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.
March
1 — A delegation that included RCMP and Ministry of Public Safety representatives met with Creston town council and staff on Feb. 21 to help clarify the impending change to local policing.
There was some good news, though. Ministry representative Lisa Godenzie, director for RCMP contract policing, said the province would require the town to pay for seven, not eight, police officers, as originally announced.
“This is the first time we have ever made a reduction in what a municipality has to pay for,” she said.
•More than 50 Creston Valley teachers took to downtown sidewalks on Feb. 27 to express their displeasure at a threat to legislate a new contract, joining other BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) members in a provincewide “day of action.”
“Today teachers are saying that we should be negotiating — don’t legislate us back,” Rebecca Blair said.
•A local partnership turned to an award-winning communications firm from Kimberley firm to help create a marketing plan for the Creston Valley. The Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce, Town of Creston and Regional District of Central Kootenay Areas B and C were using economic development funds to contract with Story & Co. to create a brand that will help in promoting the area.
•Protecting local agriculture was at the heart of John Kettle’s objection to a Town of Creston proposal to revisit a water cost-sharing agreement with the Regional District of Central Kootenay.
“Our agriculture industry relies on water from the Arrow Creek water system,” said the RDCK Area B director. “I would like to find a way to provide them with untreated irrigation water so that the costs of treated water are shared among the people who actually need it.”
•The Therapeutic Activation Program for Seniors (TAPS) is helping its members keep up with 21st century technology, thanks to a donation by the Creston and District Credit Union. The program bought two tablet computers and accessories with part of a $2,500 donation, the rest of which may be used to buy a laptop.
8 — The Friends of the Ingham Arts and Culture Centre, a board currently being created by the Community Arts Council of Creston, was making plans to run the Ingham Arts and Culture Centre, located in a former auto garage at the corner of 15th Avenue and Canyon Street.
“We’ll have an actual home where we can showcase artists,” said arts council president Simon Lazarchuk. “People can walk in and ask questions and find out what’s going on.”
•Most Creston parents got the message and kept their students home from school on March 5 as teachers took to the sidewalks to protest their lack of a contract.
“We’re getting lots of public support,” said Creston Valley Teachers’ Association president Rebecca Blair. “And teachers are really motivated to get our message out.”
•Creston Valley school students, including those in Bountiful and Yaqan Nukiy, painted wooden cutouts of sturgeon, which would be mounted on the chain-link fence beside the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce. The catch of 732 cutouts — from J.H. Huscroft Ltd. mill ends — was the result of efforts by Creston resident Ian Currie, who cut each of them out.
•The 2011-2012 season ended for the Creston Valley Thunder Cats, who lost game 6 in the first round of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League playoffs on March 2, with the Kimberley Dynamiters winning the game 8-1.
•Creston town council reviewed a letter from Creston resident Michael Bunn, who proposed that it take some actions to alleviate policing cost pressures in the coming years.
Bunn’s scheme would see the town pay residents $2,000 each to move out of the regional district, with a goal of bringing the town’s population back under 5,000 and eliminating the requirement to pay for municipal policing.
•The opening of Creston Valley Yoga Studio added a new twist to Creston’s downtown core. Proprietor Sam Nevalainen, one of the area’s newest and youngest yoga instructors, worked to bring the ancient practice to a central location with the co-operation of several well-known and experienced yoga teachers.
15 — A $24,000 grant-in-aid program that helps local non-profit organizations was likely to fall victim to spending cuts as town council scrambled to reduce the impact of policing costs in its 2012 budget. In a budget meeting on March 6, councillors debated about ways to hold spending at 2011 levels in all areas other than policing.
•Creston’s Alois Pistecky became the sole link between us and Oscar. His son, Jakub, was part of the animation team for Rango, which won Gore Verbinkski an Academy Award for best animated feature film on Feb. 26.
“Jakub was the leader of one of four or five animation groups that worked on Rango,” Pistecky said.
•The $30,000 loan was a big one for Creston’s Royal Canadian Legion. But after the old boiler in the basement stopped working, buying a new one was the only option. And 10-and-a-half months after the loan was started, the final payment was made on Feb. 7.
The first loan payment was made on March 20, 2011, and donations poured in, with some members giving $100 a month. By Feb. 7, the loan was getting closer to being paid off, and a longtime life member of the legion contributed the final $5,000.
22 — Creston RCMP Staff Sgt. Bob Gollan appeared at the March 13 Creston town council meeting to ask for its policing priorities after he got no reply to a similar request in January. Council wanted to see more foot patrols downtown, a focus on teen drinking, and a priority on domestic abuse and prolific offenders.
•Creston Fire Rescue undertook a review of existing bylaws and recommended a number of changes to update the regulations. Most contentious was a proposal to require private company inspectors and installers of fire safety equipment to be certified by a provincial body.
Deputy Chief Michael Moore said that he discovered that some local businesses had paid for services that were not correctly carried out and, in one case, a fire resulted.
•Josue Molina arrived to take over the duties of retired pastor Ian Cotton, who conducted Seventh-day Adventist Church services in Creston and Cranbrook for six years. The native of El Salvador, who grew up in Costa Rica, would reside in Cranbrook, where his wife, Tammy, works as a hospital social worker. The 34-year-old had been in the ministry for 12 years.
29 — A small building behind the Wynndel Community Hall became the Wynndel Arts Centre, which grew out of volunteer renovations to make the building suitable for a pottery group, which became the Wynndel Mudders (now the Valley Mudders). Original Mudders Sandy Kunze and Bruce Johnston worked to expand the building’s use.
“We decided it was time to get more utilization out of what is a very nice little structure, and to get more community involvement in arts and cultural programs,” Johnston said. “We need to do more than just pottery.”
•Luanne Armstrong earned a cross-Canada reputation as an editor and writer, and added a national para-equestrian win to her resume, taking first place in para-dressage test, Grade 1b, a competition that was based on videos submitted to the Equine Canada competition.
“I think it is wonderfully ironic that although I have been riding horses all my life, it was only after I was crippled with rheumatoid arthritis that I am learning to ride properly,” she said.
•New Creston town councillor Scott Veitch, Mayor Ron Toyota and veteran councillor Wesly Graham were the top spenders in the 2011 local government elections, spending $4,917, $4,213 and $3,035, respectively.
• Traffic returned to a normal flow at the Kingsgate border crossing (photos here) on March 22, when three lanes opened to traffic entering Canada from Idaho. A new, larger inspection facility also opened that day, allowing the 40 staff to move out of portable trailers that have housed operations for over a year since the previous building was demolished in 2011.
The $16 million project will improve efficiency at the port — the busiest commercial port between Osoyoos and Coutts, Alta. — which saw 54,085 commercial vehicles, 95,572 automobiles and 285,425 travellers cross in 2011.