The Revelstoke Hospital Auxiliary Society Thrift Store is marking 50 years of business success and community support and wants everyone in town to help them celebrate.
Join them on Thursday, October 16, from 1 pm until 3 pm for refreshments, a half-price sale and door prizes.
They are very thankful for the community’s generous support, which has enabled them to tangibly support medical treatment at Queen Victoria Hospital through the purchase of modern medical equipment.
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Emma Kirkland, a long-time community supporter and former general manager at Powder Springs, is leaving Revelstoke.
“As some of you may have heard, I am taking the (role of) Marketing Manager for Millennium Hotels in New Zealand,” she told The Current in an e-mail on Tuesday, October 14. “I am having farewell drinks on Friday October 17 in The Cabin from 7 pm. It will just be a casual see you later with no speeches, but it would be good to see you to say cheers.”
All of Emma’s many friends are invited to this event.
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The Early Childhood Development Committee is holding its Fall Clothing and Toy Exchange this Saturday from 9 – 11:30 am at the Begbie View Elementary School gymnasium.
Early Childhood Development Coordinator Tracy Spannier noted in an e-mail that information on Revelstoke Early Years programs and services will be available to curious parents. StrongStart and Leap Land will also be open on Saturday, she said.
Tracy also invited parents to fill out the committee’s five-minute survey about what works for you and your family, which is located at http://fluidsurveys.com/surveys/revelstoke-ecd/what-s-works-for-you-parent-survey/.
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Inattention at City Hall has led to a situation where bylaw control officers cannot issue tickets to residents who are putting their garbage out the night before scheduled pickup days there by encouraging scavenging by bears.
Councillor Phil Welock said on Tuesday, October 14, that staff are now moving forward with it after Bear Aware Coordinator Sue Davies complained that the Municipal Ticketing Bylaw was not changed to reflect changes to the Solid Waste and Recycling Bylaw (#2006), which was adopted in November 2012.
“Unfortunately this has recently led to a lack of ability of bylaw officers to carry out their duties of ticketing people who disregard the bylaw’s rules,” Davies said in a letter to Council that was dated September 24.
“Revelstoke Bear Aware would like to request that the Council and staff remedy this omission as soon as possible. The timely remedying of this situation is critical due to the fact that the City is currently experiencing a record year for human-bear conflict, much of which is driven by garbage being left accessible to bears.
“Also, as in our letter dated March 2nd, Revelstoke Bear Aware encourages the City to add secure garbage storage as a mandatory requirement in the building schemes for all new developments of residential buildings and for commercial buildings that generate food waste.”
Davies’ letter was referred to municipal staff for an answer.
Please click here to read Sue Davies’ letter.
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A plea from resident Vittoria van Leur that the City take action against a dog that almost killed one of her two small dogs a year ago has been referred to City staff for a recommendation.
“I am writing you because September signifies an important remembrance for my family especially for my canine family member: Shiloh,” she wrote in a September 19 letter to Council. “It is the anniversary of the horrible event in which my small Pomeranian almost lost her life due to a dangerous dog still at large and living 3 blocks from my home.
“It was September 8th, 2013, and it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I took out my 2 small dogs, Blade and Shiloh for a walk in our neighbourhood. Blade and Shiloh were on leashes and walking close with me on the sidewalk. As we crossed the street, a large black and white (dog which appeared to be) a pit bull came charging out of one of the cabins towards us onto Wilson Street. His owner… came running out and screaming gibberish. I automatically tried to pick up my two dogs into my arms, but was unable and the large dog lunged at my Shiloh (my Pomeranian) and grabbed her body in his jaws and started shaking her violently, trying to kill her. I commanded Blade (my Jack Russell) to go home, which he did, and I quickly started hitting the large dog on his head with the leash in my hand, attempting to force him to release Shiloh. He dropped her briefly and grabbed her again, creating another 4 puncture wounds in her small body. He rag-dolled her again, tearing and ripping into her fur, causing more damage to her abdomen and separating the fur from her body.
“I dropped the leash and began hitting him on the head with my fists, causing him to drop her again, to which I picked her up off the pavement. She was full of blood and she was in shock. The owner of this dog was of little help to control him or even help with the situation. She only stood there screaming wildly as I fought to save my pom’s life.
Now that a full calendar year has passed, the damage of that day still lingers for us.
