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YEAR IN REVIEW - Recreation issue comes to the forefront in communities

The Trail Times presents its annual review of moments and news from 2014 beginning with January, February and March.
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A crowd of more than 200 Beaver Valley residents gathered in the Fruitvale Memorial Hall to engage in a community recreation consultation

The Trail Times presents its annual review of moments and news from 2014 beginning with January, February and March.

January

1 – Approximately 150 people started off 23014 by taking the plunge into the Columbia River in the annual Polar Bear Swim at Gyro Park.

2 – Rylan Raymond Sousa, the son of Theresa and Nelson Sousa of Castlegar, was the first baby born at the Kootenay Boundary Regional hospital in 2014.

3 – Two boy scouts from Pullman, Wash., were rescued after heading spending the night on Grey Mountain. The duo skied into an out-of-bounds area and rescue attempts were curtailed by bad weather. The boys spent the night on the mountain and were rescued the following morning. It was the second case of lost skiers, a group of 10 were lost on Dec. 29, 2013, in two weeks since Red Resort opened Gray Mountain on Dec. 20, 2013.

9 – The region was handed its first substantial snowfall of the season 15cm falling. Nevertheless, it didn’t signal a major snow influx as levels remain below seasonal averages.

15 – The sewer dispute between Trail, Warfield and Rossland was finally settled after four years and thousands of dollars of legal bills. A revamped formula will see a decrease in cost for Trail and increases for Warfield and Rossland.

17 – Lead levels continue to decline in Greater Trail following the release of the latest results from the Trail Area Health and Environment Committee.

21 – Over 200 people were at the Fruitvale Memorial Hall for a community meeting on recreation. The meeting was prompted by the end of the recreation agreement with the City of Trail, which doubled the cost for users to access facilities in Trail.

28 – Trail city council sticks with the plan to install gateway features at both ends of the Victoria St. corridor in downtown Trail. The council weighed another option, lighting the Victoria St. Bridge, but opted to put it on the backburner.

29 – The regional hospital board has earmarked $2 million to the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital for upgrades in 2014, including an airborne isolation unit.

 

February

4 – An investigation began at Teck Trail Operations following a leak of a large volume of chemical solution into Trail’s domestic sewer system. Up to 25,000 litres of a sodium hydroxide solution was accidentally released into the domestic sewer system.

6 – A blast of Arctic air but the region in a deep freeze including a daily record low of -21.5 recorded by Environment Canada on Feb. 3. Red Mountain Resort recorded a temperature of -27 C at the top of Granite Mountain.

15 – The City of Trail officially took over the regional airport. Trail city reached a deal to purchase the regional service for $1.28 million from the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, in a transaction to be completed in two payments of $640,000 over the next eight months.

17 – Trail City Council and the Trail and District Library were at odds over the funding for the facility during recent budget discussions. Despite increasing usage of the facility, the city allocated less funds in the 2014 budget.

18 – The much anticipated fire services review confirmed the regional service has a large area to cover and does to the best of its abilities in its current situation. However, the review failed to address any potential savings sought by the City of Rossland, which prompted the review. Rossland Mayor Greg Granstrom expressed concern that the review failed to offer any potential streamlining that could reduce the cost burden on his city.

19 – Kootenay West MLA Katrine Conroy slammed the recent B.C. budget presented by the Liberals. Claiming it was full of “slogans and rhetoric,” Conroy said the was balanced on the “backs of working people,” while promising future windfalls on the long-waited LNG development.

23 – Cale Jack, 27, of Nelson dies in an avalanche while backcountry skiing near the summit of the Salmo-Creston pass. Jack and a local woman were caught in the slide. The woman was transported t0 the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Trail.

24 – Canadian music icon Bryan Adams thrills a sold out Charles Bailey Theatre with an acoustic performance featuring many of his greatest hits.

March

4 – Pacific Coastal announced it would not have a third daily flight landing at the Trail airport this year. Citing lack of capacity, the company, which began the extra flight in the summer of 2011, has opted to use a larger plane for one of flights out of Trail to accommodate passengers.

10 – School District 20 trustees have renamed Rossland Secondary School to Rossland Summit School. The name change was prompted after the district opted to reconfigure the school by adding elementary students and sending students in grades 10 to 12 to J.L. Crowe Secondary in Trail.

10 – The Trail voters will decide if the city can borrow money to build a new library/museum building in downtown. Trail council agreed the future of the Trail Riverfront Centre will be decided by a referendum in November’s municipal election.

11 – Police are on alert after the third armed robbery in three weeks in the West Kootenay. The latest was the Kootenay Savings and Credit Union branch in Castlegar, the second KSCU branch to be robbed in three weeks. Descriptions of the suspect are similar to those in previous robberies although the police are not formally making a link.

17 – The Village of Warfield withdraws from its recreation deal with the City of Trail. The end of the agreement also ends the village’s support for the library services. The village instituted a reimbursement plan for its citizens who use the Trail facilities.

25 – Over 70 people packed the Warfield council chambers to voice their objections to the village’s withdrawal from the rec agreement with the City of Trail.

25 – The City of Trail council approves a $5 million loan for the construction of a new foot bridge that is expected to be completed in the fall of 2015.