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Review Vol.17
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Number 47
Thursday, November 19, 2015
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Serving the communities of Keremeos, Cawston, Okanagan Falls and Kaleden
Slide closes highway, again Tara Bowie Review Staff
Tara Bowie
Piper Patrick Buchanan plays the colour party back to the Legion following Remembrance Day ceremonies in Keremeos.
Despite extensive work this past spring and summer, heavy rains helped bring down large rocks on Highway 3 Monday evening. The slide happened about 4:20 p.m. Monday evening. All three lanes were closed for about four hours. One lane was reopened at about 8 p.m. The ministry stated if conditions changed that lane would be closed overnight. About five cubic metres of rock debris fell in the west lane. Ministry crews were on site Monday night. A geotechnical assessment was expected to be completed first thing Tuesday morning. A ministry spokesperson told the Review the entire roadway could not be reopened before the geotechnical assessment. “Road will be closed until geo tech assessment is complete to ensure it will be safe for travel,” the spokesperson stated in an email Monday evening.
Before it reopened, traffic was re-routed meaning many motorists determined on making their destinations were forced to back track a significant distance. East travelling traffic was detoured into Princeton to Highway 5A and traffic at Osoyoos and Penticton/ Kaleden Junction will be detoured via Highway 97/97C. The news of the slide travelled quickly through news social media sites with many locals voicing frustration. “Well good thing we are not going anywhere. They have been going to fix that for months here we go again,” a commenter on the Review Facebook page stated. At least three significant slides have taken place in the last two years on that stretch of highway about nine kilometres west of Keremeos The Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure completed the second phase of a twophase project to reduce the impact of slides just last month. In the last year the minis-
try has removed about 35,000 cubic metres of rock debris and dug a ditch more than a half-kilometre long to create a large catchment area. Phase one of the project saw the construction of a three-metre high concrete block wall in the west slow lane to increase rock catchment. Prior to this slide the last major slide occurred in early December 2014 when rocks came tumbling down. The slide occurred about 3:40 p.m. meaning some children were stranded in Keremeos and not able to return home from school. The community and the school pitched in and found places for the students to stay. The highway was closed overnight and not reopened until about noon the next day. Previous to that slide, a major slide occurred in January 2014 bringing down boulders the size of pickup trucks that came crashing down onto the roadway hitting several vehicles and hospitalizing one person.
High school student cooking up hot lunches for other students Tara Bowie Review Staff
Grade 12 student Elijah Vesprey is getting a real world experience right in his own high school cafeteria. Elijah, who is in the high school apprentice chef program, has taken on the large task of feeding Cawston Primary School students a hot lunch once a week. “It’s cool. I enjoy it,” he said. “I want to be a chef so this is perfect training.” Although Similkameen Elementary Secondary School has had a credit cafeteria program for students the last several years, this is the first time in School Board #53 that one school is making lunch for another. “It’s pretty exciting and a real learning experience for Elijah,” teacher Nicola Haamers said. Haamers oversees Elijah but allows him to come up with the menu, prepare and cook the food. So far this year the menu has consisted of macaroni and cheese with a salad, chili with a bun, grilled cheese with
tomato soup. “We want it to be a mix of things so the kids don’t get bored,” he said.
Elijah cooks and packages about 100 meals for the school one day a week. They keep the meals hot by packaging them and them covering them in blankets while they are transported to the school. In the New Year they are hoping to increase it two days a week. “It’s a pretty big undertaking for Elijah. We hope to keep this program going as long as we have apprentices at the school,” Haamers said. In addition to making the Cawston Primary School lunch, Elijah also helps out in the cafeteria kitchen. About 25 students in the Grade 11/12 cafeteria course prepare lunch for about 300 to 350 students each day. Elijah plans to continue his culinary arts studies in university next year.
Elijah Vesprey