TUESDAY
S I N C E
JANUARY 29, 2013
1 8 9 5 Pee Wee Rep teams host tournament
Vol. 118, Issue 16
110
$
Page 11
INCLUDING H.S.T.
PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALMO
Little impact expected from penny’s demise Change won’t affect card purchases BY SHERI REGNIER Times Staff
For Howard Kuenle, owner of Got Juiced in downtown Trail, the penny will always hold a special place in his heart. After being a valued member of the Canadian economy for 155 years, the one-cent piece will officially retire next week. “I will always save a penny,” he said. “Especially because I married one,” he joked and nodded to wife and co-owner Penny Kuenle. On Feb. 4, the Royal Canadian Mint will no longer distribute the copper coin. In the 2012 economic action plan, the government announced it would phase out the penny to save taxpayer’s $11 million a year. Elsewhere downtown, L’Bears Health Foods is uncertain if the discontinued currency will have any effect on business just yet. “We haven’t talked about it much, but we’ll see how it affects us at the end of the day when cashing out,” said Amber Tadevic, employee of L’Bears. “I was at my bank the other day and they hadn’t even heard anything about it yet,” she added. The same can’t be said for the Trail branch of TD Canada Trust, as the bank has displayed posters explaining the demise of the penny to its customers for a few months now. And for now, a penny saved will still be a penny earned, at least in the foreseeable future. “Pennies will always be in currency,” said Joanne McQuarry, manager at the TD bank. “We will always accept pennies,” she said. “In fact, we still see the old ones and twos (dollar bills).” Unfortunately, doing away with the penny will not fuel any change for the price of gas, and motorists will continue seeing prices to the nearest one hundredth. “No longer having a penny won’t affect the price of fuel,” said Brian O’Hearn, vice-president of the western division of the Canadian Fuel Association. “At the till for cash transactions, we will round up or down.” As pennies exit circulation, only cash payments or transactions will be affected. The Government of Canada has adopted a rounding guideline that has been used successfully by other countries for its cash transactions with the public. Cash purchases will be rounded either up or down, to the nearest five-cent increment. Credit and debit cards, cheques and electronic transactions will continue to be settled to the cent.
SHERI REGNIER PHOTO
Much to the delight of onlookers, team Night Terror let it all hang out as they slogged through the slush and pushed their way over the finish line in the Sonny Samuelson bobsled race during Rossland’s winter carnival on Saturday. See more photos on Page 2.
Crowds come out for carnival BY SHERI REGNIER Times Staff
The 116th Rossland Winter Carnival received a warm reception from both Mother Nature, and a record number of local and visiting spectators. The annual event began during the wee hours of Friday morning when a large crowd gathered to have its smile broadcasted to the rest of Canada. Jeff Hutcheson, co-host of Canada AM, shot live footage from the corner of Queen and Columbia in downtown Rossland from 3 a.m. until 6 a.m. “We budgeted for 400 people to be there during the entire three hour time span,” said Deanne Steven, executive director for Tourism Rossland. “Over 600 people showed up in the first hour and a half.” The entire CTV crew was surprised
that such a small town could embrace such a crazy idea and turn out a big crowd during the early hours, said Steven. On Friday night, old traditions continued with a parade down Columbia Ave., followed by hot cocoa and a bonfire in Harry Lefevre square. “I’ve never seen so many people come out,” said Steven. “More locals and more tourists.” Post-parade, the Spirit of Red Society warmed the crowd with its official unveiling of the new Olaus Jeldness statue on the corner of Washington and Columbia. Jeldness was a Norwegian miner who pioneered the carnival in 1897. The numbers were also high for the annual Sonny Samuelson bobsled race which drew a record 28 entries.
Meanwhile, hundreds of spectators lined the Spokane Street track to cheer teams of those brave enough to ride a homemade sled from the top of Rossland to the bottom. The rise in mercury played a negative role in the speed down the track, explained Kelly Acheson, coordinator of the race. “Admittedly, it wasn’t the fastest year. It got too warm on Friday, and we worried that the track would be too slow. “The city was out there at 5 a.m. spraying and icing the course so it wouldn’t melt away.” The Iron Maiden sled from Rossland topped the field with a speed of 72 km per hour, and a combined time of 79.69 seconds over two runs. See RAIL, Page 3
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