WEDNESDAY AUGUST 26, 2015
FUNDRAISER
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IN THE GALLERY
FOOD BANK GARAGE SALE
PURCELL MOUNTAIN PAINTERS
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Championship 18 Matinee Rate - $54
includes green fees and cart, plus tax. Available Monday-Thursday 1:00-3:00pm
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www.BootlegGapGolf.com
THE BULLETIN PROUDLY SERVING KIMBERLEY AND AREA SINCE 1932 | Vol. 83, Issue 164 | www.dailybulletin.ca
Theft slowdown
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Recent arrests should bring a stop to some thefts, RCMP says C AROLYN GR ANT Bulletin Editor
Cpl. Chris Newel, Acting NCO of the Kimberley RCMP Detachment, attended City Council on Monday evening to deliver the second quarter policing report, but what he really wanted to talk to Council about was the rash of thefts this year. Newel had some good news about that, telling Council that some recent arrests should see a stop to a lot of that activity. Newel said that in the past two months there had been theft in Kimberley and area like he had never seen before — thefts from vehicles, thefts of bikes and recreational vehicles, thefts of vehicles. “It’s caused a huge amount of concern,” he said. “So many things were happening, we had quite a few people on our radar.” Newel said that with the level of thefts varying — from tossing a vehicle to take $5 to stealing a vehicle from a car dealer — there were bound to be different individuals involved in the thefts. “People who rifle cars are not the same guy who steals a car from a dealer and dumps it at a golf course,” he said. He said a recent arrest in Rossland, in which the individual got 15 months for theft, turned out to be someone on Kimberley RCMP radar. “There was also another individual living in Townsite in a tent. We got him on a multitude of charges. There was also an individual who stole a car from Kimberley and was caught in Kamloops. We haven’t seen him since he disappeared. “We have three subjects before the courts on minor charges. One was released on strict conditions. In fact I will be knocking on his door in about two hours to make sure he is home.” There was also an arrest made of the individual who stole recreational vehicles in Lumberton over the weekend. “He was a major player in a lot of this stuff,” Newel said. With all these arrests, Newel says the playing field has considerable narrowed.
See POLICE , Page 3
SD 6 INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM
Eighteen Japanese students from Kimberley’s sister city of Annaka, Japan visited School District No. 6 (Rocky Mountain) for a one-week summer program from August 16 – 22, 2015. This annual program involves ESL classes in the morning and activities in the afternoon. The program continues to showcase the Kimberley area’s many attractions, events, and amenities. This year local students once again joined the program to make friends and speak English with the Japanese students. Some of them are hoping to visit Annaka in March, 2016 when the Rocky Mountain International Student Program is planning a return trip to Japan for students at McKim Middle School and Selkirk Secondary School. See more from the visit on Page 12.
That busy morning commute C AROLYN GR ANT Bulletin Editor
It’s not near the volume of traffic you’d see on a commute from Langley to Vancouver, but Highway 95 A between Kimberley and Cranbrook does have its share of commuters. Recent traffic counts suggest that approximately 3,000 vehicles travel between the two cities every morning. With that volume of traffic, Kimberley City Council had asked the local RCMP to pay some attention to that route. Traffic on that route is not under the jurisdiction
of Kimberley RCMP but of East Kootenay Traffic Services. Cpl. Chris Newel says that he spoke to traffic services about targeting that section of highway and they have done so. “They did catch one vehicle going 140 plus in the early morning,” he said. “That car is now spending seven days in a care facility.” Newel says that Traffic Services will be keeping an eye on the road and try to curtail speeding. He added that with the amount of vehicles, there are surprisingly few accidents on the highway.
Council working on new watering bylaw Bylaw change would allow further water restrictions C AROLYN GR ANT Bulletin Editor
For the time being, the current even/odd mandatory water restrictions will stay in place in Kimberley, but Council will be working on a new bylaw that will allow the City Operations department greater latitude in putting further restrictions in place. Council was presented with a draft bylaw this
week and it will go to a Committee of the Whole meeting for further revision and discussion. “The reason that it’s being brought forward is that the City doesn’t have a bylaw that allows the Manager of Operations to go forward on further restrictions,” said Coun. Albert Hoglund, who chaired this week’s Council meeting in the absence of Mayor Don McCormick. “The bylaw is a good start” said Coun. Kent Goodwin. “But I think we should be on stage 2 right now and thinking about stage 3 in a couple of
weeks if we don’t get significant rain. Hoglund said that the Manager of Operations was confident it would be all right for this year. “We still have 2 cm of overflow over the dam. While that might not seem like much, it’s still a lot of water. Usually the weather changes by September. We get a little more rain and people stop watering.” Goodwin said that was in a normal year. “We are heading into the strongest El Nino ever,” he pointed out. “But, at least we’re working on it.”