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November 13, 2013
Inside
Warm up your auction arm The Lake Country Art Gallery has a great way to refresh your home, business or gift-giving list–its annual art exchange and auction. ...............................
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CONTRIBUTED
RECLAMATION work is being done on one of the gravel pits in Lake Country, near the site of the proposed Witzke pit.
▼ MINING
Proposed gravel pit rejected; won’t be the last KEVIN PARNELL
OSFA–not One size fits all— no it doesn’t as Faith columnist Jim Taylor reminds us. ...............................
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Flyers ■ Home Depot ■ Rona ■ Staples
Lake Country council turned down a proposal for a new gravel pit near Oyama last week but it’s likely the issue will come before council again and, according to the applicant who was turned down, the issue of gravel trucks going through the community of Oyama is far from over. Fred Thiessen of Interior Gravel Products called Lake Country’s decision to turn down his application to mine a piece of property next to the new Highway 97 short-sighted and says the issue isn’t going away.
“If this pit closes the next nearest pit is Pier Mac on the other side of Kalamalka Lake,” said Thiessen after council denied his request to open a new pit called the Witzke pit in Oyama. “There will be 4,000 to 5,000 truckloads directly traveling downtown through Oyama, through school zones. That’s where those trucks will go. Is that a better alternative to me being directly on the highway?” Lake Country council was unanimous in voting against another gravel pit in Oyama. Thiessen had applied for the permit and would have also
had to receive approval from the Agriculture Land Commission and the provincial Ministry of Mines to get the go ahead. He says the two pits that he currently leases are coming to the end of their life and he already hasn’t been able to bid jobs due to the fact his supply is running out. But councillors weren’t convinced it was the right move for the district and questioned the lack of reclamation on several pits in Lake Country. “We have five gravel pits in the area,” said Coun. Rob Geier. “We have some to the north
are going to be reclaimed but residents are not seeing that. We just see scars and they get bigger and bigger. I don’t see the economic need personally for more gravel with all the pits that are out there.” Mining consultant Eric Beresford told council there are four pits in the area that are all within the final year of operation and reclamation work is then done. Gravel pit operators have to put up bonds with the Ministry of Energy and Mines as a way to ensure
Penny Gambell and out of our boundary and we have some
in Oyama and east of Oyama and we hear they
SEE GRAVEL PIT A3
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