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Winfield, Oyama, Okanagan Centre and Carrs Landing since 1951
2013 & 2014
NATIONAL BROKER NETWORK OF THE YEAR
David Docksteader, AMP
December 3, 2014
Inside
Giving season Instead of cheering themselves with a lovely Christmas dinner, staff at Gray Monk Winery decided to donate all the cost of the dinner to the Lake Country Food Bank. ...............................
2
Rail Trail deal A negotiated sales and purchase agreement has been signed with CN Rail for the discontinued rail line between Kelowna and Coldstream, excluding land claimed by the Okanagan Indian Band. The process now enters into 120 days of due diligence, which includes financing ................................
9
Pelmewash falling into disrepair
CONTRIBUTED
NEGOTIATIONS to hand over control of the Pelmewash Parkway from the provincial government to Lake Country have slowed down for a number of reasons, includ-
ing the amount of work to repair the road to municipal standards.
▼ PROVINCIAL HEEL DRAGGING
Flyers
Talks drag on between Lake Country and highways
■ Home Depot
KEVIN PARNELL
■ Jysk ■ Rona ■ Save On Foods ■ Shoppers Drug Mart ■ Staples (Dec 3rd Sale) ■ Staples (Tech Guide) ■ Summit Tools
Residents of Lake Country shouldn’t expect Pelmewash Parkway to turn into the recreational jewel of the area anytime soon. Talks between the B.C. Ministry of Highways and the District of Lake Country to turn the old Highway 97 over to municipal control have hit a serious slowdown for a number of factors.
Negotiations on the future of the old CN Rail line through Lake Country as well as the general disrepair of Pelmewash Parkway means the provincial government still owns, makes all the decisions and is responsible for maintenance of the roadway. “I don’t think anything is going to happen immediately,” said Lake Country councillor Owen Dickie. “Who
knows? Ultimately it becomes a budget item for everybody. It depends on our budget and the ministry of highways’ budget.” And one of the main budget items both the ministry of highways and Lake Country are looking at is what could be as much as $1 million in improvements to the road before any of the work the district would like to do to make it a pedestrian-friendly road
can be done. “Highways would like us to take over without the million (dollars) or more that we have assessed that it would take for scaling work and resurfacing and fixing it to a standard that is at least a municipal standard,” said Lake Country Mayor James Baker during the civic election campaign, when asked about Pelmewash Parkway. “We don’t want to sign off until they have
done a lot more remediation work.” When the new Highway 97 opened in the summer of 2013, it rerouted traffic from zipping through Lake Country along the windy stretch of the old highway to a fast, new route that bypassed parts of the municipality. The district spent more than a year holding public consultations with Lake Country residents, asking what they wanted to see on
the stretch of lake-front road that would become a municipal road and renamed it Pelmewash Parkway. But since then there has been little done on Pelmewash and the road has continued to fall further into disrepair. “The road has not been particularly very well-maintained over the last year,” said Dickie.
SEE PELMEWASH A3