WEDNESDAY
S I N C E
SEPTEMBER 10, 2014
1 8 9 5
SantaClaus comes through town
Vol. 119, Issue 141
105
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INCLUDING G.S.T.
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PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALMO
Sewer line replacement solution clogged
WALKWAY WORK
City of Trail takes issue with RDKB board chair assuming role on committee BY SHERI REGNIER Times Staff
SHERI REGNIER PHOTO
Sierra Landscaping was back in town this week to dig up the cracked asphalt pathway that leads off Victoria Street near the medical building, and replace it with a wider concrete sidewalk. The Okanagan-based company completed the planting phase of the downtown revitalization plan last month, but returned to Trail to complete the week-long upgrade and follow up on the greening project.
Rural doctor program coming to KBRH community is designed to encourage newly licensed physicians to settle down and start up a practice in that same community. “The addition of a family practice residency program will further compliment the enhance our capacity to train future physicians and will further enhance physician presence in rural areas,” she said, during a press conference at KBRH on Monday. “It will also allow them the gratifying experience of what it is like to practice family medicine in rural areas. We are very pleased to be part of this
BY LIZ BEVAN Times Staff
Doctors training in Trail will mean more doctors practicing in Trail according to a new plan from the University of British Columbia. Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital (KBRH) is the newest addition to the short list of hospitals offering rural residency post graduate opportunities for family practice medical students in the province. Dr. Cheryl Hume, site director for the residency program, says training family practitioners in a rural
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and hopefully we will see many young physicians returning to our area to provide care. It will have a major impact on stabilizing future physician recruitment and retention and thereby enhancing patient care and increasing physician access in West Kootenay.” UBC Residency Program Director, Dr. Willa Henry, was in attendance at the press conference and spoke about the importance of a program that trains doctors to be rural general practitioners. See KBRH, Page 3
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Plans to replace the regional sewer line and build a new river crossing are being backed up at the regional level, says Trail council. Revisiting past proposals, huge cost divides and displacing the sewer committee chair, are delaying decisions on how Trail, Warfield, and Rossland can move forward with the shared sewer utility. City council remains steadfast in its decision that the most cost effective way to string a sewer pipe across the Columbia River is by an aerial crossing on a pipe bridge at the south end of town. Regional partners put a stop to the pipe/pedestrian bridge proposal after the sewer committee opted to revisit past methods that on the surface, appear to be cheaper. Such as directing new pipe along Bay Avenue and hanging the line on the Victoria Street Bridge, or the most recent suggestion that involves suspending a sewer line along the city’s historic river wall. No way, says Trail council, because tearing up Bay Avenue to lay new pipe would not only cause disruption to the downtown core and be a step backward in city revitalization, but the option is much more expensive than the regional district’s
$2.7 million estimate. In a report from the city’s consulting firm, redirecting the sewer line through town costs more in the neighbourhood of $6.5 million, once the line is removed from the old bridge, directed through downtown to the new bridge, then redirected back through East Trail and fed into into the regional system. During the Monday governance and operations committee meeting (GOC), city council unanimously agreed to send a letter to the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) relaying its decision that those two alternate routes were not acceptable and as owners of the Bay Avenue right-of-way, approval would have to be issued by the city. Coun. Rick Georgetti asked the city’s administrator if Trail’s report was more accurate than the regional district’s regarding the cost estimates. “I wouldn’t want to suggest that one firm is better than the other,” explained David Perehudoff. “Our estimate is much more detailed in terms of how it was developed and the firm was on site. Someone on the sewer committee may say there was bias to inflate the number, but that’s simply not true.” Besides the 80-year old Esplanade river wall being of historic value to the city with significant architectural features, the city’s report states that suspending a sewer line isn’t feasible due to the existence of cracks, distress, See CITY, Page 3
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