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DECATHLETE James Turner finished up his season with personal bests in six of his 10 events and winning a gold medal at the North American, Central American Championships.
CAPTURING water that comes your way for free is the best way to refresh your garden and save money, says xeriscape specialist Gwen Steele, who is promoting a workshop intended to help wean homeowners from wasting water.
COLUMNIST Maxine DeHart introduces us to two new restaurants in Kelowna’s Pandosy business district each providing a unique service model and menu options.
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THURSDAY August 14, 2014 The Central Okanagan’s Best-Read Newspaper www.kelownacapnews.com
Funding aid for seniors’ centre
▼ BC HYDRO
Fast charging station offered to West Kelowna Wade Paterson
Alistair Waters
STAFF REPORTER
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Drivers of electric cars will soon have more incentive to travel to West Kelowna. The District of West Kelowna is expected to receive one of 30 direct current (DC) fast charging stations being installed throughout the province by BC Hydro. The initiative is part of the provincial Clean Energy Vehicle Program, which has the goal of promoting electric vehicle tourism in the province. BC Hydro’s first DC fast charging facility was installed in Surrey in 2013. Since then, additional stations have been placed in Nanaimo, Duncan, Merritt, Kamloops, Squamish and Langley. Now BC Hydro is looking to expand the project to several communities in the Southern Interior, including: Chase, Salmon Arm, Sicamous, Revelstoke, Vernon, Penticton, Keremeos, Princeton, Manning Park Resort/ Eastgate, as well as West Kelowna. A fast charging station will provide an 80 per cent charge in 20 or 30 minutes, which is significantly quicker than level two charging stations, which can take up to eight hours. West Kelowna’s station will serve one car at a time. BC Hydro is proposing to cover the $85,000 installation cost associated with the project. The district’s estimated operating cost is $1,000 per year, which would cover minor maintenance, station monitoring and cost of electricity service. West Kelowna is expected to operate the station for at least two to five years. It will likely cost consumers $2 per charging session to use the station. “It’s kind of hard to say, ‘no,’ to such a feel-good opportunity,” said Coun. Rick de Jong. De Jong, however, questioned whether the station may be a target for vandalism and whether the district’s costs could be higher than the estimated $1,000 per year. West Kelowna council will be able to choose three potential sites where its charging station could be installed in the community.
For the third year in a row, the federal government has come through with money to help turn a former Sikh Temple building in Rutland into a seniors centre. Federal Minister of State for Seniors Alice Wong was in Kelowna Wednesday to announce a grant of nearly $25,000 for the Dr. Gurmeet Singh Randhawa Seniors Society. The money will be used to improve the heating, air conditioning and floors in the building, which sits on the grounds of the newer, larger Kelowna Sikh temple that replaced it. Speaking at the temple, Wong said one of her goals as minister of state for seniors is to help end what she called “social isolation” of seniors in communities across the country. Wong added that seniors’ centres like the Rutland facility help address that social isolation issue by giving seniors a place to go and socialize with others.
JENNIFER SMITH/CAPITAL NEWS
GRASS FIRE…A helicopter drops a bucket load of water on a grass fire in the Ellison area that
began burning Wednesday afternoon near the intersection of Farmers Drive and Dead Pine Drive. A log pile also caught on fire but no buildings were reported damaged. A tanker truck and two fire trucks, from the Ellison and Kelowna fire departments, responded to the scene.
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