EAGLE VALLEY
NEWS
Candidates aim to build local economies Page 3
Students fare well at martial arts tourney Page 6
Wednesday, May 8, 2013 PM40008236
Vol. 55 No. 19 Sicamous, B.C., • 1.25 (GST included) • www.eaglevalleynews.com
District’s push for disaster aid shot down SILGA: Convention a chance to bring local issues to forefront. By Lachlan Labere Eagle Valley News
While this year’s Southern Interior Local Government Association convention was successful for Salmon Arm, it wasn’t entirely so for the District of Sicamous. Last week the City of Salmon Arm hosted around 200 local government representatives, who were in town for the three-day convention. Held at the Prestige Harbourfront Resort, the event provided an opportunity for members to discuss pressing issues of the day, pass related resolutions to go to the Union of BC Municipalities convention for wider support, and learn from numerous guest speakers including former Shuswap MLA George Abbott, B.C. Auditor General for Local Government Basia Ruta and former Vancouver Canuck and professional speaker Trevor Linden. But the event, organized and co-ordinated with the help of Salmon Arm council’s SILGA repreI know how horsentative Chad Eliason rible it is, I’ve had to and city staff, was also an watch it twice now, opportunity to showcase where you have folks the city and all it has to on one side of the offer. street that are able Salmon Arm Mayor to get coverage… Nancy Cooper said delegates responded well Rhona Martin to the things that hapCSRD pened off site, such as an evening at the RJ Haney Heritage Village, or a lunch on the town where they had an opportunity to take advantage of the city’s culinary assets. There were 34 resolutions voted on during the convention, ranging in topic from funding for provincial prisoners to enforcement of Riparian Area Regulations to preventing excessive vehicle noise in relation to motorcycles and boats. While Salmon Arm did not have any resolutions, the District of Sicamous had four, of which only two passed. See Martin on page 2
Big project: Lake Country Log Homes’ Don Gervais, and sons Jamie and Rob Gervais stand in front of the Malakwa company’s latest project – 18,000 square-feet of custom log work to be shipped to Colorado. Photo contributed
Malakwa business earning big reputation By Lachlan Labere Eagle Valley News
Malakwa’s Lake Country Log Homes is on the cusp of completing its part of a 26,000 square-foot “cabin” that is expected to further the reputation of the family-owned and operated business stateside. For close to a year now, Lake Country Log Homes has been assembling an 18,000-square-foot, custom-log structure to be shipped to a client in Colorado. Vice-president and sales manager Jamie Gervais says this is one of the company’s most ambitious projects in a while. “It’s definitely making a statement, putting our name out there,”
Select cedar: Jamie Gervais stands on one of the logs chosen for the Colorado project. Photo contributed says Gervais. “Because where it’s going, it’s a pretty exclusive market, kind of like Whistler. And the client is in-
terested in becoming a dealership for us down there as well.” Gervais describes the project as a cus-
tom Western red cedar post and beam home, with logs ranging from 20-inches to 80-inches in diameter, sourced
from B.C.’s West Coast. When it’s completed, the structure will be disassembled and shipped to Colorado, where a team will put it back together in substantially less time than it took to put it together. “We handcraft it in Malakwa, and once it’s completed, it’s tagged and labeled, and then dismantled and put onto trucks,” says Gervais. “And when it’s on site, it’s put together fairly fast – this one will take a while. For an average-sized house, it takes three or four days to erect a log package, and then the framers are ready to frame the house and get it locked up.” Lake Country Log Homes was founded See Interest on page 2