.

“It’s always been a natural area and most of the people of Wilmer seem to want to keep it way,” said RDEK Area G director Gerry Wilkie. During the public consultation, it became ap-parent that Wilmer residents often used the park as a place to walk dogs, birdwatch or as a safe place for kids to play, that few people actually go into the ravine, and that the park functions as a small wildlife corridor.

Curling rink demolition plan rejectedCanal Flats council voted to reject the appli-

cation from NAPP Enterprises Ltd. to demol-ish the village’s curling rink. The company proposed a $42,430 fee to do the work, which would be far more expensive than the village was looking for when it put out advertise-ments in July.

“I consulted with my husband because we took down a building in the past and we both

The valley’s summer Slo-Pitch league came to an end on August 13th when the Tuesday League champions (CLB) were pitted against the Thursday League winners (Balls Out). The team that came out on top was CLB, pictured here at the Invermere Crossroads after their victory. Photo submitted


The Columbia Valley's fi rst health and wellness magazine, Vitality, will be available starting December 30th at select locations

from Spillimacheen to Canal Flats.

Packed with information and advice from local experts, Vitality is the valley's go-to guide for

getting healthy and staying healthy.

Pick up a copy and turn over a new leaf for the new year!

FREE

21 Focusing on

Financial Wellness

19 Do-ing N� hing

Delivers Results

10 Catch the Wave

to Peace

7 Eat Your Way to

a Longer Life

2016

Feeling unbalanced? Looking for

Vitality?

Look no � rther!

agreed this contract is excessive,” Delorme said. The village received three inquiries from the ad and only one formal

proposal. Council unanimously voted to reject the proposal, leaving two options for the project: re-advertise or do it themselves.

New pipeline to connect Dutch Creek with Fairmont water Homeowners from the Dutch Creek subdivision, just south of Fair-

mont Hot Springs, voted on Saturday, August 1st to draw water from the new wells in Fairmont Hot Springs, using a pipeline that will run along the Highway 93/95 to Dutch Creek. The move ensures the small community will have water that meets provincial water quality reg-ulations. Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) Area F director Wendy Booth was not a part of the discussion since she is a property owner in Dutch Creek and wanted to avoid any conflict of interest.

Booth was able to, however, speak to the issue as a homeowner, say-ing the decision will provide the community with compliant Interior Health drinking water, which is something the Dutch Creek commu-nity had been trying to achieve for a number of years.

sunchaser case to hit courts in early 2016The class-action lawsuit started by Sunchaser Villas (in Fairmont

Hot Springs) timeshare owners against the property’s management company was scheduled to finally go to court in early 2016.

The primary legal proceeding was set for a three-week trial in Van-couver starting January 4th, 2016, according to Northwynd Resort Properties Ltd. representative Brenda Behan, and the claimants’ law-yer Michael Geldert.

Mr. Geldert said things had been busy with the case and that more than 3,200 individual timeshare owners he represents would be glad to see the issue finally come to court. The legal case has been ongo-ing since 2013.

SeptemberNew farmers market winds down first season

The downtown Invermere Farmers and Artisans Market wound down after a successful season.

“It’s gone really well this summer and been quite successful. We’ve gradually been increasing the number of vendors throughout the summer as new ones keep popping up each week,” said market co-organizer Ray Brydon.

The market had its final day on Saturday, September 12th. It had a trial run in mid-June, which saw 40 vendors, and Brydon estimates that the Labour Day long weekend likely featured 75 vendors.

“There’s such a great diversity of vendors. I’m really happy and the (Windermere Branch) Legion (which runs the market) is really happy with what’s taken place,” he said.

Developer’s legal case against Canal Flats pushed backA lawsuit filed by former Calgary Flame and part-time valley resi-

dent Mike Vernon against the Village of Canal Flats over the stalled

Wildfire smoke was covering the Columbia Valley when the sun rose on Wednesday, August 26th, making this early morning photograph of the sunrise seem like an eerie Halloween image of the moon. Photo by Andy Stuart-Hill



#UsedHelpsA division of





$105INCLUDES GST

PUBLICATIONS MAIL




14Church homeowner







NCC PHOTO



555555555555555555111111111111111111111


201520152015201520152015201520152015


mean to you?




at 2 pm & 7 pm

GREG AMOS














































ue the project.


STEVE HUBRECHT

[email protected]
















See A3



OCALL EWSN

oooooo


Year in Review 2015Year in Review 2015development of the Painted Ridge subdi-vision was delayed for a year and a half.

The case, which was fi led in 2008 by Vernon’s development company 391043 Alberta Ltd. for unspecifi ed costs, was supposed to be heard in court in June, but was pushed back to January 2017.

“I can’t put a number on my losses, but they are pretty signifi cant. Just the ap-praised value from a tax base is astro-nomical,” said Vernon. “I am 20 per cent of the tax base in that municipality and this is what I get in return — delays out the yin-yang.”

Hip hop video fi lmed in InvermereA Toronto-based soul choreographer

and music video director brought hip hop fl avour to the Columbia Valley, teaching roughly 40 students some new moves in his Make You A Star dance camp held for hip hop dancers between Tuesday, Sep-tember 1st and Saturday, September 5th.

United Dance owners Michelle Jensen and Melyssa Hecher invited Toronto’s Lenny Len to teach at the Debbie Seal Cen-tre in Invermere. All of the participating students were taught how to perform a new dance, and began producing a video with Len on September 5th.

Backyard farming explored in Areas F, GThe Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) promised to undertake public

consultation to fi nd out the opinion of residents on small-scale backyard agricul-ture in RDEK Area F and Area G communities.

Agriculture and keeping farm animals of all kinds is permitted throughout the rural areas of the Upper Columbia Val-ley, but is not permitted in towns such as Wilmer, Edgewater, Windermere, Fair-mont Hot Springs.

The consultation will deal with ex-tremely local scale agriculture — spe-cifi cally beekeeping or having hens in backyards.

“It’s not allowed on single family resi-dential parcels (in Area F and Area G). This is a conversation around should we take a look at possibly allowing it,” said RDEK planner Kris Belanger. “It’s really just an engagement session.”

