MUSEUM PIECE Peachland Museum set to reopen this spring after renos P.4
ARTS SMARTS Discover what’s going on in the local arts scene P.8
ABOUT TOWN Find out what’s going on and where it’s happening P.11
HOME RUN Seniors society begins construction on new dedicated housing P.3
The fledgling Peachland Post will be the latest print newspaper to serve the Okanagan town
By John McDonalD STAFF REPORTER
Journalism is rife with aphorisms, maxims, axioms and adages. One of them is don’t become part of the story, a pithy warning to reporters who get too close to their subjects.
But rules are meant to be broken, in this case unavoidably so, and I am now completely entwined in the ongoing story of the birth of the Peachland Post, the lakeside town’s latest community newspaper.
While I don’t live here, I’m a long-time Central Okanagan journalist who has worked many different beats with an insatiable curiosity about other people’s stories. As managing editor,
reporter and photographer, I will be wearing a lot of hats; however, that’s life at an oldschool small town newspaper.
But even though I have become part of this ongoing story, it’s not about me.
It’s about a group of civic-minded citizens who saw a need when their weekly newspaper went belly up and began planning well over a year ago to do something about it.
And if it weren’t for the unfortunate timing of the ongoing Canada Post labour dispute, you might have been reading the fourth or fifth issue instead of the first…
The first issue of the inaugural Peachland Post was supposed to be delivered Nov. 8
Launching a community newspaper in Canada’s current media environment means you’re swimming upstream.
And the ongoing work stoppage at Canada Post isn’t making things easier for the new Peachland Post, which is planning to use the mail service to deliver four thousand copies of the newspaper into local mailboxes each week.
Managing editor John McDonald said the ongoing strike means the first issue will be a short press run of a thousand copies.
“We’ve had to pivot, go to a shorter press run, and rely on the newspaper’s board of directors to hand-deliver the paper to a number
of businesses and pick-up points around town,” McDonald said. “We really hope the strike will be resolved soon.”
Meanwhile, Peachlanders hoping to send or receive Christmas cards or packages before December 25 shouldn’t hold their breath.
More than 55,000 Canada Post workers have been off the job since Nov. 15, but little to no progress has been made in settling the dispute.
Earlier this week, Canada Post released a statement complaining that the postal worker’s union latest offers were steps backwards.
“Canada Post has received the latest offers from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and is extremely disappointed that their intent appears to be to widen the gap in negotiations, rather than close it,” the statement said.
For its part, a CUPW statement released the same day said: “We have waited far too long for Canada Post to bargain in good faith. True progress requires meaningful engagement, not surface-level proposals, or new demands that derail progress.”
POST STAFF
Phase Two is called The Residences on Fifth and is a near replica of the project’s first phase, the Residences on Sixth, completed four years ago
By Jeff McDonalD STAFF REPORTER
It might be the worst-kept secret in town: the second phase of subsidized seniors’ housing in Peachland is rising out of the ground on 5th Street.
When complete in May 2026, the $33-million project will provide 73 housing units for people 55 years of age and over who have low to moderate income.
It’s a continuation of a partnership between the Peachland Seniors Support Society and B.C. Housing, the provincial agency that helps create safe and affordable housing for people who struggle to find it.
Society president Keith Fielding says demand for housing that lets Peachland seniors stay in their community is high, and while residency in Peachland isn’t a requirement, Peachland residents will receive priority when the new units are ready to move into.
Jeff McDonald photo
A central shaft rises above the site of the Peachland Seniors Support Society’s latest housing project: The Residences on Fifth. The society teamed with B.C. Housing and the municipality on the project.
struction begin and the building start to take shape because it means we are continuing on our way to meeting a real need in the community.”
Phase Two is called The Residences on Fifth, and is a near replica of the project’s first phase, The Residences on Sixth, the 74-unit building completed four years ago and which has been full ever since.
“The first phase has a waiting list of 120 people, so there‘s little doubt of the need for this second phase,” said Fielding.
