Striking city workers reach tentative deal
CUPE Local 2262 civic workers and the City of Castlegar have reached a tentative new collective agreement. The deal was reached this afternoon following two days of mediated talks. It must still be ratified by both sides. CUPE 2262 is holding a ratification meeting this evening. The city workers have been on strike since...
Soon to be completed Waneta Expansion Project
The annual Christmas tree is lit for the holiday season at the Waneta Expansion Project site. This is the last Christmas that will see construction on the project which is slated for completion in 2015. The $900 million Waneta Expansion Project, located next to the Waneta Dam south of Trail, will see the addition of a second...
Provincial Court Judge agrees charges can proceed in Lemon Creek fuel spill case
Slocan Valley resident Marilyn Burgoon is pleased with a ruling by Judge Mayland McKimm that allows the BC Government and Executive Flight Centre Fuel Services Ltd. to face charges in relation to the Lemon Creek fuel spill. In a media release, Burgoon said, “This is a very important victory for democracy.” Burgoon took up ...
UPDATED: Safeway bomb threat deemed a hoax
On Dec. 18, at roughly 1 p.m., the Castlegar RCMP, Kootenay Boundary GIS, Trail Detachment, Castlegar Fire Department and emergency services responded to a complaint of a bomb threat called in to the manager of Canada Safeway, according to RCMP Cpl. Debbie Postnikoff. "Police immediately evacuated the Canada Safeway and the...
OUT OF LEFT FIELD: On the strike, random acts of kindness and family
I’ve been in a total funk for the past few weeks – all the negativity and rage surrounding the current city strike have been so disheartening and demoralizing. I keep thinking, What about after the strike? We’re all going to have to go back to working together, shopping in each other’s stores, attending our children’s hockey...
Mayor speaks to issue of damaged snowplow
In a politically-driven Facebook forum called The Castlegar Podium, striking union member Darrel Bojechko was expressing upset over the amount city managment are being paid to handle essential services such as snowplowing in the union's absence, and added, "And I might add they have done thousands of dollars damage to the...
City/union to resume mediated talks
The City of Castlegar has initiated mediated talks with CUPE Local 2262 (striking city workers) to begin this coming Monday, according to Mayor Lawrence Chernoff. Chernoff said David Schuab, the Labour Relations Board mediator who wrote recommendations for settlement on Sept. 22 of this year, will be mediating the discussion....
Castlegar Fire Department gone to the dogs
Castlegar firefighters had a howling good time last night, according to Deputy Fire Chief Sam Lattanzio. Lattanzio said that last night, at 6:32 p.m., the Castlegar Fire Department responded to a single vehicle rollover approximately nine kilometres west of the city on Highway 3. "On arrival, no human occupants required...
UPDATE: Trail accident proves fatal
A woman has died after a being struck by a car on Dec. 9 in Trail, according to RCMP Sgt. John Ferguson, whose press release reads as follows: On Dec. 9 at approximately 7:13 p.m., Trail RCMP and the West Kootenay Traffic Services were dispatched to a single motor vehicle crash involving an automobile and two pedestrians on...
The Year-End Blues
“What rough beast … slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?” -- W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming “Americans still heralded the Enlightenment’s entry into history precisely because they’d all been uprooted from their several soils and ancestries and plunged together into one vortex, whirling irresistible in a space otherwise quite...
