55 years ago (1960):
A female cat in Invermere created quite a stir. She climbed up a tree and gave birth to her kittens in the branches.
50 years ago (1965):
The Windermere District Hospital Assocation unanimously approved a proposal by the Invermere Kinsmen Club to provide an ambulance for the use of valley residents. The plan was for the Kinsmen to provide the vehicle, and for the valley to then form an ambulance society and use the proceeds of the society’s membership drive to pay for the maintenance costs of the ambulance. Membership drives in future years would be used to pay for a building in which the ambulance could be housed. A report from hospital staff said that the hospital’s surgical capacities had been greatly enhanced by the arrival of Dr. A. Ostrander.
45 years ago (1970):
Two major streets in downtown Invermere — the main street (7th Avenue) and 8th Avenue — were set to change from diagonal parking to parallel parking pending approvement by the Department of Highways. The changes were to apply only to the sections of those avenues falling between 9th Street and 13th Street.
30 years ago (1985):
In a rerun election Joe Conroy was elected as Invermere mayor, beating out Adolf Hromadnik and Henry Delesalle. The rerun was held in March 1985, four months after the initial November 1984 election, in which improprieties were alleged.
20 years ago (1995):
The Columbia Valley RCMP learned that its highway patrol members would slowly be phased out. Starting in April 1995 the three highway patrollers based in Invermere would start reporting to the Golden detachment and when they came up for transfer, their positions would not be replaced. To cover 93/95 in the Upper Columbia Valley, the Golden detachment patrollers would come as far south as Invermere and the Cranbrook detachment patroller would come as far north as Invermere.
15 years ago (2000):
Years of lobbying paid off as the Canal Flats fire department finally got its new pumper truck. Canal Flats fire chief Dave Ferguson said the department had been needing the truck for more than a decade. The new truck cost $180,000 a had a foam induction system, which allowed fires to be extinguished three times faster than by using only water.
10 years ago (2005):
The RockyTop Galleria in Athalmer was getting ready to get a big makeover. The gallery was the host of that year’s Wings Over the Rockies festival and to celebrate, the managers decided to turn the entire building into a giant wetlands scene.