Three housing types will be available: deep subsidy, rent geared to income, and affordable market. Rent for the deep subsidy type will be $445 per month for a one-bedroom; other housing types go up from there.
Peachlanders will see an increase to their gas bills in the new year when Fortis raises its rates.
The average residential gas customer will see an overall increase to their bill of 17.5 per cent, or around $14.25 per month based on a monthly consumption of about 7.5 gigajoules.
Changes to individual bills will vary based on use.
The increase is the first since 2022, FortisBC said in a media release this week.
Penticton city councillor and current newspaper editor James Miller appeared in a virtual Sarnia court this week following more sex charges laid against him in Ontario in November, the Penticton Herald is reporting.
Four sex charges laid against him in Ontario earlier this year led to his arrest by Penticton RCMP on August 1.
“People are excited to see con-
“Some Peachland seniors have struggled to find affordable and appropriate housing in town, and some have been forced to go live in other cities and towns,” Fielding said.
Fielding said the $33 million cost is made up of BC Housing’s $11.5 million contribution, the society’s $19.8 million mortgage from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the $1.5 million land value (leased from the District of Peachland at no cost), and society equity of $.2 million.
The society will operate the facility and will announce details about eligibility for occupancy and the application process sometime in the new year, he said.
Miller is managing editor of the Penticton Herald and the Kelowna Daily Courier. He was placed on mandatory leave from Penticton city council after his August arrest
POST STAFF
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By Jeff McDonalD STAFF REPORTER
Most renovations of older buildings contain a few surprises, and Peachland’s 114-year-old museum has been no exception.
But museum curator Don Wilson of the Peachland Historical Society says the project is now about 75 per cent finished and should be complete by Easter.
“We have had some unexpected challenges, but we’re on track and things are moving well. Easter is the target date for completion, with the facility open daily by then,” said Wilson. “That includes the new visitor centre, open five days per week by Easter and seven days per week by July 1.”
The museum is open Saturdays and Sundays only during renova-
tions, but will be open most days during the Christmas week. Workers are installing a ceramic Christmas village, complete with buildings and trains, which will be up and running by this weekend.
Funding for renovations to the historic building came from a provincial Community Economic Resiliency Infrastructure program grant of up to $600,000.
The District of Peachland earmarked $167,000 to cover construction overages. The renovation project began late last year and required the removal of hazardous materials like lead and asbestos from the building. That work took longer than expected, and finding some of the items, like a new front door, has been difficult, Wilson said.
The new visitor centre will be run by the PHS.
To the editor:
There was a recent exchange of views on whether to refurbish the Welcome to Historic Peachland‚ sign at north end of Peachland.
Now that we have a hard-copy newspaper again, I’d like to extend that discourse to this medium.
Among others, one point was made that the word “historic” is a generic term that doesn’t inspire potential visitors or residents to any community (no sizzle!), notwithstanding that we have a very interesting history to relate.
Long-time resident families have much to share with residents and visitors, and we should take steps to capture their stories!
Much better to have signage that will draw motorists off the highway to enjoy our gem of a community.
For example, we could promote Peachland with a key phrase, and illustrate some things that make it so, perhaps with a series of signs approaching the town.
These are all things that many residents love about our community, and that combine to make us unique.
Others include our small town values, living five minutes from big-box stores, sitting midway in the Okanagan with only an hour’s drive to either end, sitting in the heart of wine country.
If a series of highway signs is not feasible, one sign combining all attractions could suffice, if vehicles were moving slow. The same signage could welcome people from the south.
There are many possibilities. I think Peachland blends a memorable and exciting past with a future that evokes huge potential! And we should tell the world.
Bruce Klippenstein, Peachland
A small town is not the same without a community newspaper to keep it
This, a special edition of the Peachland Post, comes to you in the belief that the closure of the Peachland View, diminished our community and created a gap that needed to be bridged.
Enter the Peachland Post, your community newspaper.