Phase one of Fairmont debris fl ow project completed

A mitigation project aimed at reducing the occurrences of debris fl ows on Fair-mont Creek celebrated the end of its fi rst phase. The idea was to increase the ca-pacity of the Fairmont Creek channel to

make it better able to contain debris fl ow materiel, should a debris fl ow similar to the one that hit Fairmont in 2012 ever occured again. The fi rst now-completed stage focused on the section of Fairmont Creek stretching through the Mountain-side golf course between Marble Canyon and the pond at the 12th hole. Moun-tainside Vacation Villas, Fairmont Hot Springs Resort, Fairmont Community Asso-ciation, Fairmont Business Association and the Fairmont Lions Club all fi nancially supported the project.

The Columbia Valley Rockies Junior B hockey team gave their fans a boost early in the 2015-2016 season when they beat the Castlegar Rebels 5-3 on home ice at the Eddie Mountain Memorial Arena on Friday, September 18th. Photo by Amanda Nason






$105INCLUDES GST

PUBLICATIONS MAIL




14Church homeowner







NCC PHOTO



555555555555555555111111111111111111111


201520152015201520152015201520152015


mean to you?




at 2 pm & 7 pm

GREG AMOS














































ue the project.


STEVE HUBRECHT

[email protected]
















See A3



OCALL EWSN

oooooo


Year in Review 2015Year in Review 2015October

Booth, Taft re-elected to UBCm executiveTwo Regional District of East Kootenay directors

serving at the provincial level were elected to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) executive.

Electoral Area F Director Wendy Booth was elected as the Second Vice President and District of Inver-mere mayor Gerry Taft was elected as the Director at Large during the UBCM convention that was held at the end of September.

“Having two representatives on the UBCM Execu-tive is great for the valley and the region,” Booth wrote by email following her triumph.

Canal Flats balks at water project paymentsDiscontentment with the construction contractor

carrying out work on Canal Flats’ Merged Area Water Project led council to dig in and vote against one of the payments owed to Dawson Construction.

After approving payment no. 9 ($253,267 to Daw-son Construction for work completed in June and July), three of five members of council voted against issuing payment no. 10 ($159,558 for work complet-ed in August).

“The only thing done on time on this project has been the payments to the contractor,” said council-lor Paul Marcil, who chairs the village’s Water System Upgrade Committee. “They should suffer a bit, too. We’re just looking at getting a schedule for comple-tion and we’ve had a lot of resistance.”

Councillor Marie Delorme noted that due to con-tract language, a payment to the contractor is re-quired within 15 days or else Canal Flats will be sub-ject to interest rates.

Canfor to harvest in Forster Creek areaThere was an update on Canfor’s proposed plans

to work in the Forster Creek area at the Village of Radium Hot Springs council meeting on Wednesday, September 30th.

Village of Radium Hot Springs mayor Clara Reinhardt asked which tree species would be coming out of the area and where they are being sent, and was told there pine and spruce trees would be removed from the area, which would be sent to the Radium mill.

However, red fir trees could be moved to Elko, Radi-um or Golden in light of the recent Canal Flats closure.

Confusion during advance polling in valleyMass confusion on where to cast a vote during ad-

vance polling days held over the Thanksgiving long weekend left multiple Upper Columbia Valley voters frustrated, disillusioned and even led to some giving up on voting on the federal election advance polling day altogether.

Alan Kirton has lived and voted in Invermere for more than 20 years, and thought nothing was amiss when he walked into the Invermere Community Hall on Friday, October 9th to cast his advance vote at polling station 603 — located at the Invermere Com-munity Hall as indicated on his voter information card. However, at the hall he was told he was actu-ally at polling station 604 and that he would have to go to polling station 603 at the Radium Seniors’ Hall to vote.

“So I said ‘I’ve been refused the right to vote,’ and they said, ‘No, you haven’t, you just have to go to Radium to do it.’ But I’m not going to go to Radium,” he said.

Urban deer funding welcomed by Invermere Invermere mayor Gerry Taft welcomed the B.C. gov-

ernment’s announcement that it will pay $100,000 per year to tackle urban deer issues in local municipali-ties, which should result in some tax dollars saved for Invermere residents.

“It probably will be that future deer culls and relo-cation programs will be partly paid for by the prov-ince, so that lessens the cost borne by Invermere tax-payers,” he said.

Invermere launched a deer cull last year that re-sulted in 26 deer culled in the district. The three-year permit the district obtained from the province for the cull will last until December 2017, but only allows deer to be culled between December 1st and March 15th in any given year.

Fairmont oCP beginsThe process of creating a new Official Commu-

nity Plan (OCP) for the Fairmont Hot Springs and Columbia Lake area began, after the RDEK Board of Directors authorized the decision to start preparing a new OCP, as the existing OCP for the area was ad-opted in 2004.

“Part of it is to check in with residents and landown-ers of the area to see what their needs and priorities are,” said RDEK manager of planning and develop-ment services Andrew McLeod. “If the current plan is meeting their needs or not — and if not, what needs to be changed.”

The OCP from 2004 extends south from Lake Wind-ermere and includes Fairmont Hot Springs, the com-munities down the west side of Columbia Lake, which includes Columbia Ridge Estates.

“What we’re proposing, at least on a preliminary ba-sis, is to expand the boundary of the plan to include

the other private land holdings that exist in Electoral Area F south of Fairmont, specifically Whitetail Lake, Findlay Creek and Whiteswan Lake,” said McLeod.

NDP wins close race in Kootenay-ColumbiaHigh drama kept voters in Kootenay-Columbia awake

into the small hours, as Conservative David Wilks and New Democrat Wayne Stetski traded the lead back and forth down to the last handful of votes in what was one of the tightest contests in the country.

On an historic federal election night — Monday, October 19th, 2015 — the riding saw massive voter turnout of more than 73 per cent.

With all polls reporting, according to Elections Canada online updates, the Kootenay-Columbia rid-ing had a new Member of Parliament. According to preliminary results, Stetski finished on top by only 285 votes — 23,529 to Wilks’ 23,244.

Liberal candidate Don Johnston got 12,315 and Green Party candidate Bill Green got 4,115 with 63,232 out of 85,653 eligible voters casting ballots.

In David Wilks’ campaign office in Cranbrook the mood was sombre after a remarkably tense evening.

“I was cautiously optimistic going into this and knew that it was probably going to come down to the last couple polls and it did,” Wilks said. “Congratula-tions to Mr. Stetski and I look forward to him work-ing well with the constituency of the new riding of Kootenay-Columbia.

NovemberInvermere council supports Legacy Trail

Invermere council iterated its support for the West-side Legacy Trail at a late October meeting.

