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JANUARY 30, 2019 | Volume 32 No. 9
WEATHER Chance of flurries High 0 C Low -3 C SNOW REPORT Sun Peaks Resort Mid-mountain: 115 cm Alpine: 150 cm Harper Mountain Total snow: 96 cm
30 CENTS AT NEWSSTANDS
WEDNESDAY
VICTORIA REBIRTH
MAC ISLE DECISION
Demolition marks start of seniors housing project
Disc golf, nature park approved late Tuesday by city council. Read the story online at kamloopsthisweek.com
NEWS/A3
LITERACY WEEK The annual celebration began with ABC Literacy Day
COMMUNITY/A13
Six-pack needed for Westwold’s survival MICHAEL POTESTIO
STAFF REPORTER
michael@kamloopsthisweek.com
MICHAEL POTESTIO/KTW The semi-truck driver made contact with the CP Rail overpass, breaking a couple of plastic pipes below the rail line.
Driver likely logging a fine MICHAEL POTESTIO
STAFF REPORTER
michael@kamloopsthisweek.com
A logging truck’s payload struck the Lorne Street railway overpass just before 3 p.m. on Monday, leading to a road closure in downtown Kamloops as workers began to clear the disrupted logs. The semi-truck appeared to be attempting to cross the Lansdowne Street intersection from Lorne Street when it made contact with the overpass, breaking a couple of plastic pipes below the rail line in the
process and leaving a few logs on the street. The accident closed Lorne Street between Second Avenue and Lansdowne Street, but traffic on Lansdowne was not impeded as the truck did not make it past the crosswalk before stopping. CN Rail police, the City of Kamloops, Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement (CVSE) and bylaw services responded to the accident. There were no injuries and no ambulance at the scene when KTW arrived at about 3 p.m.
City workers had a wood chipper at the location and were cutting some logs into pieces with chainsaws. The height clearance of the overpass is 4.1 metres. CVSE commercial transport inspector Kerry Hedegus, who was at the scene, said his investigation will involve determining if the truck driver was travelling on a road he wasn’t supposed to be on and if the load was taller than permitted. “From what we understand, it’s not a truck route, so he shouldn’t be here,” Hedegus said.
The Kamloops-Thompson school board is giving Westwold elementary another chance to remain a community school. Trustees voted unanimously on Monday night to keep the school open as long as it has at least six students enrolled by the end of September. Westwold will also be reconfigured to a kindergarten to Grade 7 school from its current kindergarten to Grade 4 model. Trustee Joe Small said he liked the motion because it shows trustees have listened to the community 45 minutes west of Kamloops on Highway 97. “Now the responsibility shifts to Westwold to come up with six students to keep the school open,” Small said. Board vice-chair Rhonda Kershaw said she was concerned parents may no longer support “small, one-room schools,” but opted to vote in favour as she believes Westwold elementary deserves a chance to stay open. The school district shuttered the rural, single-teacher school last fall when no children enrolled for the 2018-2019 school year. Of the eight students who had attended Westwold elementary the year before, almost all enrolled at R.L. Clemitson elementary in Barnhartvale for the current school year. If the six-student quota isn’t met by the end of September, Westwold will be closed and any students committed to the school will be
transferred to Clemitson. With six students in attendance, the district receives enough provincial funding to break even on its costs to run the school. Public consultation with Westwold parents of school-aged children showed there were three families representing six students who would commit to sending their children to the school next year under a K-7 model. “Why that [the extra grades] was a deciding factor for the families was because that allowed them to have their kids in one school instead of two,” assistant superintendent Rob Schoen told KTW, noting there was not a lot of interest in the K-4 model. The school district conducted a two-month public consultation process, beginning with a community meeting last November, at which most of the 28 people in attendance expressed a desire to see the school remain operational in some capacity, such as by being converted to a specialized school. All of the six comments received online also expressed a desire to keep the school open. Under district policy, the creation of a specialized school needs to come from a community initiative in which a detailed plan is presented — a move the community could still spearhead now that the facility will remain open. Westwold elementary became a K-4 school in 2010 due to declining enrolment, Schoen said. School district statistics show enrolment dropping to 18 students in 20102011 from 42 in 2006-2007.
HELD OVER SERVING WESTERN CANADA SINCE 1929
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