EMERGENCY UPGRADE | Vernon Fire Department unveils new dispatch centre [A6]
Morning gStar
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Friday, April 27, 2012
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We’ll get you home! PETERS TIRECRAFT
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More beds on horizon
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RICHARD ROLKE Morning Star Staff
LISA VANDERVELDE/ MORNING STAR
Amanda Thompson braves the downpour as she walks down 30th Avenue with her daughter Eden, eight months, Thursday. An estimated 10 to 20 millimeters of rain fell on the North Okanagan Thursday, but conditions are expected to dry up as Environment Canada is only calling for a 30 per cent chance of showers today and sun for Saturday.
Health Minister Michael de Jong is facing significant expectations. De Jong, along with MLA Eric Foster, will be at Vernon Jubilee Hospital today to announce plans to reduce overcrowding. “I’m hoping they make the right decision which is to address capacity at the hospital,” said Dr. Chris Cunningham, who has been lobbying the government to expand the number of acute care beds. “We’ve always said the two (shelled-in) floors in the tower are needed. We need more capacity.” Anything less than development of both floors and Cunningham expects challenges will still continue. When asked if one or two floors will proceed, Foster said, “I can’t tell you,” adding that full details will be disclosed to the community today. Residents, health care workers and civic leaders have been demanding more acute care beds at VJH for a number of years. Overcrowding has resulted in patients being admitted to hallways and surgeries being cancelled. Foster admits that a plan has been in the works for some time. “We wanted to make sure the money was in place,” he said, adding he is pleased de Jong will be in Vernon. “We want to get moving on this.” MORNING STAR FILE PHOTO
Plans to reduce overcrowding at Vernon Jubilee Hospital will be announced today.
Cause unconfirmed in ‘terrifying’ Cherryville mudslide RICHARD ROLKE Morning Star Staff
It’s still not known why part of a Cherryville hillside collapsed, threatening a home. A torrent of earth, rocks and trees came down from Cherry Ridge Tuesday at about 7:30 a.m. on Sugar Lake Road. “We’re actively looking at it and getting a
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professional assessment,” said Murray Wilson, woodlands manager with Tolko Industries, which harvested trees above the slide area last winter. Wilson is reluctant to say yet if logging weakened the soil and caused the slide, which was about 800 metres long and 10 metres wide.
“The geotechnical engineer will put those pieces together,” he said. The flow of debris shifted about 200 feet before it would have collided with Joel Hriczu’s home. “There was a freight train coming down through the trees,” said Hriczu. “We ran out in our bare feet terrified.”
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Hriczu and his wife are back in their home but they admit they aren’t sleeping well at night. Tolko doesn’t believe there is a risk of further slides. “Our first concern is for the residents that live there. We want to give them some comfort,” said Wilson.
See SLIDE DELIVERS on A3
SEE PAGES A-14&15