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Serving the South Country, Fernie, Sparwood, Elkford since 1898
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Your Source for Allergy Medicine
Sparwood hosts Teens get Heavy Pizza & pasta first Town Hall 250-423-4231 Duty training meeting
MON-TUES MADNESS! Ask us for details.
1221 7 Ave, Hwy 3 Fernie
WWW.FERNIEPIZZAANDPASTA.CA
HOSMER
By Sarah Kucharski Free Press Staff
T
Executive retreat opening- Page 12 FERNIE
The Arts Station hosts AGM- Page 2 SPARWOOD
Move For Your Health Day - Page 3
SPORTS
Kootenay Tae Twon Do - Page 17
Elk Valley students Taylor Wurmlinger and Evan Pumphrey took part in the Heavy Duty program held from May 10-13. For more photos and the full story turn to page 3. Photo by K. Dingman
he first ever Sparwood Town Hall meeting was held at the Leisure Center on Wednesday, May 13 at which time the mayor addressed top issues affecting the district before opening the event up to public comment. Mayor Cal McDougall began the meeting by discussing the delay in the Highway 3/43 Middletown Crossing project, which was first discussed at the April 7 council meeting. Construction on Phase 2 of the project has been postponed while the district waits for the approval of an $8.6 million grant that was expected to be announced this spring but has since been pushed to the fall. “What that grant will do if it gets awarded in the fall, we’ll be able to tender it this winter when we can hopefully get some better pricing and we’ll get started on construction once again in the spring,” explained McDougall. Other projects that have been delayed are buildings by Teck Coal and Joy Global as well as the hotel by Schickedanz. “As we all have noticed, Teck Coal and Joy Global have not exactly jumped into construction mode and we don’t have to be rocket scientists to figure out that the economy around the world is in bad shape,” said McDougall. “Often the Elk Valley seems to be able to avoid these global set backs but unfortunately we haven’t … so we can’t really expect these companies to invest millions of dollars in their current state.”
Projects that are moving forward include a building permit by Tim Hortons. The construction of the Canadian coffee chain in Sparwood is slated for completion in December. The repaving of Douglas Fir Road is another project that will also be moving forward this year. “There have been discussions of paving it for years and it just hasn’t happened … but the decision has been made to finally go ahead and repave a good portion of Douglas Fir this year,” said McDougall, adding that tenders for the project will be awarded in June. Other notable issues included the possibility of a helipad being reintroduced into the district. McDougall said because of STARs new equipment and its size, the old location at the Sparwood Health Centre was no longer an option. “We’ve made some preliminary inquiries and there’s only one thing that is obvious and that’s that we cannot put a helipad down by the Health Centre where it was,” said McDougall. “With the new STARs helicopters, they are too big to land there. Even if we can get rid of all those power lines, which is one reason why people think we don’t have a helipad and that’s not really the case anymore.” McDougall noted that council is open for further discussion on bringing a helipad to the district but that Interior Health has not identified Sparwood as a viable helipad location and will not provide funds to build one — leaving the tab in the hands of the district and its taxpayers. Continued on page 2
GRAND OPENING! Friday, May 22nd at the Fernie Golf & Country Club
6-11pm FREE wine, beer & appy sampling Full menu also available
The Best View And Best Patio In Town!
Live music with the
Hark Raving Sirens
Open Daily 9am-9pm
at 8pm
Please call 250.423.4115