Published by the Peachland Community Newspaper Society, a not-for-profit created just for this purpose, the Peachland Post will be delivered free of charge to every home, every business every week.
A community newspaper can serve many purposes: it can keep us connected, it can keep us informed, it can keep us entertained and it can provide us with an opportunity to make known our voice on matters of local concern.
POLICY MATTERS
KEITH FIELDING
More importantly perhaps, it can help create a shared sense of belonging – one Peachland, one community, one Peachland Post.
Founders and supporters of this venture have contributed their own funds to bring the Peachland Post to town.
Over time, we hope revenue generated from advertisers and donations, will offset production cots and allow the paper to operate on a break even basis.
The society’s directors have been inspired by the encouragement they have received to proceed with this venture and are fortunate to have a small team of and volunteers and part-time staff dedicated to making it a success.
Challenges remain, including the ongoing Canada Post strike, which could affect our launch date, however we remain optimistic that you will soon be seeing the Peachland Post on a regular basis.
But we trust the Peachland Post will soon be a welcome sight in your mailbox.
By JuDy Wyper POST cOnTRibuTOR
Welcome, Peachland Post! I missed having a local newspaper.
I moved here in 2003 and at that time the local community paper was the Peachland Signal.
Through that paper, delivered to my mailbox once a week, I learned about the community. I was informed of things happening in town: service clubs, upcoming events, ads for local businesses, churches, clubs to join, local government news, upgrades to the town’s services. And best of all, those letters to the editor. Such entertainment and all for free!
As time went on, I felt I knew more about this little
town than I did about the city I moved from. I joined a few organizations, the Peachland Wellness Centre being the first.
I got to write for the paper, telling stories about PWC’s successes and challenges.
Time moved on, and the last iteration of the local paper was the Peachland View.
Its disappearance created a huge gap in community life.
Now here we are, and the free newspaper is making a comeback. A local paper fosters a sense of community.
It helps build a sense of pride, tells the stories, increases engagement. A local paper is a platform for voicing local concerns.
Ordinary citizens bring attention to issues and can provide perspectives on how world trends
can impact the community. I am a volunteer writer for this not for profit newspaper, and plan to cover environmental issues. I am a retired elementary school teacher and moved here with my family in 2003 from Prince George.
Judy Wyper is involved with the Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance, Seniors For Change, First Things First, and the newly formed South Okanagan Chapter of the Council of Canadians.
adage describes an interesting or unusual story as man-bitesdog, in this case is an old school print newspaper opening when most others are either closing or teetering on the brink.
A quick search shows the painful downsizing that has been dogging newspapers big and small for the last 25 years as various tech and media giants ate their lunch and tipped over their advertising-based business model.
That trend manifested itself locally when the Peachland View disappeared a few years ago, part of a wave of newspaper closings.
Just in the last couple months both the Kelowna Daily Courier and the Penticton Herald lost that designation when both publications dropped from five to two and three editions a week, respectively.
This latest move came shortly after the Okanagan Valley Newspaper Group, owner of both the Courier and The Herald, axed the Westside Weekly, a tabloid newspaper that had been serving West Kelowna for at least 35 years.
And the chaos is certainly not limited to the Okanagan. Fort St. John and Dawson Creek last fall saw both their long-standing community papers shuttered by Glacier Media. Also last fall, just a decade after losing its
daily newspaper, Kamloops saw its last remaining newspaper vanish when Kamloops This Week printed its final edition.
Clearly it is time for a new way of doing things, if newspapers are to survive at all. Which is where the Peachland Community Newspaper Society enters the picture with a new premise: Can a newspaper unburdened by the need to make a profit and fuelled by the sweat equity of its citizens actually make a go of it?
It didn’t take long, after the demise of the Peachland View, for more than a few citizens to lament its loss and began scheming about a possible replacement.
Judy Wyper said it best in her
nity-building exercise,” says the soft-spoken Fielding.
But why the anachronistic ink-on-dead-trees that is a printed newspaper?
