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Enter the Baden-Powell Bordello P. 3
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Reports of wolf attack off, risk to pets not: P. 5
No snow, no worries
Puppy love
Restrictions remain likely, but Ladysmith doesn’t rely on winter snowfall for its summer water supply John McKinley THE CHRONICLE
Special Ladysmith preschooler gets a special furry friend for life John McKinley THE CHRONICLE
The puppy lopes across the carpet towards her new friend, a golden, furry ball of warmth, wagging and wet kisses. The girl squeals in delight, hands clapping, a smile flashing underneath her brown curls, broad enough to light an arena. Diva and Eve-Lynne have just met, but this, like the movies say, looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Ladysmith four-year-old Eve-Lynne Linden has omphalocele; she was born with her abdominal organs in a sac
Four-year-old Eve-Lynne Linden is all smiles meeting her new friend Diva. outside her body. The doctors told her family she was not expected to survive birth. When she did, they said she might live for six months. After 402 days at B.C. Children’s Hospital she came home. Today she is learning to stand with the help of a walker and eat some food orally, while preparing for kindergarten next fall. Diva is a gift, a present from a friendship born through many shared, fearful nights in that hospital. Coleen Fortner Moat is the mother of premature twins who bonded with Eve-Lynne’s mom, Janice Boley, during their mutual stay there. A dog breeder from the Kelowna area, Fortner Moat kept in touch with Boley through the internet. On Saturday they met face-to-face for the first time in three years, as Fortner Moat delivered
JOHN MCKINLEY
Diva to her new best friend. Boley said her daughter and the labrador retriever bonded instantly. Fortner Moat was not surprised. “In raising labs, I’ve seen what type of work they’ve done as guide dogs for people,” she said. “It’s been proven that they reduce stress and promote the social interaction and encourage exercise. I just thought that with a child with disabilities, it helps them calm themselves and maybe will help her be able to deal with the challenges that she has to overcome.” According to Boley, Diva will eventually be able to sense when Eve-Lynne is about to have a seizure, or has lost a tube. She eats through a nasal tube and breathes with the help of a ventilator. see Donations on page 4
That dusting of snow that appeared on the mountains earlier this month got some water watchers excited. But not the Town of Ladysmith. The lack of snowpack that has communities all over the island bracing for a dry summer is largely irrelevant here, according to the town’s director of infrastructure services. The Holland Lake reservoir was full Jan. 1. The town can’t store any more water. Our current issue, according to John Manson, is not rainfall, nor snow- John Manson says the pack, it’s storage ca- Holland Lake reservoir is at full capacity. pacity. Conservation measures are — and will likely continue to be — necessary every spring until we raise the dam. “Holland Lake is at 500 metres. In the greater scheme of things that’s very low. We don’t typically rely on a lot of snowpack,” Manson said. “When you talk about snowpack, it doesn’t matter if we get less snowpack. It’s been a pretty average year for rain.” Raising the dam 1.5 meters as a way to increase storage is part of about $35-40 million in water system improvements staff feel is needed over the next 10 years. A majority of Town officials consider raising the dam to be our highest infrastructure priority. But provincial regulations governing uncovered community water supplies mean a $10 million filtration plant has to happen first. In the meantime, Manson said the town is ready for whatever Mother Nature brings this summer. As long as the rains continue, the town typically draws only from Chicken Ladder in order to preserve what’s in Holland Lake. Stocking Lake, our secondary source, was nearly full as well. see Water on page 4
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