At this time, we present our annual year in review, looking back at the events of 2013 as recorded in the pages of the Creston Valley Advance.
OCTOBER
3—Changes in 2014 to medical marijuana production will address some concerns, but create others, Creston RCMP Staff Sgt. Bob Gollan told Creston town council on Sept. 24. He said that people with medical marijuana prescriptions are being recruited by criminal organizations, as are doctors who will issue the prescriptions.
“Some doctors are prescribing the maximum — up to 60 grams a day — for their patients,” he said. “This is enough for 30 joints a day.”
•Members of the Kokanee Country Snowmobile Club and the Association of British Columbia Snowmobile Clubs gathered at a location near Boundary Lake on Sept. 21 to dedicate the new Terry Watt Memorial Cabin.
Started in the late summer of 2012, it was finished and named for the longtime club member who died in February 2010, while he and others were planning the project. Watt was a strong advocate for the sport, raising awareness of the local club right up to the provincial level.
“He opened so many doors and so many lines of communication,” said KCSC president Dean Bala.
•A 36-year-old male driver died at the scene of a single vehicle crash on Sept. 29. RCMP Staff Sgt. Bob Gollan said Derek Grindle, a Creston resident, apparently was unable to negotiate a curve with his pickup and went over a small embankment. He was not wearing a seatbelt, but had not been consuming alcohol.
•With its summer season finished, the Creston Valley Farmers’ Market prepared to move to Morris Flowers Garden Centre for the fall. In the summer, the market had a peak of 41 vendors. A third of vendors reported a significant increase in sales at the new location, which drew as many as 1,000 customers on one day in early August.
10—About 300 people attended the 50th anniversary celebration for the Kootenay Pass, held on Oct. 6 at the top of the Highway 3 pass between Creston and Salmo.
Organized by the Creston Museum, with the assistance of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and Yellowhead Road and Bridge (YRB), the event included historical displays and a commemorative ribbon cutting, which briefly stopped traffic.
“We find excuses to make local history fun and enjoyable,” said museum manager Tammy Hardwick.
•Gary and Susan Snow’s business, Tabletree Enterprises, won a World Juice Award in 2012 in Barcelona, Spain, where its black cherry juice was named best pure juice. This year, red apple juice was one of two finalists for best new nectar or juice product. Tabletree didn’t win, but its owners could only see the bright side of being short-listed.
“We came in second for best new juice in the world and not too many folks can say that and mean it tonight,” Gary said after the announcements were made in Cologne, Germany.
17—“I’m thrilled,” said Creston literacy co-ordinator Linda Steward on Oct. 10, as she walked away with nearly $350 in donations collected in the Reach a Reader campaign. “Do you know how many things we can do with that money?”
In exchange for donations to the Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy (CBAL), volunteers offered Oct. 10 editions of the Creston Valley Advance to passersby at the Canyon Street Walkthrough and the Creston Valley Public Library. Among the volunteers were members of the Creston Valley Thunder Cats hockey team, Regional District of Central Kootenay Area C director Larry Binks, Couns. Scott Veitch and Joanna Wilson, and Advance staff.
•After twice delaying a decision on a rezoning application for a 14th Avenue property Creston town council voted unanimously to pass the bylaw’s third reading on Oct. 11. Final approval of the rezoning allowed the brewery to construct a railway spur on its property that will provide for the storage of four railcars, two each holding malt and syrup. Brewery manager Murray Oswald estimated the four cars will provide for four or five days of brewing at peak capacity.
•Creston Valley seniors will have more support in their efforts to remain living independently beginning in 2014, Creston town council learned at the Oct. 8 meeting, when Myrna Johnson reported that she was the community developer for Better at Home, funded by the provincial government and managed by United Way. Better at Home is intended to supplement existing services, helping seniors with simple, non-medical tasks to enable them to continue living independently and remain connected to their communities.
•Town council’s decision to cap the total property tax exemptions at 1.75 per cent of the total property tax paid by town residents resulted in Friends of the Ingham Arts and Culture Centre and Kootenay Employment Centre being shut out completely.
“The Ingham centre is a wonderful concept that we support, but it isn’t in operation, so it doesn’t meet the criteria,” said town finance director Steffan Klassen. “KES’s needs didn’t outweigh the needs of the other applicants.”
24—Following the throne speech, Kootenay-Columbia MP David Wilks said the new session of Parliament promised to be a productive one. He said budget forecasts continue to be optimistic.
“Nationally, I think for me, the most important one for me is that our government is still on target to balance the budget by 2015,” he said. “As a result of that we’ll put a freeze on the overall operating budget which will continue to restrain hiring.”
•Deemed a liability by owner CP Rail, demolition of Wynndel's United Grain Growers elevator began Oct. 18, expected to take about a week. According to the Creston Museum, the grain elevator “was built in the mid-1930s, was sold into private hands in 1971, and was operating as a private grain storage facility as recently as 2001.”
31—Born in England and raised in other areas, including Africa, new College of the Rockies manager Kerry Hobbs lived a largely nomadic life. And happily so. Something in her changed, though, when she and her husband, Guy, moved to Creston.
Her first month on the job has involved learning about how the Creston campus fits into the COTR group of facilities around the Kootenays, and about the many partnerships it has within the Creston Valley.
“To be able to link education with our other community partners is our mission,” she said.
•Representatives from Kootenai Community Centre Society arrived at the Oct. 22 regular Creston town council meeting hoping to get another kick at the town’s property tax exemption decisions. The bylaw was passed before the meeting’s end, though, as question period is one of the last items on every meeting agenda.
KCCS executive director Lendina Bambrick said that the criteria used by the committee that recommended that some KCCS properties should not get a 100 per cent property tax exemption did not follow guidelines.
“The report clearly outlines the criteria (for a tax exemption) and ‘compete with private sector businesses’ is not one of the criteria, “she said. “So we are feeling the process was flawed in that regard.”