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OKANAGAN SUN head coach Shane Beatty put some 90 players through their paces at the junior football team’s spring camp.
LOCAL SENIORS invited to audition their music and dance skills for the annual Senior Star national talent competition
IF THE Victoria Day long weekend is the official start of summer in the Okanagan, then it’s time to dust off the barbecue and fire up the grill.
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TUESDAY May 14, 2013 The Central Okanagan’s Best-Read Newspaper www.kelownacapnews.com
▼ BALLET KELOWNA
City comes through with $33,000 grant
Alistair Waters
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Ballet Kelowna’s survival has been rewarded with a $30,000 operating grant from the city. Kelowna city council had held off awarding the local dance company the annual grant earlier this spring because of uncertainty about Ballet Kelowna’s future. But city cultural services manager Sandra Kochan said following an initial decision by Ballet Kelowna to shut down at the end of this season, the community rallied around it and has helped keep it alive. A reduced 2013-14 season is planned, using two fewer dancers and reducing the number of performances. But, she said, the performances for local schools and for UBC Okanagan will continue, as well as the popular annual production of Christmas favourite, The Nutcracker. Kochan told council membership in the society that runs Ballet Kelowna has tripled since the talk of its demise, its earned revenue from ticket sales has risen by 77 per cent, individual donations have doubled and the company’s season-ending performance at the Kelowna community theatre last month sold out for the first time in Ballet Kelowna’s 10-year history. Ballet Kelowna board member and tour coordinator Joan Wilson told council the company has enough money to start next season and is planning as if it will be around “for at least the next 10 years.” “The whole process of becoming financially viable is one that we take very seriously,” she said when asked about the future of Ballet Kelonwa beyond 2014. Coun. Robert Hobson noted the efforts of other local arts organizations to help Ballet Kelowna survive, saying local arts groups showed they really are part of a community in the city. “It’s really a testament to the passion people in the community have for the arts,” he said. Mayor Walter Gray said the advertising for the city that Ballet Kelowna generates when it travels to the 55 different communities it performs in each year across Western Canada is also invaluable. Wilson said presenters in some of those communities have noted that the name Kelowna is included in all the advertising and has resulted in some in those communities being surprised to see a city the size of Kelowna has its own ballet company.
DON SIPOS/CONTRIBUTOR
SUDDEN SHOCK… Staff at the Kelly O’Bryan’s restaurant in West Kelowna collect their thoughts after witnessing a Dodge
Caravan come crashing through the front window of the restaurant on Saturday afternoon. See story and photos on A18.
▼ SHANNON LAKE
Golf course clubhouse gutted by fire Jennifer Smith STAFF REPORTER
There will likely be some under-employed staff at Shannon Lake Golf Course this summer, according to the general manager. John Jacoby said he doesn’t want to see people lose their jobs, but after fire razed the restaurant and pro-shop in the early hours of Saturday morning, no one is needed to serve the Granville Island beer still advertised on a sandwich board at the building’s
entrance. This was the first year the golf course was to operate its own food and beverage service, having taken over the restaurant from a contractor. “We’ll still need people to run the golf course, but there is no restaurant or pro shop left,” said Jacoby. There is also still no way to know if the golf clubs and shoes people might have stored in the building’s basement can be salvaged.
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West Kelowna RCMP have taken over the fire investigation and are looking at it as an arson, according to RCMP spokesman Cnst. Kris Clark. The building is on lock-down. From the outside, it’s clear the kitchen of the building is untouched, ruling out a kitchen fire. Firefighters told Jacoby the evening of the fire that the electrical was not an issue. He believes the ignition point was identified on the outside of the building, but he can’t be sure. 1
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He arrived at 3 a.m. just as the building remnants were being doused. “Much of what was downstairs in the building is untouched by fire and the water damage. The records should be fine,” he said. Jacoby acknowledged that he’s really hoping this is the case as the loss of the membership files would mean a lot of work to replace them.
See Fire A6
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