TOWN BOUNDARY CHANGES APPROVED / PAGE 5 PARTNERS KEY TO YARN SHOP / PAGE 22 ®
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Volume 67, No. 12 | Thursday, March 19, 2015
Visit us online at www.crestonvalleyadvance.ca
Discovery Real Estate
Tyler Hancock, ABR 250-428-9916
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Lorne Eckersley
See us to find out how!
From left: (standing) Kitchen manager Brad Sutherland, restaurant manager Melody Totten, Colin Bergen, Mike Butler, Ram Cherfils, Tyler Mynott; (seated) Curtis Mayne, Sara Haskell, Lori Barker, Mona Bradford, Shannon Lange, Jennifer Purdy. Missing: Karen Hahn, Sandra Heycamp, Sydney Nelson, Kristy Hunter, Jasmine Rhoades, Robert Dumas, Sara Bevie, Alisha Louie.
Ricky’s earns four franchise awards
Kokanee Ford Serving the Kootenays since 1984
1241 Hwy #3 Creston BC 250-428-2206 • 1-800-262-7151
Residents still being targeted by scams
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BY LORNE ECKERSLEY Advance Staff
Bookkeeping, GST and PST
Kevin Boehmer, CPA, CA 250-402-3471 kevin@boehmerconsulting.ca
Creston area residents continue to be deluged with scams that are designed to relieve them of their money. “Seniors are especially vulnerable,” said Creston RCMP Cpl. Monty Taylor. “They should be aware that they are often targets.” Three different computer-related frauds were reported to the police last week, he said. In one, a Mac owner got a message that the computer’s firewall was out of date and a $500 upgrade, to be provided over the Internet, was needed to protect the system. Another resident received a popup message, purportedly from Florida, that the contents of his computer would be encrypted if he didn’t pay a $250 fee. Despite paying the extortion demand, his computer crashed three days later. When he
DISCOVERY REAL ESTATE
Michael Carpenter Broker/Owner
Sheldon Browell
Tyler Hancock, ABR, PREC
contacted the company he was told they would refund the payment, but then demanded he send a cheque to an address in India. A third complaint came from a person who was selling merchandise on a website. The cheque he received for the goods was for more than the selling price and he was instructed to transfer the excess to another bank account. Fortunately, a bank employee warned him of the likelihood he was being targeted in a scam. The cheque turned out to be a fraud. An Advance reader provided information about yet another recent scam. He was contacted by “Canadian Cash Awards”, apparently operating out of Las Vegas, and told he had won a second place prize of $750,000 and a new Chrysler. To collect his prize he was instructed to send $3,500.74 for “processing, insurance and delivery.” See SCamS, page 5
BY LORNE ECKERSLEY Advance Staff
Mel Totten and Brad Sutherland wore wide smiles on March 12 in Calgary when they accepted four franchise awards for the success of Ricky’s All Day Grill. Their work as manager and chef, respectively, was recognized as being outstanding among the Alberta South/Kootenay division of about two dozen restaurants. Now on display in the restaurant at the Highway 3/3A intersection are awards for franchisee of the year, outstanding sales performance, best marketing and operational excellence. “It’s nice to be recognized among people who have long experience in the Ricky’s franchise,” Totten said on Monday. She and Sutherland assumed their key responsibilities at Ricky’s late in 2012. Both were well known to restaurant customers in Creston. “To do so well against restaurants in large centres like Calgary and Lethbridge means that we are doing it right,” Sutherland said. Totten is especially thrilled with the Outstanding Sales Performance Award, which the Creston operation won by increas-
What Moves You? Ingrid Voigt
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Daryl Porter
Sara Malyk
2 Offices to Serve You! 1013 Canyon St. Creston 106 33rd Ave. S. Hwy. 3 Erickson
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“It’s nice to be recognized among people who have long experience in the Ricky’s franchise.” Mel Totten
Totten said that after working for independent mom and pop restaurants, she enjoys the support offered by one of Canada’s leading groups of franchise restaurants. “They know what they want and they have a history of success,” she said. “They have high standards.” Sutherland echoed those sentiments.
See rICKY’S, page 3
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ing business by a whopping 23.5 per cent in 2014. The Franchisee of the Year Award came as a result of regular site visits by the Ricky’s management team. Totten said for Creston to win it was an honour, and shows Creston is on the map.
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