WEDNESDAY
S I N C E
NOVEMBER 12, 2014
1 8 9 5
Vol. 119, Issue 176
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INCLUDING G.S.T.
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PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALMO
Chamber pursues option for an indoor market
J. L. CROWE REMEMBRANCE DAY
BY SHERI REGNIER Times Staff
SHERI REGNIER PHOTO
The gym in J.L. Crowe Secondary School was standing room only when students, teachers, and parents gathered for the annual Remembrance Day Ceremony Friday morning. The audience viewed video snippets, one very moving clip about the death of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at Ottawa's National War Memorial and recited original poems followed by In Flanders Fields. Caia Gagnon, a member of the Kootenay Royal Canadian Sea Cadets Corps was assigned the honour of laying of wreaths.
By now, there would have been at least one indoor day of shopping at the Trail Memorial Centre gym. But with neither the chamber nor 25 downtown businesses hungry for a Trail Indoor Market at that location - the Friday events were officially scrapped last month. The good news for market goers is that the indoor venue could still happen, this time in a more centralized downtown location. “We see tremendous value in the markets on the Esplanade as part of the overall effort to make the downtown more attractive to residents, visitors, and the downtown community,” said Norm Casler, executive director of the Trail and District Chamber of Commerce (TCOC). “But the indoor market is a completely different story. What we've been saying for two years is that people and businesses are asking to have the market put into one of the downtown empty buildings.” The chamber has taken steps with the owner of a vacant building, the fire department, and the city to determine the legalities of hosting the indoor market in a privately owned facility. “In fairness, it has been a lot of work to find out what has to be done before the building is deemed safe and legal,” said Casler. “But anytime you get people together who try to come
up with solutions as a group, that's a good thing. It's late in the game, but I have the downtown businesses wholehearted support and we are willing to do it for the good of the community.” The downtown business group includes all businesses in the core of Trail to the south side of the Victoria Street Bridge and those along Rossland Avenue. The discussion about the market was simply to point out the fact that it was created to bring people into the downtown core, said Daniel Haley, on behalf of the group. “The last two years the market has been in the arena, it has kept people out of the downtown core and on that side of Victoria Street.” Haley said the group has since sent a letter thanking the TCOC for understanding the market was a deterrent to downtown Saturday shoppers. “We would also like to point out that we were extremely pleased that the chamber and Norm Casler were prudent by looking for an opportunity to hold the market in the centre of downtown, which we felt would benefit both the market people as well as coffee shops, restaurants, and retail shops.” Besides advocating for the downtown businesses and chamber members, Casler noted there was another key factor in TCOC's decision to pull support for a market at the TMC locale. See EASE, Page 3
Few Trail women involved in municipal politics BY SHERI REGNIER Times Staff
A century of Silver City politics, and still no woman in the mayor's seat. Granted there's only been one Trail woman throw her chapeau into the ring (Doris Robinson in 1922) by now one might think it's time for a female to take the lead. Looking at Greater Trail's surrounding communities, excluding Warfield, all have quite long
histories of a woman elected to the top seat as well as a number of females serving council. Joan Lakes was the first and only woman Mayor of Montrose, and the first female regional district chair after she was voted into her three-year position in 1994. By the end of her political career, Lakes served in local politics for a decade, seven years as Montrose councillor before her
one term as mayor. “When I ran for mayor I ran against two men,” Lakes said. “And I got more votes than the two of them together,” she chuckled. “That's going back a long way but I was pretty gungho about what I wanted for this village.” Lake had an empty nest when she was mayor, but recalled the job's heavy time commitment that included meetings at least four nights a week on top of
a demanding schedule as board chair at the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary. “I know a lot of people think that in a small village there are no issues,” she said. “Our budget is a pittance next to the larger cities,” Lake explained. “But I remember giving a speech at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (annual conference). After I finished, I had a man from Toronto saying 'you
know we have the same issues' except on a smaller scale.” Another Beaver Valley community with females leading the way is Fruitvale. The village's first woman, Libby Nelson, held the mayoral seat from 1996 to 2011 and since then Fruitvale Mayor Patricia Cecchini has held the position, once through election and this year by acclamation. See FRUITVALE, Page 3
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