KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK WEDNESDAY
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AUGUST 1, 2018 | Volume 31 No. 61
TRAGIC DAY ON THE RIVER TODAY’S WEATHER
Chance of showers High 32 C Low 17 C
ON THE ICE
The latest from the World Junior Summer Showcase, which is being held this week at Sandman Centre
A collision between jet skis on the South Thompson has police looking for missing driver
SPORTS/A21
NEWS/A5
TRANSIENT-RELATED CALLS SWAMP CITY The city’s bylaws department wants a solution to deal with increasing calls related to the city’s most vulnerable. “Bottom line is we’ve increased the staffing the best we could within the budget to put more resources toward the transient issues we’re having in town,” City of Kamloops assistant bylaws enforcement officer Mario Sirianni told the city’s community safety committee on Monday. During this year’s second quarter, from April to June, the department received 307 calls related to transient issues — an increase over the same time last year (261 calls) and up significantly from those same three months in 2015 (88 calls). Sirianni said the city has more homeless on the streets than he’s ever seen in the past and called for a “better solution. “We are just moving people around and everyone in the room is quite aware of that, I’m sure,” Sirianni said. Mayor Ken Christian said he has spoken with mayors in the Okanagan about the issue and noted communities throughout British Columbia are facing similar issues due to high housing costs. “Everyone in B.C. is having this problem” he said. Christian said he and staff have
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been talking with the province. He spoke to Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Selina Robinson last Friday to discuss a lack of shelter space in Kamloops. He said there could be two or three smaller emergency shelters this winter as the city awaits the building of new modular housing units on Tranquille Road and West Victoria Street. “I, along with others, am disappointed that we’re not moving along as quickly as we’d hoped with the rapid response unit,” he said. Christian also suggested Out of the Heat expand to Wednesdays during the heat wave, which the city has experienced in recent days. Out of the Heat is a summer shelter operated on Mondays and Fridays out of St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral at Nicola Street and Fourth Avenue downtown. The same church is home to the Wednesday/Sunday Out of the Cold shelter in the winter. “I was out in the park yesterday and it was tough,” Christian said of the high-30s temperatures. “It was really tough.” In addition to bylaws being swamped with issues related to the city’s homeless, the graffiti task force is reporting issues in McDonald Park. Executive director Ronnie Bouvier said the task force has found numerous needles in the park and noted the men’s bathroom has become a place for sexual activities. See BIAs, A10
Sixteen-year-old Adison Davies died last Friday while attending the Center of Gravity music and sports festival in Kelowna. A celebration of her life will be held this Sunday at 2 p.m. in the lounge at McArthur Island Sport and Event Centre.
Adison ‘had a really caring soul’ DALE BASS
STAFF REPORTER
dale@kamloopsthisweek.com
Sam Thacker has seen too much pain in his short 16 years of life. Earlier this year, he watched as a friend was stabbed. That friend lived. Last Friday, he watched a friend overdose on a methamphetamine known as Molly. That friend lived. A few hours later, he watched another friend overdose on the same type of methamphet-
Gravity music and sports festival. He said the first day of the three-day festival — Friday — was fun, with a main stage full of bands from mid-morning through to the early evening. At some point during the day, Sam said his friend told him he and Adison had obtained some drugs from a person at the festival. “A few hours later, he was shaking and he came over to me and said, ‘I need help. I need help,’” Sam said. See TEEN, A4
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amine.That friend died. Sam spoke with KTW because he wanted people to know Adison Davies, his friend who died, “was awesome.” Adison was 16 and attended NorKam senior secondary. “They don’t know what they’re taking and who they’re buying it from,” Sam said, adding he hopes his speaking out will scare others into not making the same decision his two friends did. Sam was among 30 friends who headed to Kelowna last weekend for the Center of
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JESSICA WALLACE STAFF REPORTER jessica@kamloopsthisweek.com