The Greenways Trail Alliance — which hopes to start construction soon on the planned paved trail running along Westside Road between Invermere and Fairmont Hot Springs — sent a letter to council, re-ceived at the Tuesday, October 27th meeting, asking for a letter of support from the district, which the Al-liance can then include in its grant applications for the project.

The request resulted in some discussion among councillors about the potential for the trail to com-pete with Invermere’s planned multi-use centre for grant funding, and whether it would be wise of coun-cil to issue a general letter of support for all grant applications made by the alliance for the Westside Legacy Trail, or whether it made more sense to give a letter of support on a case-by-case basis for each individual grant application.

All councillors, however, were unequivocal in their general support for the trail.

Firewood collectors urged to get permitsWith winter looming on the horizon, those valley

residents with wood-burning stoves or fireplaces in their homes who were busy gathering up enough logs to keep cozy while the snow flies were reminded by the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (FLNRO) that they need permits to col-lect firewood.

“Cutting down trees on Crown land without an ap-propriate permit, or selling any such firewood, is an ongoing concern in B.C. This activity is illegal and could result in a violation ticket or fine. It also could create safety hazards for recreationalists and other forest users, and negatively affect ecosystems, in-cluding fish and wildlife habitats,” FLRNO public af-fairs officer Greig Bethel told The Echo.

On an historic election night — Monday, October 19th, 2015 — the Kootenay-Columbia riding saw a massive voter turnout of more than 73 per cent. It took until the early morning hours of October 20th for Wayne Stetski of the NDP, pictured with a volunteer, to learn he beat Conservative incumbent David Wilks by a mere 285 votes in one of the closest races in the country. Photo courtesy of Cranbrook Daily Townsman

A14 invermerevalleyecho.com Wednesday, December 30, 2015 The Valley EchoPage 18

Although FLRNO didn’t immediately have statis-tics specific to just the Upper Columbia Valley, Beth-el did say that for the entire Kootenay-Boundary region, the ministry issued 648 firewood permits during the past fiscal year (between April 1st, 2014 and March 31st, 2015).

mill worker transition underwayOn the final day of operations at Canal Flats’ Canfor

sawmill, new numbers brought to the village’s coun-cil meeting showed the impact of the shutdown on mill employees.

Canfor numbers show that between May and No-vember, a total of 53 workers (excluding those who accepted transfers to other Canfor mills in Radium Hot Springs or Elko) had been laid off. Health and dental benefits was continuing for all workers for an-other six months.

It was unclear whether these numbers include those workers who chose to retire, said Mayor Ute Juras during the village’s November 9th council meeting, while just kilometres away, several employees were in the midst of their last shift at the mill.

Four security watch positions were created for af-ter the mill closed, she added. Canal Flats workers filled all the positions, in accordance with seniority. The positions involved two 12-hour shifts, with work-ers rotating on a four days on, four days off basis. It was estimated the positions would be needed for 24 weeks, maybe longer.

Whiteway gets operational fundingRegional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) directors

decided that the Lake Windermere Whiteway will re-ceive $7,500 a year in operational funding starting in 2016, with the money coming from the Columbia Val-ley Recreation Service Area pool of money.

The decision, made at the Friday, November 6th meeting, means the $7,500 a year from the RDEK will combine with the $4,000 a year the Toby Creek Nor-dic Ski Club receives from the District of Invermere. The combined sum will cover up to 70 per cent of the annual operating expenses of the Whiteway.

New for the 2015-2016 winter season, the club an-nounced it was offering $20 four-use Whiteway tick-et booklets (in past years, it had simply asked for a $5 donation per use) to help cover the rest of the operating costs associated with the world record-breaking Whiteway. Memberships to the club also include unlimited Whiteway use (visit www.toby-creeknordic.ca).

rangers touch up earl Grey TrailThe Echo ran a story on an Upper Columbia Valley

backpacking trail that got a much-needed touch up late in the summer and is set to be in prime shape next hiking season.

The Earl Grey Trail, which is one of the Kootenay region’s premiere — as well as one of its least-used — routes, extends about 60 kilometres from the upper reaches of Toby Creek down to Argenta, on the shore of Kootenay Lake, a four- to five-day hike through some truly remote and wild backcountry. The rugged natural state of the trail and relatively few number of hikers it attracts means it is usually in rough condi-tion and is not-well defined in many spots, with thick vegetation, rock slide debris and plenty of big blow-down (fallen trees), making it difficult going even for the hardiest of hikers. At least five creek crossings need to be made by hand-pulled, suspended cable cars. However, every several years or so, BC Parks tries to clear things up as best as possible. This sum-mer, a crew of four BC Parks rangers did just that.

DecemberFull Parkside Place could fuel more developmentDespite forecasts of doom and gloom because of

ongoing development at the Crossroads, Invermere mayor Gerry Taft was confident that the success of Parkside Place, currently fufill of commercial tenants for the first time in its nearly 10-year history, bodes well for the success of Invermere’s downtown.

“It’s absolutely a success story,” he said. “We were able to generate commercial activity in the down-town core… in my opinion, it has certainly enhanced our downtown.”

Columbia Valley food bank use on the riseA recent surge in the cost of food has pushed a num-

ber of families further into poverty with Columbia Valley residents struggling to put food on their tables due to unexpected increases.

The Columbia Valley Food Bank recently reported a 14 per cent increase in use among local families be-tween September and November 2015 compared to the same time period from the last three years.

“We seem to be having a bit more of an increase than the national average,” said Ronald Stainthorpe, board chair of the Columbia Valley Food Bank, while noting the use of Canadian food banks has increased by 26 per cent since 2008, according to the Hunger-Count 2015.

According to Food Banks Canada’s annual report, more than 850,000 Canadians used food banks during March 2015, and of those, nearly 80,000 accessed a food bank for the first time.

organic waste program in the early stagesThe Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) is ex-

amining the idea of introducing a region-wide green bin organic waste program.

“It’s on the work plan to have discussions around the possibility of developing the backbone of a re-gional organic program,” said RDEK environmental

services manager Kevin Paterson, adding the work is being done in conjunction with the East Kootenay Energy Manager Meghan Lohmann.

“We’re quite a way from actually having a program, we’re certainly still in the infant stage but the (RDEK) directors have made it a priority,” said Mr. Paterson.

The discussions are so preliminary that the RDEK and Lohmann still have not worked out whether the program would operate at the regional level — with one program for the entire RDEK — or at the sub regional level, with one program specifically for the Upper Columbia Valley, another for Cranbrook-Kim-berley, and so on.

