Photo: Colin Dacre
The Penticton Indian Band elected five new councillors in a byelection Thursday, the end of a lengthy appeal process that saw the results of a 2017 byelection overturned.
Inez Pierre, Fred Kruger, Vivian Lezard, Charlene Roberds and Carlene George have been elected and will join Clint George, Elliott Tonasket, Susan Johnson and Chief Chad Eneas around the council table until late 2020 when the PIB enters a new election cycle.
Pierre and Kruger were among the five councillors that lost their seats with the successful appeal of the 2017 byelection, but retained their seats in Thursday’s vote. Joan Philip, the only other ousted councillor to run, did not recapture her seat.
Thursday’s byelection was held after a majority of PIB membership, in a vote, declared the results of the 2017 by election invalid. The appeal process was launched by PIB member Jacqueline McPherson, and forced into motion by a federal court ruling in July.
Photo: PIB
Chelsea Powrie
It’s not your average after-school club.
A group of about 20 Penticton teens from Penticton Secondary School and Princess Margaret Secondary School are building a robot for a prestigious national robotics competition in Victoria coming up in March.
Nicola Thompson, 16, got the ball rolling in creating the team when she learned about the FIRST Robotics competition two years ago.
“I looked it up and was like wow, that sounds really cool,” Thompson explained.
But she discovered the closest team was in the United States.
“So I thought, why don’t I just start a team?”
Two years later, that dream has been realized. Thompson and her peers meet several times a week at Princess Margaret Secondary to work on their robot, which is remote controlled and will, when complete, be able to accomplish a number of tasks set by the FIRST Robotics competition.
“All the teams are going to come together and then each one is going to compete individually. It’s going to be throwing balls into holes, and it’s going to be spinning this wheel to see if it can land on this particular spot, and it’s going to be hanging itself up on this bar, and whichever one can balance it gets extra points for that too,” Thompson said.
The robot is coming along nicely, able to zoom along the floor but missing add-ons like an arm that will help them complete their competition tasks.
But the trip to Victoria in early March for the competition doesn’t come cheap, so the team is open to donations to ensure they can do their best.
Donations above and beyond what is needed for travel, lodging and expenses for the competition this year will be banked to ensure the program moves forward in future years.
“It’s trying to bring in all different types of facets of education, and show you how there is a correlation between it,” instructor Tyler Legare explained. “Bringing all different types of students together, I think it’s all about unity, working toward the same goal.”
The kids head to Victoria for the competition beginning March 4. Anyone interested in donating can contact Tyler Legare by email at [email protected]
Photo: Google Maps
There is currently a widespread power outage in the Penticton area according to the city.
The Pentiction after-hours line is stating, “Pentiction City electrical is working on a resolution with an unknown ETA at this time.”
One reader says that their home went suddenly black at 7:45 p.m.
Another resident says the blackout is in the “Wiltse area from Dartmouth Drive East including Wiltse school.”
Dartmouth Drive West is also being affected.
Castanet will update the story as more information becomes available.
Photo: Explore Oliver BC
A man accused of exposing himself to children in an Oliver park will remain behind bars while a psychological assessment takes place.
Dexter Makortoff, 32, is charged with one count of exposing genitals to a person under 16 and committing an indecent act in a public place for an incident alleged to have occurred in Lion’s Park on Aug. 21, 2019.
A warrant was issued for his arrest on Nov. 27, 2019 after he failed to show up for his first court appearance. Online court records show he was arrested sometime after that and released on a promise to appear in Penticton court on Jan. 15, which he allegedly did not do.
An additional charge of failing to appear was sworn on Jan. 21 and he was arrested again.
Makortoff appeared in Penticton court Thursday, where he was detained while a psychological assessment is completed. He returns to court on Feb. 28.
Back when the Oliver RCMP announced the charges, police said they were approached by a young person in Lion’s Park on Aug. 21, who told officers an intoxicated man had exposed his genitals to the young person and their friends.
A description was provided, and within minutes, a suspect was arrested for public intoxication and for performing an indecent act.
“The Oliver RCMP commend the young person for immediately reporting the incident to police and providing a good description of the man. This allowed for a very quick arrest of what appears to be an isolated incident,” said Sgt. Jason Bayda at the time.
Photo: Castanet Staff
For the third-straight year, property taxes in the Town of Oliver are going up nine per cent.
