At this time, we present our annual year in review, looking back at the events of 2012 as recorded in the pages of the Creston Valley Advance.
June
7 — Angry at cuts to teaching positions that are out of proportion to the forecast drop in enrollment, about 60 School District No. 8 (Kootenay Lake) teaching staff gathered at the Creston Education Centre on May 29 to express their displeasure.
“This is not personal,” said Creston Valley Teachers’ Association president Becky Blair. “You are not being funded adequately to do what you need to do. You can’t make soup out of stones. But will these cuts hamper students’ progress next year? I can guarantee they will.”
•Newly published crime fiction author Deryn Collier’s debut novel, Confined Space, was available in bookstores. It was written in Creston, before she moved to Nelson with her husband, Ron Sherman, a school principal, and her two sons.
•Creston and District Public Library members unhappy with the termination of chief librarian Ann Day wouldn’t get to confront library board members until September.
“In the interests of continuity and completing the process of finding new leadership, the board decided to hold the AGM Sept. 18, which will provide time to hire a new chief librarian and support him/her in their role for a short time before a new board is formed,” said board chair Joan Jeary by email.
14 — In 1988, the Tipi Camp Nature Retreat opened at the tip of Pilot Peninsula, offering a peaceful getaway from everyday life. In its 25th season, the camp on Kootenay Lake was still going strong, and showed no sign of stopping.
“I’m delighted,” said Peter Duryea, a founder of the Guiding Hands Recreation Society, which runs the camp. “It says to me that yes, it’s a good idea, yes, there is a need and yes, people are picking up on it.”
•Residents in 16 Crawford Bay homes were allowed to return home on June 7 after an assessment of Crawford Creek by a hydrologist, a geotechnical engineer and Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) staff allowed an evacuation order to be lifted.
The homes and several businesses were evacuated around 10:45 p.m. on July 6 after a dike along Crawford Creek partially failed. An evacuation centre was set up at the Crawford Bay Hall, but was unused as all of the displaced residents found accommodation with family or friends.
•Heavy rains and snow melts resulted in orders to declare emergencies in the Slocan Valley, Crawford Creek and Goat River areas, said Regional District of Central Kootenay chair John Kettle, who expressed concern that the Goat River near Highway 21 has become a recurring problem.
“This is a self-inflicted problem in my opinion,” he said. “It needs remediation, not fixes after the flood damage has been done.”
•There was a new way to beat the heat downtown — a treat from Happy Trails was sure to deliver a cooling wave of relief on even the hottest day. The ice cream shop opened just before the May long weekend, and in addition to ice cream treats, offered a hint of nostalgia, with posters of 1950s icons Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe keeping an eye over the shop.
“We did grow up loving Elvis and Marilyn and the Big Bopper and the whole Happy Days scene,” said Michele Staggs, who owns the shop and its companion, Buffalo Trails Coffee House, next door. “And the whole ’50s vibe goes hand-in-hand with ice cream.”
21 — Regional District of Central Kootenay directors John Kettle and Larry Binks and Creston Mayor Ron Toyota failed to reach agreement on how to divvy up water costs from the Arrow Creek Water Treatment and Supply Service (ACWTSS) on June 13 and voted to turn over the dispute to a former RDCK board chair.
The directors met at Creston and District Community Complex to hold a preliminary service review meeting that was triggered when the Town of Creston and RDCK agreed to initiate the process.
• After many successful years at the Tivoli Theatre, Friends of the Cinema was moving to Prince Charles Theatre for the 2012-2013 season.
At total of $16,000 has been donated back to the community over an eight-year period, organizer Jean Mutch said. Of that, $14,000 went to Friends of the Library (which handles administration of the film presentations, and the banking) and the other $2,000 went to the Creston Community Auditorium Society.
•The province of B.C. and Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly operate the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area (CVWMA) for the next 30 years.
“The B.C. government is committed to protecting this important ecosystem, and it welcomes Ducks Unlimited Canada’s involvement to help restore and manage the site over the next three decades,” said Steve Thomson, Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, in the June 12 announcement. “This agreement will greatly assist the operation of the Creston Valley WMA and further enhance its international reputation.”
28 — The Creston Valley Garden Club organized tours of seven gardens on the weekend, which included a rare look at Wayside Gardens, located to the rear of Beltane Nursery in Erickson. The others were the McCrory, Walker, Wilson, Masters-Drennan, Brown and Cairns gardens.
•Parents of children who attend schools out of their catchment area would have to start paying for busing, School District No. 8 (Kootenay Lake) trustees decided.
A motion by trustee Lenora Trenaman, who represents Crawford Bay, East Shore and West Shore, to direct senior staff not to implement busing fees of $20 per month per child was defeated at the June 19 board meeting in Nelson.
Trenaman introduced her motion by apologizing to the board, parents and staff, explaining that through the budget discussion process, she had not caught the new plan to implement busing charges.
•On June 25, the Regional District of Central Kootenay’s Emergency Operations Centre declared a state of local emergency and a precautionary evacuation alert in response to flooding from the Kootenay River on Peterman Road in West Creston.
“Sections of Peterman Road have experienced eight to 12 inches of water as Kootenay River has overflowed an adjacent field and the road,” said a press release issued that evening.
•An early morning report about two males testing vehicle doors to see if they were locked was Creston RCMP’s first clue that they were in for a busy Sunday. Police logged 17 incidents, mostly to the south of Canyon Street, by the time the day had ended. After several reports came in on Sunday, patrolling officers took to the streets and located a number of vehicles that had been spray-painted or had windows smashed before the owners had noticed the damage.
•Creston teen Jacob Dumas was preparing to compete for a provincial basketball title with the Okanagan zone in the BC Summer Games, which ran in Surrey from July 19-22. He was the only Creston player on the team, and already played for the South Okanagan U-14 team — there was no U-14 in 2012.