Looking back at what made headlines in 2018 in the Salmon Arm Observer.
Here’s a glimpse from August 2018:
• A notice in the mail and an item in the local newspaper in early spring 1942 changed Tamotsu (Tam) Nakazawa’s life forever.
Born in Canada and residing in the Marpole neighbourhood of Vancouver, Nakazawa was told to report to Hastings Park for relocation to a work camp.
Considered to be a possible security threat, the now 100-year-old Salmon Arm resident was among some 20,000 Japanese Canadians removed from the Pacific Coast in 1942.
Nakazawa shared his experience of life in the Yard Creek Camp where he spent several years during WWII.
• A collective approach and a smart use of space have helped enable the creation of downtown Salmon Arm’s latest addition, the Lazuline Art Gallery.
Lazuline is a operated by the Shuswap Women’s Art Collective, consisting of well-known local artists Linda Franklin, Wendy Browne, Lisa Figuero, Janice Cleland, Tracey Kutschker, Frieda Martin, Rebecca Shepherd and Patricia Smith. The gallery space is located at 101 Hudson Street.
• Three Salmon Arm women let their hair hang loose, and then lopped it off, in support of cancer patients. Pat Contant, Ivy Wong and Liz Ziercke, employees of Uptown Askew’s grocery store, had their locks lopped and donated a collective 37 inches of hair to the Canadian Cancer Society on July 24.
• Salmon Arm council will continue to gather input on a proposed panhandling bylaw and allow more time to pursue compassionate solutions to the city’s homelessness concerns.
A public hearing was held in council chambers on Aug. 13 for the city’s street solicitation bylaw. The hearing was adjourned, leaving the bylaw at a second reading.
• Jeremy Davis was found not guilty in a fatal Blind Bay shooting. Davis went free after facing a manslaughter charge for his involvement in the shooting death of a Shuswap drug dealer in 2011. Jordan Barnes pleaded guilty in 2016 for second-degree murder related to the incident.
• The temperature rose and fell but the music was smoking! The 26th annual Roots & Blues Festival is being put to bed after a successful three-day musical feast at the Salmon Arm Fairgrounds.
“I love this festival, the vibe is so great, so comfortable and loose,” said Russell deCarle, founding member of the award-winning Prairie Oyster.
Executive director David Gonella was inspired that despite the terrible smoke, patrons were flowing through the site, enjoying the music and amenities, among them the food tent adjacent to the food vendors. He was also very proud that the new eco policy reduced the amount of garbage going to the landfill by 75 per cent.
• A 37-year-old man is facing multiple charges in relation to the Friday afternoon fire at the downtown Salmon Arm 7-Eleven.
Kenneth Robert Laforge is facing charges of arson damaging property, arson in relation to inhabited property, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle , mischief to property and mischief to property over $5,000.
Laforge was arrested at the scene of the blaze where the vehicle had been driven into the front of the convenience store on Highway 1.
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