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Creston Valley in 2012: A look back at December

6 — Organizers of the Creston Valley Bird Fest walked out of a Creston town council meeting with another $1,000 in the coffers...
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Lower Kootenay Band Chief Jason Louie (left) and Creston Mayor Ron Toyota (right) made donations of food and cash to the Creston Valley Gleaners Society food bank.

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.

December

6 — Organizers of the Creston Valley Bird Fest walked out of the Nov. 27 Creston town council meeting with another $1,000 in the coffers after receiving a start-up grant for the 2013 inaugural event.

Bird Fest is starting small, project planner Tanna Patterson said, with evening events scheduled for May 10 and activities throughout May 11, which is also International Migratory Bird Day. Operating as a committee of the Creston Valley branch of Wildsight, the festival’s goal is “to encourage environmental awareness for young and old with support from the community.”

•It was a busy summer and fall for Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and Yellowhead Road and Bridge (YRB) crews in the Creston Valley, with 43 kilometres of road being resurfaced in various ways, for a total of $3.2 million.

The main work was a project that saw “mill-and-fill” resurfacing on five kilometres of Highway 3 from Kootenay Pass summit to the east chain-up area and on Highway 3 from Canyon-Lister Road to the Arrow Creek Bridge, the latter portion also receiving a new guardrail.

•The Ministry of Environment, Regional District of Central Kootenay and Town of Creston teamed up to fund a woodstove exchange program, according to Environment Minister Terry Lake.

The RDCK would receive $15,750 as one of 48 regional districts the province adds to wood stove program, which will total $192,000 for 2013. Creston town council voted Nov. 27 to add a $100 rebate for stoves exchanged in Creston residences, and pick up the $20 disposal fee at the landfill for the replaced stove.

•An eagle-eyed RCMP officer saved an 85-year-old woman from spending a potentially life-threatening night in car that went down a steep embankment on Highway 21 on Nov. 26.

“We got a call in the evening that she had left at 2 p.m. to go to Porthill and hadn’t returned,” said RCMP Cpl. Monte Taylor. “When we checked with the border we learned she hadn’t crossed that day.”

Taylor and Const. Ryan Salant began to patrol Highway 21 for clues late in the evening. Salant scrambled down an embankment while Taylor radioed for an ambulance. The woman was uninjured, but had remained in the car, knowing that she would be unable to make it up the steep slope to the highway. She was chilled and uncomfortable after spending more than eight hours in a car that she couldn’t restart.

13 — A 52-year-old Creston woman, Clara Elliott, died in a head-on collision five kilometres south of Cranbrook on Highway 3/95 on Dec. 5, when the northbound minivan in which she was a passenger crossed the centre line and struck a southbound dump truck. The minivan’s driver sustained minor injuries, but Elliott was trapped in the vehicle and died at the scene. The dump truck’s driver was uninjured.

•A year in which the Creston Valley Farmers’ Market has grown dramatically has helped solidify the Creston Valley Food Action Coalition (CVFAC) as one of Creston Valley’s most important organizations.

Earlier in the year, farmers’ market managers and volunteers worked with the British Columbia Association of Farmers’ Markets to detail the social and economic benefits of the market in the Creston Valley.

“The estimated benefit of the Creston Valley Farmers’ Market to the local economy is approximately $1.72 million annually,” said CVFAC president Len Parkin.

•Extra Foods was the scene of a robbery on Dec. 9 when a male told the pharmacist on duty that he had a gun and wanted some diazepam. Creston RCMP said the male then attempted to leave through a locked entrance before exiting through the store’s front entrance.

Police arrested a suspect at a residence a short time later and now believe he was bluffing about having a gun. He was taken into custody and would likely face armed robbery charges.

20 — Waiting until after midnight to get municipal election results could become a thing of the past if the Town of Creston adopts an electronic voting system, town council learned at the Dec. 11 regular meeting.

Bhar Sihota, who is doing a local government management internship at Creston Town Hall, presented a report that indicates that other small municipalities, including Nelson and Castlegar, are already successfully using electronic systems.

“The role of the machine is to electronically count the ballots and record the results, and it is not expected to make the act of voting quicker,” he said.

•A good-natured competition led to a few laughs and a big score for the Creston Valley Gleaners Society food bank.

When Lower Kootenay Band Chief Jason Louie arrived at the food bank on Dec. 14, in one of two vehicles needed to transport more than 700 pounds of non-perishable food items, Creston Mayor Ron Toyota knew he had met his match.

“Wow, very impressive,” he said, watching box after box stack up, as Louie and LKB administrator Linda Berg piled about 15 boxes behind the two boxes Toyota had brought from Creston Town Hall.

•The Town of Creston and local Regional District of Central Kootenay put one contentious issue to bed at the Dec. 13 RDCK board meeting in Nelson.

A new Arrow Creek water services agreement was signed, assuring five of years of peace for the two sides. But a proposed contract for Creston to continue fire protection for Erickson properties was moved into a closed meeting and later referred to lawyers.

•The children of Shamattawa, Man., had plenty to smile about again at Christmas, after nearly a ton of Creston apples and an assortment of gifts arrived earlier in December.

“The children were thrilled,” said local organizer Muriel Buhr. “So thrilled that one classroom went trooping over to Shamattawa’s RCMP detachment with a thank you card for Staff Sgt. Maria Russell that they made themselves.”

•Creston Valley Teachers’ Association president Rebecca Blair appeared at the Dec. 11 council meeting to ask for support in pushing a child poverty reduction issue.

Coun. Judy Gadicke made a motion, which passed, to write a letter of support to the appropriate ministry. A second motion, to direct staff to begin work on a draft resolution to be put forward to the Union of BC Municipalities, also passed unanimously.

•More than 70 volunteers swarmed the Creston Room at the Creston and District Community Complex on Dec. 18 to pack Christmas hampers, part of an annual program overseen by the Creston Ministerial Association.

The need was great — 485 hampers were packed for Creston Valley families, 35 more than the planned 450, a goal based on the 2011 numbers.

27 — Joining with a group of peace-seeking women who brought together women from Israel and Palestine in November was a giant step out of Kendra Lee’s comfort zone.

The registered massage therapist, mother of three and grandmother of six was quite content with her mostly quiet and orderly life until a BraveHeart Women’s meeting presented her with an opportunity she couldn’t resist — an odyssey for peace.

“I had never been overseas before,” she says. “I’ve been to Mexico and the Dominican Republic, across Canada and the States, but never overseas.”

School District No. 8 (Kootenay Lake) board said no to the education minister’s request to find 1.5 per cent in savings to be used in upcoming contract negotiations with CUPE.

SD8 already faces additional cost pressures throughout its 2013 budget. Board chair Melanie Joy cited an unfunded anti-bullying/violence threat risk assessment, a ministry reading initiative and increases to WorkSafeBC and Medical Services Plan premiums.

“To add $330,000 in CUPE wages and wage sensitive benefits under the co-operative gains mandate to an already significant shortfall of $1.13 million is beyond the board’s ability to balance its budget without cutting educational programming to students and services to staff and families,” she wrote.