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KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK THURSDAY
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AUGUST 4, 2016 | Volume 29 No. 93
Fired city worker gets his job back ANDREA KLASSEN
STAFF REPORTER
andrea@kamloopsthisweek.com
A city worker fired for his part in a sewage spill into the South Thompson River will get his job back. A B.C. Labour Relations arbitrator has ruled the city should have suspended, not fired, water and wastewater operator Ian Price after the spill in October 2014. “In all of the circumstances of the present case, I conclude that dismissal was excessive. My central reason for reaching that conclusion is the huge disparity in discipline that the City imposed upon other employees involved in the incident and the dismissal imposed upon Price,” Robert Perkeles wrote in his ruling. Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 900 grieved the firing, which came after about 4,100 cubic metres of effluent, the equivalent of two Olympic-sized swimming pools, was released into the river from a lift station in Dallas. According to a memo from the city’s humanresources department sent to KTW anonymously last year, an employee mistakenly shut off a pipe leading to the lift station, thinking it was part of a sprinkler system. While computers monitoring the sewage system, which city employees are required to check every 12 hours, should have caught the error, it went uncorrected for two weeks, until sewage from the backed-up pipe spilled into a ditch that fed into the river. See CITY, A4
ALLEN DOUGLAS/KTW
GETTING THEIR KICKS
William and Isla Barrie find sheer joy in playing The Beautiful Game while visiting McArthur Island. The sports complex hosted the annual Kamloops Invitational Soccer Tournament on the weekend and results and photos can be found online at kamloopsthisweek.com.
Home sales ahead of 2015 statistics Sales of city homes cooled slightly in July, but remain well ahead of levels set last year. Statistics released by Kamloops and District Real Estate Board show 329 units sold last month, a 13 per cent increase from a year earlier, but off six per cent from June.
Year to date, regional sales are up 25 per cent over 2015. The residential median price for a single-family home in Kamloops reached $414,000, up 12.5 per cent from the same month in 2015. Board president Katherine Rutherford said the most active price range is $320,000
to $400,000, considered a seller’s market. While there were 45 sales in the $600,000-plus category, Rutherford said sale of high-end homes remains a buyer’s market. The most active subdivision in July was Sahali, followed by Brocklehurst and Aberdeen.
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