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TUESDAY November 22, 2011 The Central Okanagan’s Best-Read Newspaper www.kelownacapnews.com
▼ KELOWNA
▼ WEST KELOWNA
Mayoral final vote count was a nail biter
Overpass collapse to cause re-routing of all traffic
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Walter Gray is going back to the mayor’s office. And he will be joined on Kelowna city council by five new faces, as only three incumbents were reelected, Robert Hobson, Andre Blanleil and Luke Stack. The newcomers on council will be former fire chief Gerry Zimmermann, who topped the councillor poll, Gail Given, the widow of former city councillor Brian Given and a former board of education trustee, former CHBC television news reporters Colin Basran and Mohini Sigh and Maxine DeHart, a local hotelier and Capital News business columnist. In one of the closest mayoral races in Kelowna in memory, incumbent Sharon Shepherd led the race right until the last polling station’s numbers were reported—those cast during four days of advanced voting. In the end, Gray received 13,995 votes, or 47.14 per cent of the vote and Shepherd received 13,574 votes, 45.72 per cent of the vote. The three other mayoral candidates, Cal Condy, Ken Chung and Kim Ouellette all
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finished well back with just 1,000 votes (3.37 per cent), 749 votes (2.52 per cent) and 370 votes (1.25 per cent) respectively. “That was close,” said Gray, speaking after delivering his acceptance speech to about 100 supporters at the Coat Capri Hotel Saturday night. “If we had slowed down at one bend (during the campaign), we would have lost tonight.” Gray, who pledged during the campaign and again Saturday night to “get Kelowna moving again,” called the new make-up of council the “perfect team,” adding he did not feel it will be a developer-driven council but rather one that will signal to business and investors that the city is, in his words, open for business again. It was a message he hammered home during the campaign and one that Shepherd found herself defending against time and time again, despite citing examples of development that had occurred in Kelowna during the six years she was mayor. Gray told his supporters he wants to “re-inspire” the community over the next three years
Wade Paterson STAFF REPORTER
WALTER GRAY celebrates his election win for Kelowna mayor on Saturday’s municipal election. Incumbent Sharon Shepherd (right), watching the election vote results with her husband Mike, was unable to win a third consecutive term as mayor. DOUG FARROW/CONTRIBUTOR
The nightmare scenario for West Kelowna traffic on Highway 97 should be over by today or Wednesday. In the aftermath of the new Westside overpass retaining wall collapse on Sunday, the ministry of highways detoured southbound Highway 97 traffic on Sunday, then expanded that order to all traffic on Monday to allow for repairs to be made to the overpass retaining walls. As well, the Westside Road underpass structure will be closed until further notice. The Westside Road Interchange Project is a partnership between Westbank First Nation and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. Murray Tekano, district manager for the ministry of transportation and infrastructure, said that it’s difficult to speculate why the retaining wall crumbled. “It’s very hard to say, we really don’t know until the engineers have a look at it,” said Tekano on Sunday after initially assessing the damage. According to Tekano, there were no collisions or injuries as a result of the collapse. On Sunday, northbound traffic was still allowed to travel freely under the overpass on Sunday morning and Tekano said that there was no danger to those vehicles. “We’re satisfied that northbound traffic can move under the structure; it’s only on the southbound side that this wall has collapsed,” he said. But on Monday, all traffic was detoured to allow for the retaining wall repairs to be done. RCMP and fire crews redirected southbound traffic towards Bear Creek Road and then onto Parkinson Road in order to get back to the highway. Evelyn Lube, project communications for the Westside Road Interchange, said she is hopeful that engineers will be able to determine the cause of the collapse at some point on Sunday. She also said that the retaining wall on the other side of the overpass will likely be inspected.
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