Invermere adopts five-year planThe District of Invermere formally adopted its next

five-year financial plan (its next budget).The adoption came during the Tuesday, December

10th meeting. As has been previously reported in The Echo, the plan extends from 2016 to 2020 and outlines a 1.5 per cent general tax increase start-ing next year, with the extra funds generated from this increase being used to help pay for the new multi-use centre. That increase will come on top of a parcel tax increase in 2016 — also to help fund the multi-use centre — that will average out to around $100 per parcel.

District staff conducted public consultation this fall, prior to adopting the budget, by sending out a survey asking how much of a tax increase residents are will-ing to accept if they get increased service in return. The results were mixed bag with 20 per cent of survey respondents saying their most preferred option was no tax increase (and correspondingly no increase in services); and another 20 per cent choosing a five or more per cent increase (with a correspondingly large increase in services).

Jensen steps in as new CBT board chairRick Jensen, former president and CEO of Panora-

ma, replaced Greg Deck as chair of the Columbia Ba-sin Trust (CBT).

Radium Hot Springs’ first mayor and current mayor of Jumbo Glacier Resort Mountain Resort Munici-pality, Deck has been on the Board since the Trust’s inception in 1995, serving as vice-chair from 2008 to 2012 and chair from 2013 to 2015.

“On behalf of the Trust’s Board and staff, I would like to thank Greg Deck for his contributions to the formation and growth of the Trust,” said Jensen. “For over 20 years, he has been an instrumental part of this organization and has dedicated his efforts to the well-being of our region and its residents.”

Jensen, who is from Cranbrook, is replacing Deck as chair as of January 1st, 2016. He joined the Trust Board in 2013 and served as vice-chair in 2015. He is the chair of New Dawn Developments, a director of New Dawn Restorations, president of the Canadian Institute of Excellence and a director of Columbia Power Corporation.





$105INCLUDES GST

PUBLICATIONS MAIL




14Church homeowner







NCC PHOTO



555555555555555555111111111111111111111


201520152015201520152015201520152015


mean to you?




at 2 pm & 7 pm

GREG AMOS














































ue the project.


STEVE HUBRECHT

[email protected]
















See A3



OCALL EWSN

oooooo



More is better.


Stay on top of ALL the valley news in 2016 with the help of the

Invermere Valley Echo...

Happy New Year!

Melissa Weber and Jayme Renaud earned giggles and guffaws from the audience that came out for the Lake Windermere Players’ production of Bob’s Your Elf on December 6th at the Windermere Community Hall. The local theatre troupe performed the Christmas pageant over three days. Photo by Nicole Trigg


In Memoriam 2015

WE COMMEMORATE THE FRIENDS AND LOVED ONES WE LOST OVER THE LAST TWELVE MONTHS WHOSE OBITUARIES RAN IN OUR NEWSPAPERS.

BEVERLEY ROSE BRUNNERDEC.24 2014

EDWIN RAULPH KELLY1922 - 2015

THELMA ALBERTA MARIE GARDNER1926 - 2015

AMY HICKEY1930 - 2015

DONALD DAVID BOKER1936 - 2015

KENNETH EDWARD ADAMS1936 - 2015

KENNETH DONALD DAHL1945 - 2015

ROGER PLATO1948 - 2015

BRYAN WESLEY KELLY1952 - 2015

MARY ELIZABETH JOLICOEUR

SHE WAS 64, 2015

JAMES ANDREW MONCUR “CHIEFY”MARCH 29

CLARENCE GARNET GILLIESAPRIL 9

MAUDE W. KENDALLAPRIL 9

ELIZABETH ANN WAYMAY 2

SANDY, JOSEPH ALEXANDER STUARTMAY 30

FRANCES LOUISE (WESTON) HASSIJUNE 4

JIM PANATTONIJUNE 5

CODY JAMES ARTHUR WIDMERJUNE 14

DUNCAN STUART MCCUAIGJUNE 22

VIVIAN JOY STEVENSON

JULY 28

MARIA PFISTERJULY 29

WILBERT “BILL“ RUSSELL MAGEEJULY 30

CHARLES RAYMOND “RAY” JACKSONAUGUST 4

DERRICK MICHAEL BIRTCHAUGUST 18

VINZENZ PAUL ZURBRIGGENAUGUST 20

GARY BLEWASKASEPTEMBER 6

LINDA MARLENE KOBZASEPTEMBER 23

ARIJA INTA MILTINSSEPTEMBER 28

VIVIAN COPPEROCTOBER 7

VIOLA FAYE LEEOCTOBER 8

HILDE NUESSLEINOCTOBER 11

WILLIAM KENNETH BERKELEYOCTOBER 13

BARBARA CLARE OGLESTONEOCTOBER 24

EDWARD PATRICK SEMENZINNOVEMBER 4

VALERIA (VAL) THERESA PALKONOVEMBER 11

DORTHY SMITHNOVEMBER 20

CHARLES ( CHARLIE) MCEACHERNNOVEMBER 24


CLUES ACROSS 1. Elephant’s name 6. Support 10. Mures River city 14. Bastard wing 15. One was named Desire 17. PGA Tournament prize 19. A way to leave unchanged 20. Unchangeable computer

memory 21. Harangues 22. 6th Hebrew letter 23. Well informed 24. Turfs 26. In a way, obeyed 29. Lawyers group 31. Increases motor speed 32. Political action committee 34. Light pokes 35. Struck down 37. Central Philippine Island 38. Japanese sash 39. Afresh 40. Bluish green 41. Inspire with love 43. Without (French) 45. Counterbalance container to

obtain net weight 46. Express pleasure 47. Cheap wine (Br.) 49. Signing 50. ___ compilation, compiling

computer language 53. Have surgery 57. Being trompe-l’oeil 58. Extremely mad 59. Day 60. Small coin (French) 61. Snatched CLUES DOWN 1. Cry 2. Wings 3. Baseball play 4. Flower petals 5. Drive against 6. Velikaya River city 7. A single unit in a collection 8. Stray 9. Bring back 10. Repented 11. Receipt (abbr.) 12. Expresses pleasure 13. Not wet 16. In a way, takes off 18. Macaws genus 22. “Fast Five” star’s initials 23. Sharpen a knife 24. Oral polio vaccine developer

25. Former CIA 27. Fencing swords 28. Aba ____ Honeymoon 29. Bustle 30. Minor 31. Propel a boat 33. Passage with access only at

one end 35. Underwater airways 36. Small, slight 37. Box (abbr.) 39. __ Blake, actress 42. Repents 43. Merchandising 44. Exclamation of surprise 46. With fireplace residue 47. A small lake 48. Bait 49. Tip of Aleutian Islands 50. K____: watercraft (alt. sp.) 51. Norse variant of “often” 52. Adolescent 53. Visual metaphor (Computers) 54. River in Spanish 55. Cowboy Carson 56. Powerful gun lobby

Answers to last week

Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fi ll each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. Figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers named, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!