“I have done a lot of reading on cases around our province about dogs attacking people and other dogs that have been treated in a much more serious manner than Revelstoke has done. Why has our City and animal control officer(s) been so cavalier about this? This particular dog has a repeated offending record. This dog IS a DANGEROUS dog. Even if the owner keeps it inside the residence most of the time, this dog has the taste of blood, and has the high potential to attack yet again. It is only time that will tell of yet another attack.
“In August 2000, new legislation came into force in BC that allowed quick action to be taken to protect people and animals from dangerous dogs. This legislation states that the definition of a “dangerous dog” is a dog that has killed or has seriously injured, or likely to kill or seriously injure a person, or a domestic animal in a public place or while on private property other than the dog owner’s property.
“This law, now 13 years old, respects the rights of responsible dog owners who make sure their pets are properly cared for, well socialized, trained, and do not pose a threat. The law deals with situations where irresponsible dog owners who, even when faced with evidence that their dog is dangerous, refuse to take the NECESSARY MEASURES to prevent a dog attack.
“This dog owner mentioned in my situation, has already been proven an irresponsible dog owner with the repeated attacks this dog has committed. “Also, this dog fits the criteria of being a dangerous dog. Therefore the law states the animal control officer is in his rights and duty to obtain a warrant to seize the dog from the private property and be impounded pending a provincial court order of destruction.
“I have paid $2,536.19 in vet & hospital bills (this does not include the travel costs for our multiple trips to Kelowna and Salmon Arm) for Shiloh in direct cause of this dangerous dog. The offending dog owner has not paid anything even though she said she would. Her actions yet again prove her negligence in being a responsible dog owner.”
Please click here to read Vittoria’s entire letter.
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Council has passed its annual bylaw exempting churches, museums and various other institutions from paying property taxes.
Please click here to see who’s on the list of tax-exempt properties.
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The City holding a Public Hearing on its latest set of sign regulations on Tuesday, October 28 in the Council Chambers at 2:30 pm.
The meeting was to be held on October 14 but City Hall inadvertently neglected to place an ad with one or both local newspapers. You can find the official ad in The Times Review.
Please click here to see the report to Council regarding this hearing.
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Geoff Battersby, Graham Inglis, Tony Scarcella, Linda Nixon, Christopher Johnston, Bart Larsen, and James N. McMahon have been reappointed by City Council as directors of the Revelstoke Community Energy Corporation.
Please click here to read Council’s proclamation of their reappointment.
In a related decision, Council also reappointed Geoff Battersby, Jim Blake, Steve Bender, Loni Parker, David Raven, Gary Starling, and Phil Welock as directors of the Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation.
Please click here to read Council’s proclamation of their reappointment.
Council also reappointed Norm Langlois, Peter Neilsen, Rob Elliott and Judy Goodman to the Tourism Infrastructure Advisory Committee for terms of two years beginning October 1.
Please click here to read their about reappointment.
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The City has agreed to a three-year extension of the Okanagan Regional Library’s lease for space at the Community Centre.
The new lease will run from January 1, 2015, until December 31, 2017, and will cost the ORL $29,155, based on a rate of $8.50 per square foot for 3,430 square feet.
“In addition to the rent, the city would continue to receive a contribution to overhead costs which is estimated to be between $10,000 and $12,000 a year,” said a report to Council from Corporate Services Executive Dawn Levesque.
“There has been one amendment to the agreement that includes a clause that gives ORL the right to give one year written notice to decrease the space being leased or discontinue leasing space, the Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture has agreed to this amendment.”
Please click here to read the full report.
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Who says there are no free rides in life? City Council has decided to offer free rides on municipal transit buses during Welcome Week, November 23-30.
“Based on fare revenue from previous years during the same time period, staff estimates the loss of revenue would be approximately $1,000,” Community Economic Development Director Alan Mason said in a report to Council on Tuesday, October 14.
“Staff believes that the provision of complimentary transit service during Welcome Week in 2013 helped to promote use of the transit service by seasonal workers over the winter months last season.”
Please click here to read Alan Mason’s report to Council.
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In a politically interesting first, City Council accepted a 12-page report on building permits in Revelstoke during the life of this particular Council.
Until today’s document, all building permit summaries that I have seen during the last 13 years have consisted of just two or three pages: one or two pages that list which properties received permits and another page that details how much was spent in any given month that year and a comparison to the previous year.
Please click here to read this report.
Please click here to read a typical year-end building summary, this one’s for 2012.
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