A4 Thursday, January 08, 2015
2014
CHILLIWACK TIMES
YEAR IN Greg Laychak/TIMES
A Jehovah’s Witness is baptized in a pool during one of the three-day summer conventions hosted at Prospera Centre.
REVIEW
Greg Laychak/TIMES
A truck passes one of the newly posted speed limit signs after the maximum was raised to 110 kilometres per hour in July.
› July
July 3 For Justin Mallard and Brett Rancourt, being fathers seemed like an impossibility. But when the couple first started dating five years ago, they immediately talked about having children despite the obstacles—both real and perceived. So when a friend offered to be a surrogate the two jumped at the chance and the story of their twins Jordyn and Sawyer went viral.
for the money, but the gigs get more and more lucrative all the time. Pay for the top job at city hall increased 18 per cent since 2010 when the mayor made $78,097. This year Mayor Sharon Gaetz will earn a tidy $92,361 and the six city councillors take home $34,448 for the part-time job. That’s because, once again, a formula used every three years means a 2014 raise for Chilliwack municipal elected officials.
July 3 A Chilliwack couple want to warn dog owners after their German shepherd, Ben, died of an apparent poisoning on Wednesday. Pete and Jo-Ann Mitischev are devastated at the loss of one of their two beloved animals, and they don’t understand why anyone would intentionally do such a thing. “It just put me into shock,” Pete Mitischev told the Times Thursday. “It’s heartbreaking.” Mitischev arrived to his downtown home Wednesday afternoon only to find two-year-old Ben bleeding from the mouth and anus. At home, Mitischev found two rawhide sticks that had been tossed into his fenced in driveway, apparently from the back alley behind his Mayfair Avenue home.
July 17 Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz is making the connection between a recent air quality advisory in the Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver’s proposed waste-to-energy incinerator. “It’s not too hard to connect the dots,” Gaetz said in a Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) press release issued Tuesday. “More pollution equals more ground-level ozone. Metro wants to build another garbage incinerator. Why would they want to add more pollution and lower the air quality even further?” Gaetz and the FVRD have strongly opposed Metro’s proposed incinerator, arguing that any increase in emissions to the fragile Fraser Valley airshed is too much.
July 10 A Chilliwack prolific offender, who was once commended by city council for bravery, faces a raft of property crime and identity theft charges. Jeffrey Michael Kizmann has two trials and one preliminary inquiry scheduled in the fall. The 32-year-old career criminal goes to trial Nov. 14 for, among other charges, possession of stolen property and identity theft.
Greg Laychak/TIMES
Justin Mallard (right) and Brett Rancourt hold their new son and daughter, Sawyer and Jordyn, as photographer Devon Hall takes the family’s first portraits at her studio. Kizmann also has a trial scheduled to face possession/use of stolen credit cards and fraud, and he’s set for a preliminary inquiry to address 15 charges including mail theft, possession of stolen property, mischief and unauthorized use of credit card data. Kizmann was in attendance along with Clayton Eheler at a Chilliwack city council meeting 13 years ago in 2001 to be formally recognized “for their selfless acts of bravery” in connection with a fire on Princess Avenue. July 10 He’s young, he’s athletic and, if you’re stuck in an icy crevasse, he could probably rescue you.
And come November, Sam Waddington wants a seat on Chilliwack city council. The 24-year-old adventurer and owner of Mt. Waddington’s Outdoors in Vedder Crossing is the first person to formally announce he will seek one of the six spots on council. Municipal elections across British Columbia are set for Nov. 15. July 10 As part of a host of changes unveiled by Transportation Minister Todd Stone, the speed limit on the stretch of Highway 1 through Chilliwack was increased to 110 kilometres per hour.
The move will “bring the speed limit in line with actual travel speeds,” Stone said. The decision came out of months of public consultation and engineering reviews, according to the government. But the RCMP and the B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police argue that speed contributes to injuries and fatalities. B.C. truckers don’t like it either, and most won’t be increasing their speed to follow the new rates as high as 120 km/h on the Coquihalla. July 17 Few people run for political office
July 17 Few details have emerged about the killing of a Chilliwack man, but the Times has learned the victim was to be a witness in an unlawful confinement and robbery case currently before the courts. Chilliwack RCMP were called to the residence of Stefan Kondolay just after 4 a.m. on July 10 where he was found dead. The death was immediately { See JULY, page A5 }
Greg Laychak/TIMES
Paul J. Henderson/TIMES
Volunteers collect rubber ducks from the Vedder Canal after the Optimist Club of Chilliwack duck race.
Mounties with guns drawn during a fourhour standoff at a Portage Avenue home. Kimber Allan Derksen, 38, was arrested peacefully.