EAGLE VALLEY
NEWS
Postal delivery goes awry due to accident Page 2
Fundraiser will help students get outdoors Page 6
Wednesday, May 29, 2013 PM40008236
Vol. 55 No. 22 Sicamous, B.C., • 1.25 (GST included) • www.eaglevalleynews.com
Council drops Canada Day fireworks
B.C. Day: Proposed move prompts heated debate of tradition vs. economy. By Lachlan Labere Eagle Valley News
Canada Day in Sicamous may not be the same now that district council has decided to move the annual fireworks display to the August long weekend. The decision was a result of a three-way split in council when voting on a motion to hold fireworks on July 1. Couns. Fred Busch, Charlotte Hutchinson and Joan Thomson were in favour; Couns. Don Richardson, Terry Rysz and Mayor Darrell Trouton were against. According to the Local Government Act, when the number of votes, including the vote of the person presiding, are equal, the motion is defeated. And so, the fireworks display will be held on the B.C. Day long weekYou only have so end at the beginning of much money in the August, as it was last pot, and…when you summer when the Candon’t have a program ada Day event had to be postponed on account of that’s being funded completely you have flooding. Prior to council’s de- to find it from other cision, two surveys were sources. Fred Busch conducted on the idea Councillor of permanently moving the fireworks display to August. The first was conducted by the Sicamous chamber. Of the 30 per cent of chamber members who responded, 70 per cent favoured the move, and 27 per cent asked that fireworks be kept on Canada Day. In the second survey, conducted by the district, 66 of the respondents voted to keep fireworks on Canada Day, while 60 wanted them moved to August. Though the result of council’s vote may be indisputable, Busch, Hutchinson and Thomson debated its necessity in the first place. “It was never my understanding by having the fireworks last year on the August long weekend that
Province funds additional creek projects
See Mayor argues on page 3
See Repeat on page 2
Enforcement: Excavators were in action last week, being used to reinforce sections of the bank along Sicamous Creek identified by the Shuswap Emergency Program and the District of Sicamous as areas of concern. Photo by Lachlan Labere
Rising water: Shuswap Emergency Program responds to threat.
By Lachlan Labere Eagle Valley News
A million dollars may not have been enough to tame Sicamous Creek. Last week, excavators could be seen strategically stacking large rocks in specific areas along the creek, further enhancing previous restoration work done by the province following the June 23 debris flow. This was after the Shuswap Emergency Program (SEP), in partnership with the District of Sicamous, established an emergency operations centre on May 9 so as
to access $217,000 in provincial funding through Emergency Management B.C. “By three o’clock, we were activating the emergency operations centre, not that there was any real need for a whole bunch of things to occur at that point, but when you activate the emergency operations centre you can tap into provincial money, and provincial funds are useful for situations like this when you don’t have to rely on District of Sicamous taxpayer dollars,” SEP co-ordinator Cliff Doherty explained last week in a presentation to council.
Doherty had been working with the district since May 8, after a meeting was requested by district operations manager Randy Hand in regard to the water level in the creek and the rainfall forecast. On the same day, a number of actions took place, including a helicopter flight over the creek. “We had submissions going forward to the province for $50,000 to do some temporary emergency works because there were real fears that one side of Sicamous Creek… might be wearing away at the banks,” said Doherty.
Engineers were brought in and three projects were identified, totalling $217,000, with the most pressing estimated at $58,000. Discussions ensued as to whether the repairs would be temporary or permanent. The province eventually chose to approve the $58,000 “ to do those temporary works in Sicamous Creek to the benefit of the community.” On May 15, a proposal for two other projects were submitted, but initially denied. Doherty said more information and “justification,”