Lake Country Calendar, December 02, 2015

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his T try in! n u Co & W e k La stmas p o i Sh Chr

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December 2, 2015

▼ SALVATION ARMY

Inside

Santa’s bus coming to Lake Country

Pay to ride Lake Country residents will be asked to pay, over the next 20 years, $23 million of the $30 million cost of local public transportation. ...............................

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Firemen pickup Have your grocery bags filled to the brim by Dec. 6 and ready for the Lake Country Fire Department to pick them up from designated spots for donation to the local food bank. ...............................

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INSIDE

6 Christmas Dog......11 Veteran Affairs..........

Flyers ■ A&W ■ Coopers ■ Home Depot ■ Hometown Kelowna ■ Jysk ■ Rona ■ Safeway ■ Shoppers Drug Mart ■ Staples ■ Summit Tools ■ Total Pet

CONTRIBUTED

▼ FAVOURABLE CONDITIONS

The Santa Sleigh Bus will be visiting Lake Country this holiday season. Kelowna Regional Transit’s Santa Sleigh Bus (see left photo) will visit the Coopers Foods in Lake Country on Tuesday, Dec. 8 (6 to 7 p.m.) to pick up a variety of Salvation Army Christmas Fund donations. Santa, his elf and bus driver will also be visiting the elementary schools in Lake Country during the day as well as the Boys & Girls Club, Blue Heron Villa and The Manor. They’ll also be stopping briefly to pick up any donations dropped off in advance at Municipal Hall, under the Christmas tree in the lobby by the library entrance. The Santa Sleigh Bus collects toys, food donations and money for the Salvation Army’s Christmas Fund.

▼ LAKE COUNTRY BUDGET

Kokanee numbers Still looking for economic diversity recovered in 2015 KEVIN PARNELL

RICHARD ROLKE An Okanagan fishery is making a dramatic turnaround. The 2015 fall survey shows kokanee numbers were up in Okanagan, Kalamalka and Wood lakes. “It’s really positive,” said Hillary Ward, fisheries stock assessment biologist with B.C.’s Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. After poor conditions resulted in numbers plummeting in Wood Lake in 2001, more than 20,000 kokanee returned to spawn in Middle Vernon Creek, the lake’s

main tributary. This is a two-fold increase from previous years. “They are getting better and we’re seeing (the population) get back to historic levels,” said Ward. As a result, the ministry will permit a fishery on Wood Lake from April 1 to Aug. 31, 2016. Among the factors that led to poor Wood Lake returns in 2001 were warm lake water with challenges along Middle Vernon Creek. On Okanagan Lake this year, kokanee spawners totalled 336,500, an increase from 80,500 last SEE KOKANEE A3

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It could be the most involved Lake Country budget process since the community incorporated as a municipality 20 years ago. Lake Country council got its first look at the 2016 budget on Tuesday in a special council meeting that not only presented the first draft of the 2016 budget but also dealt with Lake Country’s 20 year Transportation For Tomorrow Plan (see story page A2) as a separate document. “Indeed, it is (involved) every year but this year particularly, because of the things we would like to do,” said Baker of the budget process which, as of Tuesday, was proposing a 2.85 per

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We have to be very wary of individual residential properties and we don’t want to tax them out of being able to live in this community. We have to be careful about what our ambitions are. James Baker

cent tax increase. “Whether we have the resources to do it or not is the question.” Councillors went through the preliminary budget on Tuesday and a final budget won’t be set until the new year. While the results of that meeting were not known before Lake Country Calendar’s press deadline, Baker spoke with the Calendar on Monday as he prepared to go into this week’s budget deliberations. “We’ve accomplished a lot in the 20 years we’ve been incorporated, but we still haven’t got the big assets in terms of enough diversity in our tax base,” he said. “We have to be very wary of individual residential properties and we don’t

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want to tax them out of being able to live in this community. We have to be careful about what our ambitions are.” The Transportation For Tomorrow Plan will be funded approximately two-thirds by taxpayers and council is contemplating how to fund the plan, which calls for $30 million over 20 years to improve roads. While it serves as a major plan to deal with 200 kilometres of aging roads, there are also many other projects that are needed. “The Transportation For Tomorrow Plan is going to be one of the biggest tax hits because we are behind with the roads we inherited at incorporation,” said Baker.

SEE BUDGET A3

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