THURSDAY
S I N C E
1 8 9 5
MAY 3, 2012
St. Denis headed to RBC Cup
Vol. 117, Issue 86
110
$
Page 11
INCLUDING H.S.T.
PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF
ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALM SALMO
High water levels maroon family in Paterson BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
No man is an island but for the last seven days Rob Wagner has felt what that would be like. Along with his eightyear-old son, Marek, and his girlfriend Crystal Maehder, Wagner has been marooned on their Paterson property — eight kilometres south of Rossland off on Highway 22 — after Sophie Creek jumped its banks and flooded the highway last Thursday, wiping out both of Wagner’s access points from his property. The flood waters have not abated since that day, meaning Wagner hasn’t been able to leave the property, nor has he been able to get to work, his truck stranded in a yard surrounded by several feet of water with no access points to the highway. Wagner and Maehder each have made a single foray into Rossland — to pay taxes and to keep a doctor’s appointment — in the last week, but they have had to slog up behind the house
TIMOTHY SCHAFER PHOTO
The waters of Sophie Creek swell around Rob Wagner and Crystal Maehder as they survey the washed out access road to their property in Paterson, eight kilometres south of Rossland. The two have been marooned on their property for the last week as floodwaters have risen, cutting off their access roads. and through the forest, hike across the slope, and then cross the fast-flowing, water-filled ditch and hope to hitch a ride into town.
“The water was so high here a normally dry area in front of our house turned into a four-foot deep lake,” he said Wednesday. “It’s
Cash makes for happy trails BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
All trails lead to Sunningdale this summer as the Kootenay Columbia Trails Society prepares to connect the East Trail neighbourhood to a complex series of recreation paths above the city. The society will embark on finishing work on the 6.5-kilometre trek from Muriel Heights to Sunningdale after securing one third of the $15,000 needed for the project in the latest round of Columbia Basin Trust Community Initiative Funding. Kootenay Columbia Trails Society (KCTS) president Isaac Saban said the work begins in September on the 2.5-km. stretch needed to complete the trail.
“All the feedback we received so far has been positive or we wouldn’t have been asking for money,” he said. “There are very few other places around that local governments see the real value for … public recreation access that sees huge usage.” And the 145 kilometres of non-motorized trails around the area are well used from Fruitvale, Montrose, throughout Trail and into Warfield and Rossland. In the last year there were 120,000 trail usages, with $85,000 in funding from local government, and through membership money, donations and other fund raising initiatives they have a budget of nearly $100,000.
See KCTS, Page 3
unreal. We are marooned in Paterson.” By last Thursday night Wagner’s neighbour, Rod Newton, a former Ministry
of Highways employee, came down to the flood site with his own excavating machines — and he has doing most of the work to
Trail council supports arbitration BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
A local municipal disagreement on the shared cost of sewer services has spilled over into the provincial arena after one city council flushed away recent proposal recommendations. After Rossland city council dismissed an eleventh-hour proposal from Trail city council in early April in an attempt to avoid arbitration, the Silver City council was quick to reply. On Monday night during their regular meeting Trail council voted to formally support final proposal arbitration under the “Community Charter” — as suggested by the Ministry of
Community, Sport and Cultural Development (CSCD) — and asked the matter be dealt with by the province prior to the end of 2012. “I really, sincerely believe we have to push this process along and take it to the point of arbitration and get it done with,” said councillor Kevin Jolly. “We’ve done everything we possibly can to reach an agreement.” He further suggested, given the loss to the taxpayers of Trail, they should be looking at recovering some of the money the city has paid in extra costs. For four years the question of who pays what portion of
the cost of sewer service among Trail, Rossland and Warfield has been booted around like a political football. Trail is currently paying close to 70 per cent of the regional budget following a formula created in the late 1960s, based mostly on population and projected growth. Last month Trail council drafted a proposal based on population, though it previously agreed with a mediator report that suggested the old formula was unfair, and a new formula should be based on 50 per cent population and 50 per cent water consumption.
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See WEATHER, Page 3
SEWER SERVICES DISPUTE
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help clear the culvert and the ditches since. The solitude and the solemnity of the situation settled in over the weekend, since Wagner and Maehder haven’t been able to leave the 25-acre property for a week. On the weekend a neighbour dropped some groceries by the side of the road for them, and on Monday Wagner managed to get Marek to the highway and on the bus to school. But it hasn’t been easy with spring beckoning and clients eager for Wagner — who works installing vinyl decking — to come and complete their home projects. And with Maehder’s job ending at Red Mountain in mid-May, she was in the midst of an off-season job search, now cut short as her water-locked Toyota sits idle. In order to keep cabin fever at bay, Wagner has kept busy shoveling the truckloads of gravel that have washed up on the
kscu.com
See ARBITRATION, Page 2
Contact the Times: Phone: 250-368-8551 Fax: 250-368-8550 Newsroom: 250-364-1242