CANCER - Jun 22/Jul 22Learning from your mistakes can help you to grow, Cancer. Accept a challenge presented to you this week, even if it scares you. You may fi nd it’s not so challenging after all.

SCORPIO - Oct 24/Nov 22Now is not a time to drag your feet, Scorpio. You have a full slate of tasks to tackle, and it seems like the hours will slip away quickly. Recharge and refocus.

PISCES - Feb 19/Mar 20Pisces, when you love someone, it can be diffi cult to step aside and let that person make his or her own mistakes. Be patient.

GEMINI - May 22/Jun 21Gemini, you may not know where your path is taking you, but you are fully aware that an adventure is in store. Take some time to prepare for the unknown that lies ahead.

TAURUS - Apr 21/May 21Taurus, you are on a roll, and now it is only a matter of maintaining momentum for a few more days. Don’t let anyone slow you down this week.

ARIES - Mar 21/Apr 20Aries, you are familiar with the expression, “Your eyes are bigger than your stomach.” This week you have bitten off a project that is just too much to chew. Enlist some help.

LIBRA - Sept 23/Oct 23Some can see straight past your protective facade, Libra. So why not take it off and simply let others see the real you? You won’t be disappointed, and neither will they.

VIRGO - Aug 24/Sept 22Virgo, no one will know what you’re like deep inside unless you share a few secrets. You don’t have to give everything away, but let some information slip out.

LEO - Jul 23/Aug 23Leo, many opportunities are within reach, but you are just not sure which way to go. Seek advice from Pisces when you get a spare moment.

AQUARIUS - Jan 21/Feb 18Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t accomplish something, Aquarius. As you have proven time and again, you simply need to set a goal in your sights to get things done.

CAPRICORN - Dec 22/Jan 20Capricorn, when a past confl ict pops up this week, push it aside. It is better to focus on the positive things that are in store for you rather than problems from the past.

SAGITTARIUS - Nov 23/Dec 21Sagittarius, you never shy away from a challenge, but you also know when to pick your battles. If something arises this week that seems a waste of time, pass it by.

UDOKUS

ROSSWORDC

OROSCOPESH

RAINB AIN GAMES

Mainly sunnyTemp: -7oCFeels like -8

oC

Low: -11oC

Mainly sunnyTemp: -7oCFeels like -7

oC

Low: -11oC

FridayJanuary 1

EATHERWWeekend

SaturdayJanuary 2

SunnyTemp: -7oCFeels like -6

oC

Low: -12oC

SundayJanuary 3

invermerevalleyecho.com A17Wednesday, December 30, 2015 The Valley EchoThe Valley Echo Wednesday, December 30, 2015 www.invermerevalleyecho.com A17

CHURCH SERVICES DIRECTORYWINDERMERE

VALLEY SHARED MINISTRY

ANGLICAN-UNITED100-7th Ave., Invermere

250-342-6644Reverend Laura Hermakin

wvsm.ca Worship, Every Sunday:10:30 a.m. Children and Youth Sunday School

at 10:30 a.m at Christ Church Trinity, Invermere

1st and 3rd Sunday, March - Dec. 9 a.m. at All Saint’s, Edgewater

2nd Sunday, 7 p.m.: June - Oct. at St.Peter’s Windermere

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

250-342-6167Pastor: Father Gabriel

Confession: 1/2 hr. before MassCanadian Martyrs Church

712 - 12 Ave, InvermereSaturdays, 5 p.m.Sundays, 9 a.m.

St. Joseph’s ChurchHwy. 93-95, Radium Hot

SpringsSundays, 11 a.m.

St. Anthony’s MissionCorner of Luck and Dunn,

Canal FlatsSaturdays, 4:30 p.m.

RADIUM CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP

#4 - 7553 Main Street W, Radium

250-342-6633 250-347-6334

Worship Service Sundays, 10 a.m.

Bible Studies Wednesdays, 7 p.m.

Kids’ Church Edgewater Hall

Thursdays, 6:30 p.m.

Loving God, Loving People

LAKE WINDERMEREALLIANCE CHURCH

326 - 10th Ave., Invermere250-342-9535

Lead Pastor: Trevor HaganAsso. Pastor: Matt Moore

lakewindermerealliance.orgDecember 20th 10:30 a.m.

Second Sunday of AdventWorship and Life Instruction

“Advent - LOVE (God)” Pastor Matt Moore

Ministering. KIDS Church, for children age 3 - Grade 1; and Grade 2-7, during

the morning service.

VALLEY CHRISTIAN ASSEMBLY

4814 Hwy. Drive, 1 km northof Windermere250-342-9511

Pastor: Murray Wittkevalleychristianonline.com

Sunday is Worship Services

10 a.m. Worship & WordKid’s Church Provided

7 p.m. Dec. 24th: Christmas Eve Service at Valley Christian Assembly

4814 Highway DriveSharing TruthShowing Love

Following the Spirit

ST. PETER’SLUTHERAN MISSION

OF INVERMERE100 - 7th Ave., Invermere

250-426-7564Pastor Rev. David Morton

Worship ServicesSundays1:30 p.m.

Christ Church Trinity,Invermere

CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER

DAY SAINTS5014 Fairway,

Fairmont Hot Springs250-341-5792

President: Adam PasowistyColumbia Valley Branch

Worship ServicesSundays

10 a.m. - 1 p.m.

0911611 BC LTD o/a Tim Hortons496 Highway 93/95 Invermere, B.C. V0A 1K2

Part and Full-time Positions AvailableStart date – ASAP

Year-round EmploymentExcellent Medical/Dental Benefits

Food Service SupervisorPermanent, Shift

No education requiredOne to two years

experience required.Nights/early mornings/weekends

$12.40/hour + medical/dental/group benefits.

Apply in person or via email ([email protected]) a position.

The Employment Program of British Columbia is funded by the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia.

