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BUZZ TRUSS (right) and his Kelowna Owls teammates will host the Interior Savings Western Canadian Basketball Tournament this week.
MEET THE CHEFS competing in the Grand Finale of the Canadian Culinary Championships taking place at Kelowna’s Delta Grand hotel this weekend.
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TUESDAY February 4, 2014 The Central Okanagan’s Best-Read Newspaper www.kelownacapnews.com
▼ KELOWNA
▼ ANIMAL ABUSE
The $100,000 question: How to improve on Rutland?
Kelowna shelter helping seized dogs, horses
Alistair Waters
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Rutland received plenty of attention Monday at Kelowna council’s weekly public meeting. In addition to approving plans for a new $6 million ultra-violet water treatment system for approximately 20,000 water users on the Back Mountain Irrigation District’s system, council also gave the green light to a new $100,000 plan to ask the public how the money can be spent to improve the city’s most populous residential area. The BMID water treatment plant will be built on five acres in the Joe Rich area and will improve water quality already considered the best in the city. The land it is to be located on is in the Agricultural Land Reserve but the commission that overseas the reserve ruled last year that it could be used for the new plant. The plant is expected to be operational next year and will be tied in with plans for a much more expensive new reservoir for the BMID system, one that will require funding
from either the province or the federal government, or both. Meanwhile, the Our Rutland campaign will see the city put up $100,000 and ask the public to submit ideas for how the money should be spent to improve the Rutland area. Mayor Walter Gray said in addition, the city’s public art fund could be used to get more pieces of public art created for the area. Described by the city as a potential catalyst and one to help generate positive momentum through community-determined, Rutland-focused actions, the Our Rutland project is a partnership between the city, the Uptown Rutland Business Association (URBA), the Rutland Residents Association and The Rutland Unified Stakeholders Team (TRUST). According to the city, the money could be used for one large project or several smaller ones. It is one-time funding and can’t be used for projects already identified in previous planning docuSee Upgrade A10
SPCA animal shelters in Kelowna, Penticton and Kamloops are coming to the aid of 16 seized dogs, mostly standard poodle and golden retriever crosses, and two quarter horses from a rural property in Clearwater. SPCA Const. Kent Kokoska, senior animal protection officer with the B.C. SPCA, said the badly neglected dogs were filthy and severely matted and were living in unacceptable conditions. The horses were also being kept in substandard conditions and were severely matted, with cracked and chipped hooves. Two deceased dogs and one deceased calf were also found on the property. “We are grateful to the Clearwater RCMP for bringing this case to our attention,” said Kokoska. “Our 26 SPCA constables have extensive areas to cover across B.C and we respond to more than 7,000 complaints of animal cruelty each year, so it is very helpful for us to have the support of communities in reporting cases of suspected abuse or neglect.” Kokoska calls the level of neglect of the seized animals “very disturbing” and notes that the investigation is continuing and charges of animal cruelty are pending in the case. The horses are being cared for at the Kamloops SPCA animal shelter, and the dogs divided between the Kelowna and Penticton facilities. The animals are not up for adoption at this stage, but SPCA officials say check out the website www.spca. bc.ca for updates.
ALISTAIR WATERS/CAPITAL NEWS
OLYMPIC FEVER…Kelowna Coun. Colin Basran shows off his
Go Eric Go T-shirt in support of local Olympic skeleton rider Eric Neilson, who will compete at the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, which kick off on Friday. On Thursday, Basran will be at Rutland Middle School, the former school for both Neislon and Basran, to proclaim Eric Neislon Day in the city on behalf of council. A pep rally and send off will be held at 1:30 p.m. for the local Olympian, whose mom works at the school. Other local athletes headed for Sochi include ski cross skier Kelsey Serwa and former Kelowna Rockets defenceman Shea Weber, a member of the men’s hockey team, who was raised in Sicamous but now owns a home in West Kelowna.
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CONTRIBUTED
ONE OF THE seized dogs taken away by SPCA
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