“It’s kind of symbolic of community somehow, and when you don’t have a community newspaper, you lose that sense of connectedness,” Fielding laments.
inaugural column for the Peachland Post. “Its disappearance created a huge gap in the community.”
While many hands have contributed to the creation of the Peachland Post, what I call “The Push” comes from a man familiar to many Peachlanders, former mayor Keith Fielding.
The two-term mayor tries to remain in the background, but there’s no denying his steady hand and persistence have kept the project moving forward, underpinned by the consensus-building skills gained through a high-level career in human resources.
And as a seasoned politician, Fielding has a ready line to describe the group’s passion project. “It’s a commu-
The solution to start will be a 12-page weekly tabloid with a general selection of community news, entertainment and other information delivered free by mail every week to about 3,600 addresses. The newspaper’s audience skews to an older audience so the type faces have been made larger, with more spacing for those of us with dodgy eyesight.
Fielding doesn’t doubt that people will engage with the newspaper, once they see it show up in their mailbox a few times.
“The fact that people will see themselves in it, in photographs, they’ll recognize the authors of some of the contributors,” Fielding said. “I think we’ll feel a sense of being engaged with the newspaper.”
Challenges remain, not the least of which is the ongoing Canada Post strike, which as I write this, remains unresolved. Should it continue, Fielding says the society will go into shutdown mode until such time.
The following is a selection of entries mainly from the Peachland Community Arts Council’s bi-weekly newsletter.
If you’d like to learn the craft of stained glass, the Okanagan Folk School offers a five-hour course on January 12, from 10 am to 4:30 pm under instructor Shauna McKenney at her Peachland home studio. McKenney will teach you the basic skills and techniques of Tiffany-style-stained glass (copper foil method).
You’ll have plenty of oneon-one time! Classes are small! You’ll learn about safety, glass selection, pattern preparation, glass-cutting and fitting, copper foiling, soldering, and finishing. You’ll choose six main patterns and a large variety of coloured and textured glass to take home a beautiful unique sun catcher. •••
The Lake Country Art Gallery will hold its 2024 Under 200 Exhibition ending December 21. Some of our Peachland Community Arts Council members will be showing in this exhibition where all paintings are sold for under $200. If you are shopping for Xmas presents, this will be an exhibition to visit.
I’m sorry if you missed
Mark Rucker’s exhibition, The Alterpiece. Rucker, a Peachlander, ended his exhibition on Saturday - please forgive me for not mentioning it in the last newsletter.
Rucker’s large-scale interpretive work was inspired by a medieval three-piece painting the 16th-century Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Isenheim.
Rucker’s The Alterpiece (note the intended misspelling) with its large “modern perceptions of persecution and spiritual transcendence” is over six feet tall and six feet wide. It was
created using natural wood, canvas, oil paint, and steel.
The Alternator Centre has a call out to artists for submissions for the 2026 season. They welcome submissions “from under-represented artists of all backgrounds including, but not limited to, Indigenous, Black, and racialized persons; refugee, newcomer, and immigrant persons; two-spirit, LGBTQ+ and gender non-binary persons, persons with diverse abilities, and those on low-incomes or living in poverty.”
The deadline for 2026 submissions is March 17, 2025 at midnight. If you are interested in presenting your work, contact them. I can think of several of our member artists who would be applicable.
•••
The fall season at the Kelowna Film Society ended with the screening of a Turkish film, The Crossing, a well-acted, cinematographic film with an unusual storyline. There will be no more films until the winter season begins in late January. See you next year at the flicks!
•••
The art gallery at Grizzli Winery in West Kelowna features the works of local artists and their exhibition rotates seasonally.
The winter exhibition is called Expressive Storytelling and runs until January 26 at the winery on Boucherie Road. It’s an exhilarating art collection designed to invoke genuine emotions, make us analyze images, and dive deep within ourselves to understand the potential vision and message from the artist’s heart and soul imprinted on the canvas. The three B.C. artists who contributed works are Melissa Dinwoodie, Alana Evans and Brandy Wyatt.