Career and Essential Skills Assessments Funding for Skills Training or Short-Term Courses Work Placements Other Financial Supports

Let us help you find work and get employed! We offer a range of services from self-serve to focused, one-on-one support.

Train Now for Your Career Tomorrow Talk to us today to find out more about free employment services. You may be eligible for...

A: 2-1313 7th Ave, Invermere P: 341-6889 / 1 -855-651-3027

www.ekemployment .org

Lost & Found

Found: Invermere: Ladies diamond ring in a small

plastic Ziploc bag on Nov. 28th or 29th in the Valley Foods parking lot. Call 250-342-6397 to claim.

Employment

Help Wanted

Swimming Pool Operator in Fairmont Area. Part-time contract position from mid-

June to mid-September. Apply via email to [email protected]

KOOTENAY DUCT CLEANERS

Locally owned & operated.Affordable, professional, & insured Duct Cleaning

Services & System Sterilizations.

Toll free 1.844.428.0522FREE Estimates

Help Wanted Help WantedHelp Wanted

A-CHEAP, LOWEST PRICES STEEL SHIPPING Dry Storage Containers Used 20’40’45’53’ and insulated con-tainers all sizes in stock. 40’ containers as low as $2,200DMG. Huge freezers. Experienced wood carvers needed, full time. Ph Toll free 24 hours 1-866-528-7108 or 1-778-298-3192 8am-5pm. De-livery BC and AB www.rtccon-tainer.com

Wanted:Will pay cash for construction equipment, back-hoes, excavators, dozers, (farm tractors w/loaders)1985 or newer. Skid steers, wheel loaders, screeners, low beds, any condition running or not. 250-260-0217.

TWO storey condo for rent in Radium Hotsprings ,3 bedrm, 2 bath, fully furnished. $1000/month. Incl utili. Available Jan 2016. Email b u s s i r @ s h a w . c a . Call4038095445

Commercial/Industrial

Invermere: Storage space downtown, secure, dry, available January 2016. Please call Sharon at

250-688-1365

Information Household Services Heavy Duty Machinery

Apt/Condo for Rent Help Wanted Help Wanted

Announcements Services Merchandise for Sale Rentals Employment Employment

Place of Worship Place of Worship Place of Worship Place of Worship Place of Worship Place of Worship

To advertise in print:Call: 250-341-6299 Email: [email protected]

Self-serve: blackpressused.ca Career ads: localworkbc.ca

Browse more at:

A division of

AGREEMENTIt is agreed by any display or Classified Advertiser requesting space that the liability of the paper in the event of failure to publish an advertisement shall be limited to the amount paid by the advertiser for that portion of the advertising space occupied by the incorrect item only, and that there shall be no liability in any event beyond the amount paid for such advertisement. The publisher shall not be liable for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement.

Used.ca cannot be responsible for errors after the first day of publication of any advertisement. Notice of errors on the first day should immediately be called to the attention of the Classified Department to be corrected for the following edition.

Used.ca reserves the right to revise, edit, classify or reject any advertisement and to retain any answers directed to the Used.ca Box Reply Service and to repay the customer the sum paid for the advertisement and box rental.

DISCRIMINATORYLEGISLATIONAdvertisers are reminded that Provincial legislation forbids the publication of any advertisement which discriminates against any person because of race, religion, sex, color, nationality, ancestry or place of origin, or age, unless the condition is justified by a bona fide requirement for the work involved.

COPYRIGHTCopyright and/or properties subsist in all advertisements and in all other material appearing in this edition of Used.ca. Permission to reproduce wholly or in part and in any form whatsoever, particularly by a photographic or offset process in a publication must be obtained in writing from the publisher. Any unauthorized reproduction will be subject to recourse in law.

ON THE WEB:

INDEX IN BRIEFFAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS

TRAVEL

EMPLOYMENT

BUSINESS SERVICES

PETS & LIVESTOCK

MERCHANDISE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE

RENTALS

AUTOMOTIVE

ADULT ENTERTAINMENT

LEGAL NOTICES

1.800.321.1433 www.jointsinmotion.ca

Inspire.Perspire.Participate in an event to help the 4 millionCanadians living with arthritis.

www.habitat.ca

More than 1.5 million Canadian

families are in need of affordable

housing. Your contributions

provides Habitat with the resources

it needs to help families.

DonateToday!

Buy!

Sell!Sell!SELL!

Buy!Buy!

ChurCh ServiCeS DireCtoryWINDERMERE

VALLEY SHARED MINISTRY

ANGLICAN-UNITED100-7th Ave., Invermere

250-342-6644Reverend Laura Hermakin

wvsm.ca Worship, Every Sunday:10:30 a.m. Children and Youth Sunday School

at 10:30 a.m at Christ Church Trinity, Invermere

1st and 3rd Sunday, March - Dec. 9 a.m. at All Saint’s, Edgewater

2nd Sunday, 7 p.m.: June - Oct. at St.Peter’s Windermere

RoMAN CATHoLIC CHURCH

250-342-6167Pastor: Father Gabriel

Confession: 1/2 hr. before Mass

Canadian Martyrs Church712 - 12 Ave, Invermere

Saturdays, 5 p.m.Sundays, 9 a.m.

St. Joseph’s ChurchHwy. 93-95, Radium Hot

SpringsSundays, 11 a.m.

St. Anthony’s MissionCorner of Luck and Dunn,

Canal FlatsSaturdays, 4:30 p.m.

RADIUM CHRISTIAN FELLoWSHIP

#4 - 7553 Main Street W, Radium

250-342-6633 250-347-6334

Worship Service Sundays, 10 a.m.

Bible Studies Wednesdays, 7 p.m.

Kids’ Church Edgewater Hall

Thursdays, 6:30 p.m.

Loving God, Loving People

LAKE WINDERMEREALLIANCE CHURCH

326 - 10th Ave., Invermere 250-342-9535

Lead Pastor: Trevor HaganAsso. Pastor: Matt Moore

lakewindermerealliance.orgJanuary 3rd 10:30 a.m.

Worship And Life Instruction“Follow Me - The

Everyday Follower” Pastor Trevor Hagan

ministeringK.I.D.S Church for children age 3 to Grade 1; and grades 2-7, during

the morning service.

