JULY
2 – Brian Hall of Rossland was killed in an off-road motorcycle accident. His body was discovered the following day near Casino by friends who were expecting to meet with him the previous night.
4 – As temperatures hover in the 30 C mark, residents are wondering why the Warfield Pool remains closed. Due to the wet spring and hot start to the summer, workers have been unable to complete the resurfacing project at the pool. The village has been fielding several calls from residents and are hoping to have the job complete by the end of the month.
10 – The City of Trail has submitted an offer to buy the Trail Regional Airport from the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary but the amount won’t be released to the public. The city is hoping to hear an answer to its bid in four to six weeks.
11 – Police were searching for a missing man who is presumed drowned after attempting to arrest him in Glenmerry. Police reports say Andrew Evans evaded police, jumped into the Columbia River and was last seen near Rock Island. Subsequent ground and water searches failed to locate him. His body was discovered near the Waneta Dam on July 18.
12 – Fire season heats up locally with crews extinguishing two small fires near Champion Lakes and Castlegar.
18 – Judges for the International Communities in Bloom competition arrived in Trail. Robert Ivison of England and Alain Cappelle from Belgium toured the city’s parks and venues. The judges were also visiting Castlegar, which was competing against Trail.
18 – A punctured gas line forced the evacuation of 15 homes on Rossland’s First and Second avenues. No injuries were reported.
22 – Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and his family made a stop in Trail. The family was on a tour of Western Canada and Trudeau took the opportunity to meet local residents as well as pay tribute to his brother Michel, a Rossland resident who died in an avalanche at Kokanee Lake in 1998. Hundreds of people came out to Gyro Park as Trudeau accepted gifts from the city, including a Smokies jersey, and posed for photos.
23 – A change in the garbage contract services in Salmo created a backlash against the village. Council chambers was filled with citizens asking why the garbage contract, which has gone to a Salmo company for the past 25 years, was given to an outside company. Council replied it was acting in the best interest of the village.
25 – The FortisBC lockout of electrical workers had a ripple effect on the local construction industry. Contractors were reporting that jobs were on hold because of the lack of Fortis staff to perform tasks at job sites.
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AUGUST
1 – The Ministry of Environment said none of the 35,000 litres of jet fuel spilled into Lemon Creek has made its way into the Columbia River. On July 26 a tanker truck delivering jet fuel for helicopters fighting forest fires overturned, spilling its load into Lemon Creek.
9 – As construction gets underway for the Victoria Street Corridor improvements, the city is forced to barricade a West Trail back alley after drivers opted to take a short cut rather than follow the specified detour.
9 – A woman died of natural causes at the Shambhala Music Festival near Salmo. The annual event attracts an influx of over 10,000 music lovers to the region.
13 – A water advisory was issued for Beaver Falls after tests revealed low levels of bacteria. The notice was rescinded Aug. 23 when tests came back negative.
14 – A Vancouver design firm, Boni-Madison Architects, was contracted to design a plan for a new museum/library in downtown Trail.
18 – Attack crews kept a small forest fire near Rossland under control. The lightning-caused fire, north of Rossland off of Highway 3B, drew a three-person attack as well as a helicopter response and was under control and fully extinguished in a couple of days.
21 – The Canadian Coast Guard is reviewing the need for navigational aids along the Columbia River from Hugh Keenleyside Dam to the U.S. Border.
21 – FortisBC and electrical union workers finally sit down for mediation to end the two-month long lock out. The mediation lasts less than two days after Fortis walks away from talks on Aug. 22.
22 – Health officials issue warnings about a whooping cough outbreak. Nineteen cases, including 10 in Rossland and seven in Trail, were reported since June.
23 – School District 20 reported a slight increase in students entering kindergarten. District superintendent Greg Luterbach estimated an increase of about 25 new students over last year.
27 – The owner of the Villagers Inn in Fruitvale and Fruitvale council are at odds over recent renovations at the local business. The village argues the colour scheme does not fit into the village’s design guidelines, which is realized when the work is being done without a permit.
27 – The region’s federal electoral boundaries were redesigned following a commission report. Now the Trail-Rossland-Fruitvale-Castlegar region will stretch to include Penticton and Nakusp in the new South Okanagan-West Kootenay riding. Meanwhile, communities like Nelson and Salmo will join Cranbrook and Revelstoke in the Kooenay Columbia district.
28 – The City of Trail has stepped to fill the organizing void for the B.C. Rivers Day cleanup. The event has pulled thousands of pounds of garbage from the shoreline but former organizers at the Skills Centre withdrew from the planning earlier this year.
September
4 – Police are investigating the cause of a blaze that destroyed three homes in West Trail on Sept. 2. The fires, located at the junction of Pine Avenue and Topping Street, was deemed suspicious in nature. No injuries were reported from the fire.
5 – A forensics team from Nelson is investigating reports of vandalism in Salmo on the heels of heated discussions during the village’s council meetings. The village also announced that it has “released” its new chief administrative officer after less than a month at the position. The village did not disclose further details citing legal issues.
9– Fruitvale council agrees to let the Villagers Inn keep its colour scheme but explores ways to beef up its bylaw system.
15 – The annual Terry Fox Run attracts almost 400 people to Gyro Park and raises $12,000.
16 – A fierce lightning storm leaves 3,000 Trail homes in the dark. Two separate events, lightning hitting a transformer and lightning hitting distribution line, caused the blackout.
19 – School support staff finally get a deal with the government when union leaders reached a tentative deal to avoid a province-wide strike. The deal calls for a 3.5 per cent hike in wages spread over two years.
27 – Representatives from local municipalities and districts met with provincial counterparts regarding the proposed Trail boundary expansion during this week’s Union of B.C. Municipalities annual meeting in the Lower Mainland.
28 – The City of Trail acknowledged that it has heard several complaints from citizens regarding the current traffic snarls caused by the downtown revitalization project along Victoria Street. Unforeseen problems, including major infrastructure repairs, have hampered the final process.
29 – About 50 volunteers helped the City of Trail removed over 1,000kg of garbage during the annual Rivers Day shoreline clean up.