MONDAY
< Canadian actor mourned
JULY 15, 2013
Glee’s Cory Monteith found dead in Vancouver | Page 12
KEYSA Squads at Provincials > East Kootenay girls take on B.C.’s best | Page 8
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Vol. 61, Issue 137
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Koocanusa hosts flooded out FozzyFest
Organizers make lemonade out of lemons by moving festival from flooded Kananaskis to Grasmere, three days before it started SALLY MACDONALD Townsman Staff
Koocanusa played host to a 1,000-person strong music festival on the Canada Day long weekend. FozzyFest, a three-
day-long electronic music festival, was held at Big Springs campground at Tobacco Plains Indian Band from June 28 to July 1. It was a last-minute scramble to host the
event at Koocanusa. In its ninth year, FozzyFest — named with the nickname of one of the key organizers, Shawn Lafleur — has always been held beside a river on Crown land in Kanan-
askis country, Alberta. But everything fell apart for organizers one week before the event when flooding hit southeast B.C. and southern Alberta. “We thought it
wouldn’t be a big deal, that the roads would open up. The river might move a little bit, but we thought everything would be fine,” said managing director Darryl Stanat.
But five days before the event was set to begin, they realized there was no way they could reach the location. “It became apparent after trying to get down there several times from
all different angles that the whole area was shut down. Every road in there was washed out – literally, gone. It was just a big gap in the road.
See FOZZY , Page 3
Local mosquito control on the larvae attack ARNE PETRYSHEN Townsman Staff
BARRY COULTER PHOTO
Dana Larsen (third from right) brought his Sensible BC campaign to Cranbrook Thursday, July 11. Larsen has permission from Elections BC to launch a province-wide petition starting Sept. 9 calling for the decriminalization of marijuana. The campaign is currently recruiting canvassers.
Marijuana activist brings campaign to Cranbrook Dana Larsen’s Sensible BC campaign recruiting canvassers for B.C.-wide petition
BARRY COULTER
An activist pushing for the decriminalization of marijuana in British Columbia has received permission from Elections B.C. To launch a province-wide petition. On Thursday, July 11, Dana Larsen got the go-ahead to use
the province’s unique initiative legislation to propose a law that would decriminalize pot by preventing police from enforcing simple possession laws. Larsen and his Sensible BC campaign two months to sign up canvassers and prepare to start collecting signa-
tures on Sept. 9. Larsen has immediately started touring the province to get a team in place, and was in Cranbrook Thursday evening, where he took some time to speak to the Daily Townsman. “This is definitely an issue whose time has come,” Larsen
said. “But it is very challenging to get all the signatures we need to get on the ballot. We’ve been working on this for several months now, in terms of building support, getting awareness out there.”
See PETITION , Page 4
Mosquito season is upon us in many places and right around the corner in others, so it’s a good time to find out what Cranbrook is doing in preparation. The municipality contracts out the job to Morrow BioScience Ltd, a company out of North Vancouver that specializes in mosquito control. Locally, Kendra Lewis is area co-ordinator and technician of the Cranbrook leg of the program. Lewis said around this time, the biggest thing residents can do to reduce mosquito activity, is clean up yards and gutters. The downpours of late provide the perfect breeding grounds for mosquitos. Lewis said things like wheelbarrows, water barrels, water dishes that pets aren’t using
and ponds that don’t have fish in them are prime places for mosquitos to proliferate. “Anything that holds water, that’s what people should be looking at in their own yards,” Lewis said, adding that all of the big sites around Cranbrook have been treated a few times now. “Our sites are clear, it’s just stuff within the city that we need people to work on right now,” she said. “It’s definitely been a bad mosquito year, but we’ve kept on top of it, that’s for sure.” Lewis said she has killed a lot of larvae already this season, and attributes the high numbers to last year’s high water as well. She noted a lot of egg-laying went on and all of her permanent sites, sometimes seeing 200 larvae per sample dip.
See MOSQUITO, Page 4
NIGHT MARKET www.cranbrookfarmersmarket.com
Wednesday, July 17th 5:00 - 8:30 pm
Rotary Park, downtown Cranbrook
Farmer’s Market Vendors proudly offering a wide variety of Locally Made, Baked and Grown products, Hot Food, Cool Drinks & more! Live music onstage featuring The Rosie Brown Band.