VALLEY CHRISTIAN ASSEMBLY

4814 Hwy. Drive, 1 km northof Windermere250-342-9511

Pastor: Murray Wittkevalleychristianonline.com

Sunday is Worship Services

10 a.m. Worship & WordKid’s Church Provided

Sharing TruthShowing Love

Following the Spirit

ST. PETER’SLUTHERAN MISSIoN

oF INVERMERE100 - 7th Ave., Invermere

250-426-7564Pastor Rev. David Morton

Worship ServicesSundays1:30 p.m.

Christ Church Trinity,Invermere

CHURCH oF JESUS CHRIST oF LATTER-

DAY SAINTS5014 Fairway,

Fairmont Hot Springs250-341-5792

President: Adam PasowistyColumbia Valley Branch

Worship ServicesSundays

10 a.m. - 1 p.m.


Sponsored by:

Rank Team Total LW GM P/G Rank Team Total LW GM P/G81 TD 03 +6 499 50 103 0.7281 Drinkin n Thinkin +4 499 60 42 0.6681 FC 09 + 499 59 67 0.6981 Choda Boy +2 499 50 54 0.6781 Christopher 3 +6 499 48 88 0.7081 ZR 20 +2 499 63 98 0.7181 Duane G +2 499 60 67 0.6888 Goalieguy +6 498 55 114 0.7288 “BOAT” + 498 57 58 0.6790 Gama’s Guys 2 497 55 30 0.6691 R.O.P +8 496 45 96 0.7092 Hockey Insider +7 495 42 95 0.7092 CM 1 +3 495 56 67 0.6892 Skeeter 31 +3 495 58 108 0.7192 Make B Leaf +4 495 47 58 0.6892 DQ 18 +5 495 43 72 0.6897 Texas Mick 810 +4 494 43 78 0.6997 Young Guns +5 494 55 120 0.7399 Night Hawks +4 493 56 118 0.7299 MRN31 +3 493 52 87 0.6999 Sportsmom3 +6 493 43 72 0.6899 Last Call + 493 63 42 0.66103 Don43 +3 491 55 73 0.68103 Gone Postal + 491 57 79 0.69105 Little fast guy +7 490 40 76 0.68105 Kelley Neale +5 490 45 126 0.73105 Philip on tacos +2 490 67 73 0.68108 Tala’s Mom 2 + 487 51 49 0.65108 Brake Sticks 20 +4 487 46 85 0.68110 Berg’s Pens +5 485 47 68 0.67111 NH 08 +4 484 50 73 0.67111 Grampa 4 +3 484 56 66 0.67113 HSB +5 483 46 124 0.71113 Merrymen +2 483 45 82 0.68115 Freddy Kruger +4 482 42 87 0.67115 I’m Gonna Lose +4 482 52 95 0.68117 Hair 3 + 481 39 62 0.65117 JD Radium +4 481 46 104 0.69117 Hair Haven +5 481 41 79 0.67117 T-O-N-N-Y +2 481 47 90 0.68121 WEG +5 478 52 102 0.68121 Lynal +6 478 52 66 0.65123 N4CER +3 476 55 85 0.67124 Guessing Game Again +3 475 48 107 0.69124 Nolan “What” Watt +3 475 51 84 0.67126 Hockey Life 5 +5 474 42 94 0.68126 Nick was Here +4 474 46 110 0.69128 Casss +6 473 46 132 0.71129 Spencer +7 472 55 114 0.70130 Moose Drool +4 471 49 78 0.66131 NWT 1 +4 470 49 97 0.66131 Life After Licic +3 470 53 75 0.65133 Rylie’s Mom +5 469 45 94 0.66134 Woodsy +2 468 58 96 0.67134 Buster’s Team +5 468 44 102 0.68136 The Cuptenders +5 463 45 105 0.66137 Trich Monas +2 462 55 95 0.65138 RGM 10 +6 461 40 111 0.67139 BBD +4 460 45 75 0.63139 Sept 27/2015 +4 460 46 91 0.65141 Team Canada +3 459 45 93 0.65142 White +4 457 47 73 0.63143 Gwen’s Gimmies +3 456 47 78 0.63143 Wolpack 13 +5 456 40 116 0.67143 Canucks Suck + 456 40 83 0.64146 WR 15 +4 455 53 105 0.65147 Nelly +4 454 35 93 0.65148 20.20 luke +7 452 39 147 0.70149 Finnipeg +2 451 56 87 0.63150 Lucky +2 448 59 91 0.64151 M + L +8 445 33 122 0.66151 Westside Dan +5 445 49 82 0.63153 Y-lime +6 443 49 111 0.65154 2010 Bruins +2 439 51 92 0.63155 Sumpkin +3 438 37 82 0.62156 RT 04 +7 436 38 91 0.61157 Crew Slut +5 432 38 134 0.65158 Zacksmum +5 412 36 128 0.61159 Anaphylaxis +5 410 42 127 0.61

Head to Echo/Pioneer offi ce to redeem your lunch prize!

This Week’s winner is:

Buster’s Rez Raiders I

All prizes must be claimed before the following week's results are released.

