Grand Forks city council approved an application from Bill Irvine of Brown Bridge Ventures Ltd. to tear down Grand Forks’s last standing historical hotel to build a liquor store on the corner of Central Avenue and 4thStreet during the regular council meeting Monday, Oct. 22. Irvine, who hails from Kelowna, will be removing the old […]

Following council's request in September for a "smoking dogs" bylaw, city staff returned to council on Monday with a report on bylaws used by other communities to control dogs and restrict smoking in public areas. Council voted to provide several opportunities for public input before contemplating any change to either the ban...

Stewart Spooner of the Kootenay Columbia Trails Society (KCTS) has spearheaded an effort to build a new 17 kilometre bike and hike trail from Red Mountain Resort to Nancy Greene Pass. The intermediate level trail will be less technically demanding than other trails in the existing network. "The motivation behind this big...

It couldn’t have been clearer in a recent interview for Maclean’s magazine, that International Trade Minister Ed Fast viewed maintaining sovereign control over our public services, investments, intellectual property, environmental protection, government procurement and labour mobility as completely irrelevant in sweeping...

Council has advanced Curtis Nichols' application to rezone his property at 926 Black Bear Drive—opposite the junction of Highway 22 and the Cascade Highway—from R1 Residential to C2 Commercial Service, and a public hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 12. Nichols plans to subdivide his lot, keeping the southern portion...

It looks like the Kootenays are finally getting the hospital review that’s been discussed for months here in the tri-city region, and it may completed as soon as Nov. 30 of this year … what remains unclear is whether the scope of the study will take an adequate snapshot of the area’s capacity and needs. […]

Trail residents may have heard loud alarms emanating from Teck Cominco’s Trail smelter facility this morning, but Teck spokesman Richard Deane said there’s no cause for alarm. “We had a power outage this morning at roughly 10 a.m., which affected the entire operation,” he said. “When the power goes out, all the the plant automatically […]

Vancouver-based Telus announced Monday the company is will no longer charge a $35 activation fee for new customers or a $25 equipment exchange fee for renewing customers who purchase a new device. Telus claims it’s the first telecommunications company to waive the activation fee. “The wireless industry and competitive landscape have changed over the years […]

Construction has begun on improvements to a stretch of Highway 3 dubbed ‘Million Dollar Alley’ by residents, because of the huge number of vehicular accidents that occur in that area. City councillor and manager of Trowelex (a business fronting this stretch of roadway) Kevin Chernoff said he hopes residents are safe and careful as the […]

[CORRECTION: This article has been modified since publication. We originally wrote that council had voted 3-3 in favour of the motion, but in fact council voted 4-2, with Mayor Granstrom in favour. Had the motion been tied 3-3, the motion would have failed. Our apologies for the error.] Council voted 4-2 in favour of city...