LOCAL NEWS: UPGRADES FOR LITTLE FORT HALL W A6 Monday, May 21, 2012 W Volume 47 No. 21 W www.clearwatertimes.com W $1.40 HST Included at Newsstands
Times THE
NORTH THOMPSON
REGATTA MAN RETURNS:
First Place Best All Round Newspaper First Place Best Editorial Page All of Canada <1,250 circulation
Canoe fest mascot takes part in Zumba. See page A12 inside.
Second Place General Excellence B.C. and Yukon <2,000 circulation
Town Council approves gas tax funding application Keith McNeill
Clearwater town council has given staff the go-ahead to apply for $1.9 million in federal gas tax funding to help pay for a sewer extension to the area south and west of Dutch Lake. The funding would pay 2/3 of the projected $2.8 million cost of the project. Local taxpayers would pay the balance of about $920,000. The property owners would contribute a large portion of the local share. This either could be paid when the project ended or the municipality could provide a repayment plan over 10 to 20 years. The District would need to get approval through a referendum or alternative approval process before borrowing. Council members felt that applying for funding to pay 100 per cent of the cost would likely not succeed and might delay the project. The proposed project would include 94 parcels around the lake outlined in the initial study. The majority are residential, but there also included are resorts, commercial hotel and motels, and institutional. Added to the project would be four lots below Harby Road next to the lake. These would add $130,000 to the project but were felt to be high priority because of the potential contamination of the lake. Council had asked the consultants to look at including all of Harby Road area as well, but that would add 14 parcels and $711,000 to the project.
Smokey pays a visit Margo Kadlun-Jones holds Zasha Crombie as they visit with Smokey the Bear during Emergency Preparedness Day at the Elks Hall on Saturday, May 12. For more about the event, see page A11 inside. Photo by Keith McNeill
Shearing applies for parole a second time Keith McNeill David Shearing has applied for parole again. The former local resident was convicted of murdering six members of the Johnson-Bentley family while they were camping near Wells Gray Park in August 1982. He killed grandparents George and Edith Bentley, parents Bob
and Jackie Johnson, and grandchildren Janet, 13, and Karen, 11. He was a captured after a lengthy police investigation that included driving a reconstructed version of the Bentley’s camper partway across Canada in a bid to collect tips (the Johnson’s car had been discovered earlier with the bodies in it). However, two forestry workers found the camper
near Clearwater - it had never left the area. In September 1983, Shearing pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life with no eligibility of parole for 25 years. In 2008, now using the name Ennis, he applied for parole but was denied. The parole board at the time cited a number of unresolved
issues, including mild indications of psychopathy. During the hearing he confessed he had shot the four adults to gain sexual access to the two young girls. Several days later he shot the girls as well. Now 53 years old, he has applied for full and day parole. The hearing will be held Sept. 18 in central Alberta.
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