SUMMERLAND REVIEW THE VOICE OF OUR COMMUNITY SINCE 1908
VOLUME
66
-
ISSUE
NO.
52
•
S U M M E R L A N D,
WWW.SUMMERLANDREVIEW.COM
B.C.
• T U E S D AY,
DECEMBER
24,
2013
•
16
PA G E S
•
$1.15
INCLUDING
GST
Merry Christmas
Tourism website planned
WHAT’S INSIDE:
by John Arendt
Knitting
Knitters in Summerland have been busy making items which have been donated to the Summerland Food Bank.
Page 15
On the bus
The free introductory period is over and Summerland Transit will begin charging for its scheduled bus service in the new year.
Page 3
Fruit donated
The Summerland Fruit Tree Project had a successful year.
Page 6
Fitness success
It took a year for a Summerland man to make dramatic improvements to his health.
Page 12
YOUR SMILE Christmas is in my heart 12 months a year and thanks to credit cards, it’s also on my statement 12 months a year.
100th birthday
John Arendt Summerland Review
Rosa King, a resident at Angus Place in Summerland, celebrated her 100th birthday. King was born in Munich, Germany on Dec. 26, 1913. In 1951, she emigrated to Canada, living in Winnipeg first and later in Calgary. She retired to Summerland in 1973 and has been a resident at Angus Place since the spring of 2001.
Library future considered Present facility too small for Summerland’s population by John Arendt The municipality will work with the Okanagan Regional Library board in 2014 to find a new home for the Summerland library branch. The present library building, on Wharton Street, was constructed in 1981 and is now much too small to meet
the needs of Summerland’s present population. The library has an area of 316 square metres, or 48 per cent of the size required for Summerland’s population, according to calculations from the Okanagan Regional Library. Since 2003, the library board has been looking for a new location for the Summerland branch. A proposed development on Wharton Street had been suggested as a location to house the expanded library, but the development plan
was halted earlier this year. Mayor Janice Perrino said the search for a new location will continue in 2014. In addition, Perrino said the municipality will passively market the Wharton Street property in 2014. In the past decade, the site has been considered for a multi-building development which would include residential suites, a new location for the library and the Summerland Museum and some retail or commercial space. See GOALS Page 3
A new tourism site for the community will be launched in spring as the Summerland Chamber works to separate its tourism information from the rest of its online information. At present, the Summerland Chamber’s site at summerlandchamber.com has information for residents and businesses, chamber board news and information for tourists. Chamber manager Christine Petkau said the Tourism Summerland site will have all information for visitors on a single dedicated site. “It’s like a Visitors’ Guide on steroids,” she said. The Summerland Visitors’ Guide is published each year and distributed to tourism centres around the province and beyond. It is also posted online. At present, the chamber’s tourism information is on the same site as the rest of its information. This means those looking for tourism information are also receiving the information about Summerland Chamber board meetings and information for local businesses. Work on the standalone site began earlier this year and is part of the chamber’s various tourism initiatives. In addition to the site and the Visitors’ Guide, the chamber is also working on partnership opportunities with other communities in the region. For the second year in a row, the chamber will work with Penticton and Okanagan Falls in tourism promotion work. In 2013, Summerland and other South Okanagan communities joined forces in the You Are Here tourism marketing campaign. “It just makes sense to pool some of our resources for joint marketing. We will be building on this campaign in 2014 and we are already making plans for 2015 as well,” Petkau said. In addition to the tourism site, the chamber board will look at other goals for the coming year. “The chamber board is examining our priorities and the special projects that we will take on in 2014 and these will be presented to our members in the new year. In addition, we will continue to responsively serve our business members as well as work with a variety of partners to achieve our goals in tourism and business retention and attraction,” said chamber president Arlene Fenrich.