Help bats for Hallowe'en
As Halloween approaches, images of scary-looking bats become commonplace. Since the goal of the Kootenay Community Bat Project is to promote bat conservation, this is the perfect time of year to counter bat myths and do something to help bats. Such as build bat houses and find good locations for them, to give bats a place to...
RANT: Why 'show up or shut up' is a reasonable response to public consultation attendance
We’re roughly a year away from our next municipal election, and I’m prepared to bet a great deal that the word you’re going to hear most from candidates (especially new ones) is ‘transparency’ – as in, the current council is being less-than-transparent, obfuscating, running a defacto dictatorship at YOUR expense. It’s a...
Public asked for input in development of 2018 budget
The timeline is set for the development of Castlegar’s 2018 budget and five-year plan, with opportunities for the public to weigh in on priorities at the outset, and later on the proposed finish product before it is adopted as law. “For 2017, Council added a new line item into its budget. A communication budget line item was...
Public's chance to weigh in on new water/sewer rates
The City of Castlegar is now beginning a public consultation phase to bring the city closer to a user-pay water/sewer system, an initiative that has been in the works since 2005. According to a report by city deputy director of finance Lois Hunter, the move toward water meters and consumption-based rates was a necessary goal...
Booty's Cabin draws a crowd for Canada 150
The forest air was crisp and intoxicatingly pure (except for the cloud of sausage-scented smoke rising from the barbeque) as outdoorsy people from local communities gathered around the new Booty's Cabin to celebrate it, and the Rossland Range Recreation Site ― that made it (and the other day-use shelters) legally ...
Potential pot production prompts public participation
The public will soon get a say in how they feel about a medical marihuana production facility on the surplus airport lands, after council voted unanimously to move forward with the public hearing process. During their regular meeting last night (Monday), council received a report by Planning and Development Director Phil...
Tip o' the hat to local Castlegar CIBC staff after MVI last week
Castlegar CIBC employees are receiving kudos from the Fire Chief after their management of the aftermath of a single-vehicle crash. According to Fire Chief Sam Lattanzio, the call came in at 1:52 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. “A customer of CIBC inadvertently hit his gas pedal, accelerating instead of braking,” Lattanzio said. ...
City bids adieu to Malcolm, welcomes Barlow as new CAO
It’s official – our former, long-time CAO John Malcolm is now retired, and incoming CAO Chris Barlow attended his first council meeting as city manager at council’s regular meeting Monday night. Malcolm came to Castlegar as CAO in January of 2008. When asked what he’ll remember most fondly of Castlegar, Malcolm said, “There...
Can Southern Mountain Caribou Recover? See This Film.
BC's southern-most herd of mountain caribou is now so tiny that it can barely be called a "herd." What's been happening to them? Bryce Comer's avocation is film-making, and he has been working on a film documenting the southern herd of mountain caribou since 2008. Comer explained that while their...
Selkirk College Mir Lecture Series Welcomes Avi Lewis
One of the nation’s most ardent climate change activists will visit the West Kootenay as part of the Selkirk College Mir Centre for Peace Lecture Series. Canadian documentary filmmaker and former journalist Avi Lewis appears at Nelson’s Capitol Theatre on Friday, October 13 where he will speak about climate justice and the ...