The municipality has been ramping up its revenue in anticipation of a major spike in required RCMP spending in 2022, after the next census. Provincial legislation sees communities smaller than 5,000 people pay 30 per cent of policing costs, while those between 5,000 and 15,000 pay 70 per cent.
For Oliver, that equates to an expected hit of about $750,000.
“We are working towards that, those costs are coming in 2022,” Mayor Martin Johansen told Castanet News Thursday, following two days of budget talks this week.
“But in the interim, we are taking that money and putting towards the town’s long term capital program so that we can get ahead of those projects.”
Capital investments approved as a part of this year’s budget includes a pair of new vehicles for the fire department, solar panels on the fire hall, Fairview bridge repairs and repaving several roads.
When the new RCMP costs come online in 2022, the revenue currently directed towards infrastructure and capital costs will shift to pay for policing.
“Because we’ve spent five years getting ahead of our capital program, we should be in a pretty good place,” Johansen said.
Last year’s nine per cent tax increase equated to an extra $50 a year for the average homeowner.
Council also approved $44,000 in extra annual spending to bring its bylaw department in-house. The town previously relied on a contractor, but did not have much interest on a recent RFQ that would have maintained service levels.
Johansen says a full-time municipally employed bylaw officer should also help free up RCMP resources.
“There was a thought that if we increased our bylaw to a more proactive bylaw and take charge on some issues that would enhance the effectiveness of the police — allow them to focus on their work.”
The town also increased spending on victim services by $15,000 annually.
Photo: Pixabay
UPDATE: 4:10 p.m.
RCMP in Penticton have confirmed that a single vehicle struck a power pole in the 2000 block of Naramata Road in the early hours of Thursday morning, causing power outages in Naramata and Penticton.
Officers, along with the Naramata Fire Department, arrived on scene to learn a smaller vehicle was witnessed up against the power pole, before it reversed and continued toward Penticton.
Fortis BC confirmed the incident had taken place around 2:15 a.m. and resulted in 1,185 customers without power until 9:30 a.m.
In Penticton, 5,000 customers were without power for 45 minutes in relation to the same incident.
RCMP are now hoping to identify the vehicle and driver, and believe it may have been a small Ford car.
Anyone who witnessed the crash or who has information is encouraged too call Penticton RCMP at 250-492-4200, or Crime Stoppers 1-800-222-8477.
ORIGINAL: 12:20 p.m.
Parts of Penticton were without power early Thursday morning due to an issue with a Fortis BC pole along Naramata Road.
Between 2:15 a.m. and 3 a.m. 5,000 customers in Penticton were without power due to a “loss of supply,” according to City of Penticton communications manager Philip Cooper.
A Castanet News reader reported outages in Naramata later Thursday morning, which may have been caused by a vehicle accident with a Fortis pole.
As of 12:15 p.m., power has been fully restored, but the Fortis BC outage map indicates two locations in Naramata that saw outages are “under investigation.”
Photo: Google Maps
Summerland landfill
The District of Summerland has received a major grant for upgrades to its composting program at the local landfill, meaning residents will soon have access to high-quality compost made without biosolids.
The municipality announced Thursday it has received $1.58 million from the provincial and federal governments’ organics infrastructure program. The upgrades to the Summerland landfill will cost a total of $2.37 million, with the district picking up the remainder.
The project will see a new organics processing facility built on a new site within the landfill boundary. Upgrades to technology and infrastructure will improve environmental protection and reduce odours.
Once completed, the community will have access to new “class A” compost created from agricultural and residential food scraps collected at the curb side or the landfill, removing them from the local waste stream.
The new compost product will be in addition to the current biosolids (wastewater treatment sludge) compost produced and sold at the landfill.
Mayor Toni Boot called the new facility “good news for Summerland.”
“The production of a soil amendment that does not contain biosolids will certainly be a benefit to the area’s agricultural producers, but the diversion of agricultural and residential food waste from the landfill makes financial sense for the entire community.”
Keeping organics out of the landfill will give the municipality more time to save for the invertibility of a new landfill many years down the road, she added.
It is hoped construction on the project will be completed by the end of 2021 with full operations beginning in early 2022.
The new organics facility will go a long ways to bringing the Summerland landfill into environmental compliance after a provincial inspection of the dump last year found significant concerns. The district this week also approved the installation of a second scale at the landfill and improvements to the recycling area, which will be carried out this year.