WEDNESDAY
S I N C E
1 8 9 5
OCTOBER 3, 2012
Cops for Kids ride concludes
Vol. 117, Issue 190
110
$
Page 16
INCLUDING H.S.T.
PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALMO
Bags of Love eases hard transition BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
If you could package up love and hand it over it would probably look like this. It’s colourful, hand-sewn, grab bag of every essential a young person could want— from toys to toiletries, a handmade comforter to stuffed animals—and it comes at a much needed time. For the first time, Bags of Love are being lovingly assembled in Trail for children in transition who have had their lives uprooted by extenuating circumstances, and are in need of a little comfort. Under the Bags of Love program run out of the Trail Seventh Day Adventist Church, the first 10 bags will be given out to foster children in the West Kootenay area next week. “Children in transition are often not able to take personal belongings with them,” said Sharon Jackson, the coordinator for the Trailbased program. “But Bags of Love helps ease the transition by providing items of comfort that they can call their very own.” Started in 2005 in Kentucky, It’s My Very Own/ Bags of Love now has chapters all over the U.S., with Trail being one of three in Western Canada. The Trail chapter is relatively new, said Jackson, and has only been in existence since June, 2012. Already, handmade bags have been
BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
TIMOTHY SCHAFER PHOTO
A Bag of Love contains a multitude of essentials that every child needs when in transition to a foster home. Bags of Love program coordinator in Trail, Sharon Jackson, is putting out a region-wide request for donations—both material and monetary—to help fill the bags. created, sewn by two church members and one community member, and an assortment of items have filled their interiors. As well, the group has received some love from the Trail Shoppers Drug Mart with donations of personal care items, and the Sugar Shack Quilting with donations of material and handles for bags. The contents of the bags are very basic, but special, Jackson noted: a kid-sized handmade comforter, a soft cuddly toy, personal care
items (comb, hairbrush, toothbrush, toothpaste), two toys for young children and age appropriate items for older children. “It warms the heart to see a smile on a child’s face when they are given something they can call their very own,” Jackson explained. Plus the bags that are collected in the area are distributed and stay in the West Kootenay, helping local children from newborn to age 18. Although the project has some initial local support,
they are looking further afield for donations (which are tax deductible) to help purchase the items for the bags. The toys and the personal care items collected are for all age groups—the travel size is best. As well, the program is looking for volunteers to help with fundraising and to sew bags and quilts. You can check them out on the website www.itsmyveryown.org, or contact Jackson at 364-1265 (or email at sharon1j@hotmail. com) to donate.
FRUITVALE
Land purchase solves cemetery space issue BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
The issue of a shortage of burial space in the Fruitvale Memorial Cemetery can finally be laid to rest. On Monday night Village of Fruitvale council secured cemetery services for the region for the next 25 years
Bigger plume points to chimney repairs at Teck
with the announcement the village has purchased a neighbouring strip of land. The 20-foot, by 317-foot plot will be enough for the village to fulfill burial requirements for over 25 years, said village chief administrative officer Lila Cresswell. “Based on the sales we’ve
had in the last five years, that will do us for quite a while,” she said. “That’s why we didn’t need a huge amount of space.” The village sold its last plot in April. The cost for the new piece of land was not available. The village gets around five
requests for full burial plots per year, and now they can accommodate around 80 to 150 more plots with the new addition, located between Pine and Tamarack streets. “About 85 per cent of people go for cremation. But there are still some that go for full
See NEW, Page 3
The situation will get worse before it gets better. The plume from Teck Trail Operations’ zinc stack will be more visible this week as the company tries to get the repair to its main chimney completed. Trail Operations has been dealing with the ongoing issue for almost two months within its acid and absorption plants that has resulted in a more visible plume from the main zinc stack for the last two months. Catherine Adair, Teck’s community engagement coordinator, said the company is completing maintenance work on the plants, and has made significant progress to date. She also noted that, although the plume’s visibility will increase, the environmental house is still in order for the mining giant. “Metal emissions have not increased and we remain within our permit levels for both metals and particulate,” she said Monday. The company will be conducting additional work this week—and the plume will be more visible for a short period of time—that will have a positive impact on the plume’s appearance going forward, said Adair. However, she could not put a timeline on when the work on the repair would be complete. In the future, she said the new No. 1 Acid Plant, currently under construction, would help to improve Teck’s operational reliability and environmental performance. A more visible plume coming from the main zinc stack drew “dozens” of calls of concern to city hall in early August and to its council members as people became anxious about the irritating column of exhaust that was emanating from the plant site’s smoke stacks. Teck’s general manager, Greg Belland, told city council in late August the company was dealing with an ongoing issue within its acid and absorption plants that resulted in a more visible plume. He said the plume was primarily ammonium bisulphate, an irritant but not a health risk. The problem resided primarily in the largest acid plant, Belland explained, where the absorption tower was not working properly, overloading the clean up pump. As well, the converter which changes sulfur dioxide gas was not operating well and some of the gases were getting through. If anyone has concerns or feedback for Trail Operations they can call the Trail Operations Environmental Issues Line (24 hour) at 3644817.
Contact the Times: Phone: 250-368-8551 Fax: 250-368-8550 Newsroom: 250-364-1242
Complete INVENTORY LIQUIDATION
ON NOW at Champion Chevrolet
See our ad in the October 4
Canada Post, Contract number 42068012
Trail BC
2880 Highway Drive Trail 250-368-9134 DLN #30251 www.championgm.com