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Review
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Vol.17
Number 45
$1.15 including GST
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Serving the communities of Keremeos, Cawston, Okanagan Falls and Kaleden
Solution still far off for riverbed Tara Bowie Review Staff
Joe Lebeau
Sisters, Sofie and Emma Heineke posed for a picture in their princess costumes after attending the Elks Haunted House on Halloween Night. About 200 people went through the haunted house throughout the evening.
The river continues to flow, the seasons change but at this point there’s little movement by the province to help in detracting individuals from camping along the Similkameen River near the village. Village councillors were “disappointed” by the lack of response by the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations Monday night at a regularly scheduled meeting. “We worked very hard to get a meeting with the Ministry at UBCM (Union of British Columbia Municipalities conference) and it seems by this letter we’ve been kicked back to the start again,” councillor Jeremy Evans said during discussion about the letter. Discussions have been ongoing with the ministry for more than a year. The goal from the village’s perspective is to make riverbed lands, often used by farm workers as makeshift accommodations while working in the area, off limits for overnight camping. At this point overnight camping is allowed but Mayor Manfred Bauer has stated several times that he thinks the riverbed is an ecologically sensitive Continued on page 13
Village tactic lights fire under bistro cleanup Review Staff
A little bit of pressure applied by the Village on the owner of the River Bed Bistro has resulted in a demolition date of Nov. 16. About two weeks ago it was announced that the owner had received notice that if the property wasn’t cleaned up by Oct. 26 the village would take action and send an invoice. Cathy Cowan, Keremeos CAO said there have been several conversations with the owners over the last several weeks and throughout the process. Cowan told councillors at Monday night’s meeting that the owner and a hired contractor had been to the village office that day and applied for a demoli-
tion permit. “Work should start on November 16,” she said. The bistro was destroyed by fire in mid-June of this year. The fire was called in at about 3:30 a.m. and although the fire hall is located just across the street, by the time firefighters arrived on scene the fire was already in advanced stages. “Within minutes after we arrived on scene the second floor exploded into flames. About a half hour after first arriving the roof and the second floor collapsed,” Jordy Bosscha, the Keremeos fire chief said a day after the fire. The fire was immediately deemed
suspicious by the RCMP. After a several month investigation it was determined no charges would be laid against the owner. The property is listed under a numbered company 0961380 BC Ltd. on the Keremeos tax roll. Over the last few years several other fires have broken out at the building ,which housed a restaurant and several guest suites. A fire in 2011 resulted in arson charges for the owner at the time Inderjit Chema for pouring gasoline on the walls and threatening to light it up. In 2014 a fire ripped through the top File Art floor of the building. The cause is not The owner of the Riverbed Bistro is expected to start demolition and cleanup of the site on Nov. 16. known and no charges were laid.