New charges laid against man accused of killing Revelstoke’s Daniel Levesque – 3
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Linda Chell, Citizen of the Year - 9
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Singing in the holidays
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Weds., December 11, 2013 www.revelstoketimesreview.com Vol. 116, No. 50
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Survey: Revestokians satisfied with most city services, but some big exceptions Residents mostly positive on city services, but city Development Services department gets hammered; mayor, CAO say changes underway there Aaron Orlando
editor@revelstoketimesreview.com
The Revelstoke Community Choir sings Christmas carols before the Santa Claus parade on Saturday. The parade attracted more than a dozen floats and brought out hundreds of people of all ages who braved the cold along the parade route. Christmas season is in full swing in Revelstoke. For more holiday season photos, see page 20. Alex Cooper/Revelstoke Times Review
RCMP defend actions in bear shooting RCMP reveal Revelstoke set to lose Conservation Officer before Christmas, will rely on response from Golden, Vernon Aaron Orlando
editor@revelstoketimesreview.com
Revelstoke RCMP are defending their decisions and actions after a bear was destroyed in the Big Eddy on the evening of Sunday, Dec. 8. The incident started in Farwell when police responded to complaints from residents about the young bear roaming in back yards. Eventually, three police vehicles attended and tried to shoo the bear
away. Their efforts, which involved using sirens, lights and hurling chunks of ice at the animal, soon attracted a crowd of onlookers, creating dangerous moments. Revelstoke RCMP Staff-Sgt. Kurt Grabinsky said some of the onlookers got between the police and the bear, and some disobeyed orders to leave the area. Grabinsky said at one point one bystander asked police to move out of the way because police
were blocking his cell phone video shot. Grabinsky said some people got within about seven metres of the stressed and agitated bear. “As the [police cruiser dashboard] video will clearly show, they were between us and the bear,” Grabinsky said. “It appears that the higher priority is getting that cell phone shot than their own … safety.”
Conservation Officer, page 3
The City of Revelstoke’s newly-released customer satisfaction survey shows residents are mostly positive about city services and departments, but the results clearly point out strong dissatisfaction with a few specific services. The 2013 Customer Satisfaction Survey takes at least 30 minutes to read; here’s a synopsis of the results. The city received 943 survey responses to its fall survey, although fewer completed the survey in its entirety. City of Revelstoke Chief Administrative Officer Tim Palmer said the results were better than anticipated, calling it, “outstanding community response, very, very good feedback.” Mayor David Raven said the survey was helpful. “Some really excellent comments came through. Overall the qualitative information will give us stuff to work on in the future. Some of it is reflected in the budget processes this year,” he said. “Some of the very negative stuff is dismissed, but some of the more positive stuff is taken in heart.” City staff say they will use the results to guide budget decisions in the coming months and years. The three city departments with good “positive experience” rating report cards are Parks, Recreation and Culture (84 per cent), Public Works (74 per cent), and Fire Rescue Services (71 per cent). Two departments brought home bad report cards: City Hall (including Finance and Administration) scored 62 per cent, and Community Economic Development scored 55 per cent. The only department to flunk the “positive experience rating” was Development Services, which scored 45 per cent. The survey asked questions about citizen satisfaction with specific services offered by each department. The majority of responses were positive, and some are described as mixed. However, residents clearly pointed out dissatisfaction with specific services. By department:
City Hall, Finance and Administration Five out of six services offered received overall positive ratings. The ‘mayor’s office’ was the only category with more negative than
City satisfaction survey, page 5
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