JULY
• Nashville Predators Captain Shea Weber was back in Canada, having been traded to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Habs d-man P.K. Subban. Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin announced the trade on Wednesday, June 29.
“It was also one of the most difficult decisions I had to make as general manager of the Montreal Canadiens,” commented Bergen in a news release. “In Shea Weber, we get a top-rated NHL defenceman with tremendous leadership, and a player who will improve our defensive group as well as our power play for many years to come.
• The 25-kilometre stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway between Chase and Sorrento is one of about 1,300 kilometres of rural B.C. highway that saw a speed limit increase in 2014.
A UBC study, released in conjunction with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure’s Rural Highway Safety and Speed Review, showed the speed increases the ministry put in place on 33 sections of highway had resulted in a “statistically significant increase of crash frequency of 11.1 per cent.”
• As part of the public safety funding announced in February 2016, the province committed $33,000 toward an assessment of the flood risk around Mara Lake.
The District of Sicamous, which will fund the remaining balance of the project that is estimated to cost $50,000, planned to examine the hydrology and sediment source around Sicamous Narrows and determine remedies to improve flow from Mara Lake through the narrows.
In recent years, Sicamous Narrows, which drains the Mara Lake basin, has been infilling with sediment and debris, causing water levels to elevate in the lake, especially during storms and freshet. Close to 200 properties, including several businesses, are in the unincorporated communities of Mara, Swansea Point and Six Mile Point, and concerns about the flooding risk are increasing.
• On Monday, July 4, at a rest area along Old Town Road where a new walkway into the Old Town Bay development site begins, Sicamous Mayor Terry Rysz welcomed generations of the Abbott family, Sicamous councillors, MLA Greg Kyllo, MP Mel Arnold and others who gathered to recognize the Abbotts for their contributions to the community, including the dedication of property along Old Town Road that will become district park land.
• At his first board meeting since being appointed, special trustee of the North Okangan-Shuswap School District #83, Mike McKay, didn’t promise that his decisions would please everyone.
But he did promise the public there would be no surprises.
• Sicamous was experiencing a growth spurt in the form of community berry planters and gardens. The planters, pyramid-shaped wood structures constructed by the district’s public works department, are located in the downtown and at Beach Park, where a former flower bed had been converted into a thriving garden, packed with a mix of herbs, watermelon, strawberries, green beans, kale, lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini and more.
The new growth has received a lot of positive attention from residents and visitors alike and district gardener Kay Taylor is pleased with resulting smiles she has seen.
• With another Summer Stomp and Burnout come and gone, the District of Sicamous will once again be seeking feedback on the year’s motorcycle event.
Mayor Terry Rysz says the district will be putting out surveys for businesses and the public to provide input on the event.
“We want to get feedback from both the business community and the public as to how they feel about it,” said Rysz, “because we do have some resistance; there is some negativity towards it, noise and whatever else. So we want to get a general feel so council feels comfortable in making sure this event is something the public wants.”
• The Columbia Shuswap Regional District board of directors defeated an attempt to change the tax structure for owners of waterfront property in the Shuswap.
The board received a letter from the Shuswap Waterfront Owners Association (SWOA) stating they felt their properties were being double-taxed because CSRD parcel taxes are applied to both their waterfront property and to the area of foreshore commonly used for docks that they lease from the provincial government.
• The challenges of regulating the rapidly expanding “sharing economy” and its effects on vacation rentals in the Shuswap were discussed at the Columbia Shuswap Regional District board meeting on July 21.
The board adopted a set of guiding principles for dealing with short-term vacation rentals, particularly those brokered through websites such as Airbnb.