Penticton Western News, November 30, 2012

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NEWS PENTICTON WESTERN

www.pentictonwesternnews.com

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news

Santa Claus coming to town for Saturday parade

VOL. 46 ISSUE 96

9

31 page

Cannery Brewing pays tribute to the SS Sicamous

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2012

entertainment Finding the meaning of

Christmas through song

25

sports Challenge Penticton attracting

NEWS PENTICTON WESTERN

big names, including two locals

HEAVENLY SCENE — Danny Inkster of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints looks over some of the creche scenes at the Faces of the Nativity display which opened Thursday. The public is welcome to view the hundreds of nativity sets from around the world, today and Saturday from 1-8 p.m. and Sunday 2-7 p.m. Admission is free and the church is located at 2946 South Main St. There is also a free concert Saturday at 6:30 p.m. featuring the School District 67 choir. Mark Brett/Western News

UP TO THE CHALLENGE

Leadership group takes shape for new triathlon Joe Fries

Western News Staff

Negotiations between the City of Penticton and its latest triathlon partner are taking longer than expected, but the society overseeing the race has moved a little quicker to get its new leader to the starting line. Challenge Penticton announced this week that Barb Haynes has been hired as general manager effective Dec. 10, when she will begin planning the event that next August will replace Ironman Canada. Haynes said the lure of building the race from the ground up was enough to pull her away from her post as head of the Downtown Penticton Association, where she will be replaced by Kerri

Milton, former manager of the Pen-Mar Cinema. “I love my job, so it wasn’t something I was looking to necessarily leave,” Haynes said. “Having said that, the position at Challenge (matches) my skill set and is an amazing opportunity and one that I am thrilled to have been offered.” Haynes becomes the second paid employee of Challenge Penticton following the hiring of race director Laura Carleton in early November. Paul McCann, who chairs the volunteer board of the Penticton Triathlon Race Society, said the group was looking for a manager with expertise in marketing, sponsorships and event management. “And those are all things that Barb Haynes has in aces,” he said, adding revenue generation will be among her priorities. “There’s a thousand things to do, but likely the first will be to build on marketing and spon-

sorships to bring in revenue to the race and the community,” McCann said. The society, which has looked after preparations to date and will eventually receive from the city the licence to use the Challenge brand, is currently running on revenue from participant registration fees, McCann added, and doesn’t even have an office yet. “The city has offered some (office space) to get us up and going, but we’re not in it yet,” he said. Meanwhile, the city has yet to come to terms with the Germany-based Challenge Family on a licensing agreement and is still negotiating under a letter of intent signed in August. That five-page letter, a redacted version of which was obtained by the Western News through a freedom of information request, notes the parties “plan to agree on all conditions of the license agreement” by Oct. 15, 2012.

Mayor Dan Ashton said people should “absolutely not” read anything into the passed deadline. “It’s back and forth and that’s what happens when you deal with somebody in another country. But we’re also very, very close.” The equivalent of one full page of the letter’s text was redacted to protect third-party business interests and what’s left does not include any details about financial arrangements. Ashton said he’s unsure if those details and cost to taxpayers will be released once the final agreement has been inked. “I know some of it’s proprietary, just like how it was with Ironman, and that’s one of the issues because it’s a contract,” he said. “I can just assure you it’s a substantially better deal for the community than what it was with the other triathlon group.”

See CHALLENGE - Page 15


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