NEWS PENTICTON WESTERN
www.pentictonwesternnews.com
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news
Highway construction dampens business in Gallagher Lake
VOL. 47 ISSUE 98
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Vees welcome Cooper with a win
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FRIDAY, December 6, 2013
community Blankets help keep community warm
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entertainment Clark nourishes passion with table hockey
SKAHA SPLASH Joe Fries
NEWS PENTICTON WESTERN
TEDDY BEAR SUPPORT — Karen Wachtler, left, and Barb Larson were among the hundreds of Vees fans who tossed a stuffed toy on the ice following the home team’s first goal. All of the stuffed toys are destined for the Salvation Army.
Percy N. Hébert/Western News
Western News Staff
Just before he shifted into rescue mode, Don Czerniak was momentarily stunned Wednesday night when he watched a pickup truck blow through an intersection and drive right into Skaha Lake. “That was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. Right off the end of the Channel Parkway into the water. You could even see the vehicle in the air,” said Czerniak, a Penticton contractor. The 2009 Dodge Ram went into Skaha Lake at the mouth of the Okanagan River just after 8 p.m. with the ambient temperature near –10 C. According to the RCMP, the driver of the truck was heading southbound on Channel Parkway and rather than turning at the T intersection with Skaha Lake Road, the vehicle instead carried straight down a path that runs along a spit of land that juts out into the lake. The truck went down the path about 50 metres before it veered into the water. Czerniak was driving east on Skaha Lake Road and was about 20 m from the intersection when he saw the truck sail past. “He just drove right in front of me right into the lake,” said Czerniak, adding the Dodge “didn’t slow down at all” and was travelling at approximately 70 kilometres per hour. By the time Czerniak parked his truck and made
it down to the water to help, the two vehicle occupants, a man and woman, had extricated themselves from the vehicle and were “shaken up,” but standing on shore. The truck came to rest about 100 m out from the bridge over the river channel and its roof was just visible above the water line. Penticton RCMP spokesman Sgt. Rick Dellebuur said police have ruled out drugs and alcohol as factors in the incident, which he instead attributed to a combination of “driver inattention and speed.” Dellebuur said the driver, a 33-year-old male, and his passenger, a 49-year-old female, are from Penticton, and declined to go to hospital after being treated by paramedics at the scene. Mounties are contemplating charges, Dellebuur added, including driving without due care and attention. The truck was towed from the water Wednesday night, and by Thursday morning a window scraper and what appeared to be part of a side-view mirror were stuck in the ice that had formed along the shore of the river channel. Dellebuur said survival time in cold water is relatively short, but the two people involved in the incident were fortunate because their vehicle sank only about 10 m from shore and in relatively shallow water. “You’re always lucky in any type of these accidents to survive,” he said.
Tourism budget raises a few eyebrows on council and handles destination marketing for the community. Revenues at Tourism Penticton are exThe amount being spent on payroll and pected to be up next year, but so are expenses, administration costs in Tourism Penticton’s requiring the same $354,000 investment from 2014 budget gave some Penticton city coun- the City of Penticton to keep the operation gocillors pause when they reviewed it Wednes- ing. day. “It’s way out of line,” said Vassilaki. With overall expenses of $909,000, up “There is no way I can go along with such tm from $630,800 last year, Coun. John Vassilaki a payroll when all the money the city puts into was the first to express concern that $404,685 it is all eaten up by salaries and whatever.” is going to cover payroll and administration Vassilaki said he considers every dollar costs for the organization, which runs the inthat isn’t used totechnology promote the community a A whole new dimension hearing Penticton and Wine Country Visitors Centre waste.
“To have such a huge payroll for such a small budget, $300,000 is outrageous,” he said. And on top of that you have your general administration expenses, and that makes it $400,000. Miranda Halladay, president of the Tourism Penticton society, said it comes back to the split last year that saw the two per cent hotel room tax given to the Penticton Hospitality Association. “The quick answer is that this organization was built on the supposition that ultimately external marketing would be housed within
Steve Kidd
Western News Staff
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this organization or a unified organization as one,” said Halladay. “Perhaps we were overly optimistic last year in the opportunities that we thought we could co-operate with the hospitality association on and engaging that budget back in a unified form.” Earlier this year, PHA director Tim Hodgkinson told council the organization was waiting for better documentation from Tourism Penticton on their plans before committing the hotel room tax funds.
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