Oh, sometimes there is nothing better and more Rossland-ish than sitting out on the sidewalk in front of the Sunshine Cafe, enjoying a nice sandwich and a cool drink, chatting with friends and passersby, meeting some convivial dogs - all accompanied by the idyllic soundtrack of DT Chambers and other assorted semis trundling...

 A common theme heard over and over again whenever conversations shift towards taxes, services and growth or recession in Rossland is the idea that we must either raise taxes or cut services. Depending on which side of the fence you're on, the result of either is likely pay more to maintain the quality of life we enjoy or see...

I love stuff that is epic.  Epic music, epic stories, epic events, epic vistas - epic anything. The more epic the better. Except the Aeneid and anything by Dickens, that is. And that terrible Oliver Stone movie about Alexander the Great. But other than that, bring on the epic. I love the Kootenays because there is tons of...

“Like sand through the hourglass, so too are the shaves of our lives.”-Fabrizzio Mioggia, world renowned moustachier   Mo’vember 2010 has officially drawn to a close, the only remaining formalities a handful of gala parties in big bergs and metropolae where well connected Bay Street movers and shakers will handshake and...

 For over three years now, the Lower Columbia, Greater Trail, South Kootenay (or whatever the current branding of our region is) have been stuck in a much-reported sewer quagmire that has stalled the Liquid Waste Management Planning (LWMP) process at Phase one.   One would hope and expect that with notice given from the...

So it’s December first today and on Saturday there is going to be a sizable Christmas event in the town square, an event meant to “rekindle” our Christmas spirits. A tree will be lit. I think there will be fire involved, but I don’t really know what else is happening because I don’t plan on attending.   Let me state outright...

Often when discussion turns to how to grow an area’s economy, broad questions such as /what type of city do we want to be?' are among the first to come up. This week, for the sake of discussion, I’ll offer up a bit of a paradigm shift on that way of thinking. Perhaps a large part of the conversation on how to drive economic...

There is a movement afoot, a less than secretive fraternal order of men donating the combined powers of their upper lips to a cause. Self-sacrificing, self-effacing, they are putting their best faces forward and adorning the fleshy canvas below their septum with a mo’, a moustache, for one month. Solidarity in the furry face...

Last Monday I had the opportunity to go somewhere I’d never been before: a City council meeting. I was assigned a story about the Museum Select Committee and was encouraged to attend the meeting by my editor so I could see the Committee’s presentation.  Usually, I curl on Monday nights, but I managed to find a spare and off...

Rossland sure has had its share of hot spots in the past.  One of them was the Allan Hotel, which stood where our Subway sandwich shop now stands. The Allan was built around the mid-1890s and until its complete destruction in 1978, it buzzed with a cafe, a beer parlour, and a supper club called the Loose Cabooze.  At some...