The Valley Echo's 2015/2016

NHL Hockey Pool Standings

1 Flathot 84 +3 567 62 44 0.762 Rockies 19 +3 566 53 58 0.763 Go Habs Go +3 562 54 67 0.773 Love the B’s 562 63 43 0.745 WTC +2 556 46 57 0.755 Dexter “O” slayer 556 63 58 0.747 LB 22 +4 551 58 59 0.758 Hootenani +4 550 54 52 0.749 HSB Dad +3 549 54 51 0.7410 Kootenay Rangers +4 548 64 68 0.7511 Harley +5 546 61 71 0.7512 DR 27 + 545 54 43 0.7312 RSJ 16 +4 545 69 80 0.7614 T Webb + 544 56 54 0.7315 Kmart Special +8 543 53 105 0.7916 Davy 19 +4 542 52 88 0.7616 D Turner +3 542 58 67 0.7418 Buster’s Rez Raiders II +6 540 51 67 0.7419 A’s +5 539 55 71 0.7520 Slev 77 +4 538 58 82 0.7521 NM 23 +6 536 58 88 0.7522 Harley 10 535 52 53 0.7223 AllMega 01 +2 534 55 48 0.7224 Edge Golf +2 531 47 48 0.7325 Old-Rock + 530 55 64 0.7226 CLB 77 +6 529 67 78 0.7327 Raodhammer +3 528 58 104 0.7527 E-town 98 +2 528 50 89 0.7427 Long-Rock +4 528 51 96 0.7530 Ron Hunt Picks +5 527 57 86 0.7430 Grocery Stick +4 527 53 82 0.7430 MC 21 +4 527 51 85 0.7433 Yuki’s Monsters + 526 60 48 0.7133 Taters +4 526 45 96 0.7433 The Ultra Beauty +3 526 52 70 0.7236 Ski +3 524 53 79 0.7337 ABA Chow +3 523 55 81 0.7338 HD 4 +4 522 60 82 0.7238 Jye +2 522 56 75 0.7240 Little Red +3 521 45 81 0.7240 CR 13 +2 521 58 84 0.7342 Davis Tenta +5 520 57 100 0.7442 DB 24 +6 520 53 105 0.7644 Faze Zeimzeys +5 519 44 57 0.7045 R’s Rockets +4 518 50 77 0.7245 Lone Wolf +5 518 59 83 0.7347 Beagle +5 517 51 78 0.7248 Curling Iron +3 516 60 79 0.7249 Dominator 44 +5 515 60 98 0.7450 Matt Santucci +4 514 54 126 0.7650 Epie 76 +4 514 55 105 0.7452 Still Guessing +3 513 54 48 0.6953 MF 11 +2 512 44 84 0.7253 Cowboyz and Indian +3 512 61 54 0.6953 Payci +8 512 51 85 0.7253 Brennan +6 512 40 102 0.7257 Willbillies +5 511 49 94 0.7257 Sabu 64 +3 511 55 70 0.7057 Gama’s guys +6 511 48 113 0.7557 Layne Hunter +2 511 52 55 0.6861 Hockey Season Widow +4 510 53 67 0.7061 50/50 Tock +4 510 56 77 0.7263 Beer League All Star +5 509 59 83 0.7164 Jet’s Baby +8 508 50 108 0.7564 CS 14 +5 508 54 87 0.7264 13 Family Pantry +7 508 43 78 0.7167 Buster’s Rez Raiders I +2 507 74 92 0.7268 Mouse +5 506 56 49 0.6869 RACO7 +4 505 65 77 0.7169 Malcolm +4 505 49 56 0.6869 Nelly.33 +4 505 53 65 0.6972 Tristan Dubois +5 503 48 66 0.6972 Shogun +8 503 46 94 0.7172 Akisqnuk’s Rez Raiders +5 503 36 114 0.7475 KM 10 +3 501 52 76 0.6975 ATT and KZEE +5 501 35 118 0.7275 RC 31 +4 501 52 75 0.6975 Bru’s Babies +3 501 45 62 0.6879 Sumokordic + 500 48 52 0.6879 PBR +6 500 48 83 0.71

Grand Prize2 rounds with cart at

The Ridge and 2 rounds with cart at The Point

250-341-3392


A division of

To advertise, call: 250-341-6299

READY MIX CONCRETE• CONCRETE PUMP • SAND & GRAVEL

• HEAVY EQUIPMENT RENTALS • CRANE SERVICE

For competitive prices and prompt service call:

250-342-3268 (plant) 250-342-6767 (office)

Proudly serving the Valley for over 50 years.

Bruce Dehart 250-347-9803 or 250-342-5357

• Complete sewer/drain repairs• Reasonable rates - Seniors’ discount• Speedy service - 7 days a week

• A well-maintained septic system should be pumped every 2-3 years• Avoid costly repairs

Septic Tank PumpingPortable

Toilet Rentals

NEWSEWERCAMER

A

Sholinder & MacKaySand & Gravel

Complete line of aggregate productsfor construction and landscaping

Office: 250-342-6452 • 250-342-3773 Cell: 250-342-5833

To advertise, call: 250-341-6299SERVING THE VALLEY

250-342-4433 • Open 7 days a weekNATIONWIDE GUARANTEE

• Tires• Suspension• Alignment

• Brakes• Oil Changes• Air Conditioners

Your Winter Tire Super Store

Your Weekly Source for News and Events

Amanda NasonAdvertising Sales


#8, 1008 - 8th AvenuePO Box 868, Invermere, B.C. V0A 1K0Ph: 250.341.6299 • Cell: 250.341.1111

[email protected]

• Advertising invites clients to visit your business and increases the traffi c;

• Advertising makes people talk about you and your business and keeps your

business running smoothly;

• Advertising makes your phone ring and increases your sales;

• Advertising gives you a competitive edge over the competition who choose

not to advertise.

Attention Business People!

Don’t wait for business to come to you, go after the

business!

Create a promotion, advertise your special rates and stand out!

In our present economy, advertising equals

prosperity!

Call today! 250-341-6299

advertising equals


MOUNTAIN RANGES A lot of what makes the Columbia Valley so unique is its loca-tion between two mountain ranges: the Canadian Rockies to the east and the Purcell Mountains to the west. It’s within this visual frame-work, created by their tall snow-capped (for much of the year) peaks, that so many incredible photographs are taken. Here are but a few that have been featured in The Echo this past year. Counter-clockwise from the top: The Northern Lights dance above the low-lying fog in Invermere with the Rockies in the distance in this Look Outside Contest winning shot (for the month of April) taken at 4:30 a.m. (photo by Marlene Chabot); A lovely larch shot taken on the 1st Annual Tamarack Ridge Walk hosted by Panorama Mountain Resort in September (photo by Kristin McCauley); a colour-enhanced scene of the Rockies and Lake Windermere at sunset in January (photo by Dan Walton); Brewer Lake in the Purcell Mountains was a serene scene of fall beauty in October (photo by Nicole Trigg); a starry night sky taken from the Hoodoos in February, with the Rock-ies in the distance (photo by Dan Walton); and what’s a photo page of the Columbia Valley without the scene of a bear, taken in Kootenay National Park in May (photo by Amanda Nason).

A20 invermerevalleyecho.com

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLEYLLEYLLEYLLEYLLEYLLEYLLEYLLEYLLEYLLEYLLEYLLEYLLEYLLEYLLEYVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAAAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAAAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAAAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAAAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAAAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAAAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAAAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAAAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAAAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAAAVAAAVAVAVAAAVAIFEIFEIFEIFEIFEIFEIFEIFEIFEIFEIFEIFEIFEIFEIFELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVVVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVVVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVVVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVVVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVVVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVVVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVVVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVVVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVVVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVLVLVVVLVVVLVVVLVLVLVVVLV IFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFEIFEIFELIFELIFELIFEIFEIFELIFE

invermere valley echo, december 30, 2015

Documents