KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK THURSDAY
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JANUARY 21, 2016 | Volume 29 No. 9
WEATHER Cloudy, warmer High 7 C Low 3 C
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Official Tournament Mark This manual provides you with tools and guidelines to ensure the tournament logo type (tournament mark) for the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship appears in a consistent manner that is appropriate to IIHF standards in all communications. These standards should be followed as closely as possible, however it is understood that requirements for unspecified applications may arise.
HE HAS THE NHL PEGGED
TODDLER’S CRIES A LIFESAVER
For questions and approvals related to sponsorship, please contact: Bruce Newton – bnewton@hockeycanada.ca For questions and approvals related to licensing, please contact: Dale Ptycia – dptycia@hockeycanada.ca
Carbon-monoxide scare for family
Every peg in every net in all 30 arenas goes through the hands of its Kamloops creator
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For questions and approvals related to multimedia or print, please contact: Kelly Findley – kfindley@hockeycanada.ca
The official tournament mark will appear prominently on all official communications and marketing materials pertaining to the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship. The tournament mark has bilingual (English/French, horizontal only), English (horizontal and vertical), and French (horizontal and vertical) versions. The bilingual version of the official tournament mark should be used in cases where both English and French are being used in the communication.
Jury told wife was killed out of greed
English (horizontal)
English (vertical)
Bilingual
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2016 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Logo Guide
TIM PETRUK
STAFF REPORTER
tim@kamloopsthisweek.com
A former New Zealand politician charged with firstdegree murder in the 2010 drowning death of his wife in a B.C. lake killed out of greed, a jury has been told. Peter Beckett’s trial began this week in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops with a lengthy opening statement from Crown prosecutor Sarah Firestone. “The case you’re about to hear is not a ‘whodunit,’” she told the 14 jurors. “The case you’re about to hear is, rather, a ‘what happened.’” Beckett, 59, was charged a year after his wife, Laura Letts-Beckett, drowned on Upper Arrow Lake near Revelstoke. Firestone outlined the For updated stories on case against Beckett, which the murder trial of Peter includes wiretaps, an Beckett (above in a dated exhaustive financial invesphoto), go online to tigation and a jailhouse kamloopsthisweek.com. snitch. “The accused killed Laura Letts deliberately for financial gain,” she said, noting he hoped to benefit from her family inheritance and insurance payouts. “He would also collect her schoolteacher’s pension for the rest of his days, which he would spend in the house she owned when they married.” Firestone said Beckett took out a number of lifeinsurance policies and accidental-death benefits on his wife between 2007 and 2010, the final one going into effect the month before Letts-Beckett died. Firestone said Beckett claimed to have no knowledge of the final insurance policy. See TRIAL A6
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The city’s parks department wants a $50,000-per-year maintenance fund created to help cover the cost of cleaning up after events in Riverside Park, such as the annual Rotary Ribfest. While Coun. Tina Lange suggested the city close lesser-used parks instead, Coun, Denis Walsh argued Ribfest organizers should be paying more to use the park. KTW FILE PHOTO
LANGE: ‘GET RID OF A FEW OF THE PARKS’ ANDREA KLASSEN
STAFF REPORTER
andrea@kamloopsthisweek.com
A Kamloops city councillor believes the city should look at closing some of its lesserused parks to offset calls for more money to be spent on Riverside Park. Coun. Tina Lange told council Tuesday she wants to see the city’s parks department look at cost-cutting measures, including park closures, after staff requested a new $50,000 per-year maintenance fund for Riverside Park as part of this year’s supplemental budget list. “Every year comes these asks for more staff, more equipment and more budget, and on and on it goes. I don’t think we can continue to do that,” Lange said, noting council gave the department a maintenance budget increase last year. “At this point, we have more parks per person than anywhere in Canada, I believe, so it wouldn’t hurt to get rid of a few of the parks.” The maintenance fund is one of about $3.5 million in supplemental budget items council must decide whether to keep or cut
over the next several months. Funding for the items can come from a variety of sources, including government grants, reserves and tax dollars. Council took its first look at the list in a special meeting Tuesday. According to a staff report, the parks, recreation and cultural-services department wants the additional funds to repair damage from city events in the park and to do repairs on the Rivers Trail. “Park visitor levels continue to grow due to population growth and increasing numbers of event participants” making maintenance more expensive, the report states. Coun. Denis Walsh said the city needs to look at getting some of that money back by asking for more in fees from the Rotary Ribfest, a popular community event held in the park each summer. Parks director Byron McCorkell said the Kamloops Rotary Club isn’t charged to use the park beyond a $17 permit because it uses its proceeds from the event for community grants. “To me, these guys are making out like bandits,” Walsh said. “They’re making all this money, they’re
paying $17 and now we’re going to the taxpayers for another $50,000 to repair the parks after these kind of events.” Walsh said the Rotary Club shouldn’t be using barbecuers from outside the city and should instead consider a model similar to the multicultural foodfest held during Canada Day celebrations. And, he added, if the club wants to bring in outside food vendors, those vendors should be prepared to pay fees. “It’s costing us money to put it on so these five entrepreneurs can take major bucks out of the city,” Walsh said. Councillors Donovan Cavers and Marg Spina said they would also be in favour of looking at some sort of event-cleanup fee for using Riverside Park. “There’s turf damage after all kinds of events but, after Ribfest, there were mud patches under the areas where the vendors were set up,” Cavers said. McCorkell said the $50,000 maintenance fund would also go to clean up other events, such as Canada Day celebrations, which cost the city about $30,000 to stage and clean up.
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