Christopher Byrd is the editor of the Peachland Community Arts Council bi-weekly newsletter.
Look for a selection of local photos each week on the Peachland Post In Photos Page
SEE ALL PUZZLE ANSWERS BELOW
Who said that?
Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future.
Walt Disney, entertainment visionary
Saturday
Mexican cooking class 9:05-11 AM
Peachland Community Centre
Carpet bowling 10-12 Noon
50 Plus Centre
Meat draw 3-5 PM
50-50 draw
Peachland Legion
Sunday
Bluegrass 2-5:00 PM
50 Plus Centre
Monday
Indoor walking 8-9 AM
Spin, weights, core and more
9:30 -10:45 AM
Zumba 6:30-7:30 PM
Peachland Community Centre
Variety Singers 9:30-11 AM
We Art Here 12 Noon
Tae Kwon Do 5:30-8:30 PM
50 Plus Centre
Ladies Coffee 1-2 PM
Peachland Wellness Centre
Tuesday
Mammography Clinic 9 AM-4:30 PM
Flow Yoga 9-10 AM
Pickleball drills and play
10:30 AM-12:30 PM
Friendship Club 1-3:00 PM
Peachland Community Centre
Yoga 8:30- 9:30 AM
Carpet Bowling 10 AM-12 Noon
Mah-jong 1-4 PM
Passion 4 Art 1-4 PM
Line Dancing 4:30-5:30 PM
Cloggers 6-7 PM
50 Plus Centre
Ladies Coffee and Cards 11-12 Noon
Mens Coffee and Cards 1-3 PM
Peachland Wellness Centre
Wednesday
Mammography clinic 9-4:30 PM
Indoor walking 8-9 AM
Quilters 8 AM-4 PM
Straighten &Stretch 11:15 AM-12:15 PM
Peachland Community Centre
Fitness 9-10 AM
Chair Yoga 10:30-11:30 AM
Bridge 12:30-3:30 PM
Tae Kwon Do 5:30-8:30 PM
50 Plus Centre
Tai Chi 10-11 AM
Sunshine Singers 1-2 PM
Peachland Wellness Centre
Peachland Wellness Centre
Community Christmas Luncheon
12-2 PM December 25
50 Plus Activity Centre
5672 Beach Ave
Thursday
Art group 8 AM- 4 PM
Pickleball 3.5 10:30 AM-12:30 PM
Pickleball 3.75+ 1-3 PM
Peachland Community Centre
Yoga 8:30-9:30 AM
Iron & Silk 10-11 AM
Ukulele 1 PM- 2:30 PM
Bingo 5-9 PM
50 Plus Centre
Friday
Pickleball 1.5-2.5 9-11 AM
Pickleball 2.5-3.5 11:30-1:30 PM
Pickleball 3.75+ 2-4 PM
Peachland Community Centre
50 + Fitness 9-10 AM
Friendly Bean 10:15 AM-12 Noon
Knitting Crochet 10:30-11:30 AM
Canasta 1-4 PM
Knitting 1-3 PM
50 Plus Centre
By Jeff McDonalD STAFF REPORTER
Christmas is a time to help out in the community, and a group of Peachland residents has helped stock the local food bank’s shelves at a time when the need is most critical.
The group who live in The Trails townhouse complex in Peachland, organized a food bank drive in their neighbourhood last week, and their neighbours responded.
“We created a flyer a couple of weeks ahead of time and handed it out to spread the word,” said Martha Mckenzie, who helped organize
the drive. “We ended up collecting 40 bags of food, as well as other items like hand cream, hygiene products, toothpaste and toothbrushes, and toilet paper.”
Donations included a cheque for the food bank, and the Peachland IGA donated bags to collect and transport the food.
Mckenzie said the organizers would like to see other neighbourhood take turns doing their own drives in an effort to keep the local food bank’s shelves full.
Donations can be dropped off at the Peachland Pharmacy, Peachland Post Office or the Peachland food bank.
