10 years ago (2003): Radium Hot Springs was seeking signage solutions, after new restrictions raised the ire of businesses who complained about other businesses who were allowed to keep neon or backlit signs that were already in place.
Mayor Greg Deck noted that was creating an “unfair playing field.”
Council decided to take their time in mulling over possible solutions, while seeing how Banff and Canmore dealt with similar issues.
• Petro Canada said high gas prices in the Columbia Valley were the fault of local marketing strategies, after being asked about the problem by The Valley Echo.
While crude oil prices and transportation costs played a large role, Petro Canada communications advisor said local market conditions were the main influence on prices.
More gas stations in the Columbia Valley or Invermere would result in a lower prices, she said.
20 years ago (1993): Valley arts groups banded together to oppose a possible sale of the Invermere Community Hall property, which faced rezoning at the time.
The Columbia Valley Arts Council, the Lake Windermere Players and more voiced their concerns at an October 25th meeting, where groups pointed out the sound and lighting issues in the old gym at
David Thompson Secondary School posed insurmountable problems.
The hall was dedicated as a war memorial in 1947, and many of the valley’s “old timers” donated money for its construction, said Winn Weir of the CVAC.
• Valley Echo editor Ian Cobb took exception to some of the reactions to the newspaper’s coverage of an assault causing bodily harm case, after vandals egged the Echo’s office building. Mr. Cobb argued that the case, although controversial, was important to cover as a matter of public record.
“Baby, when it’s in the public courts, it’s in the newspaper, like it or not,” he wrote.
30 years ago (1983): Children in the Grade 1 class at Windermere Elementary spent a frosty fall morning squeezing apples at the Peterson farm, where the owner brought the fall tradition of apple cider pressing to the Columbia Valley. The quality of the juice is best when several varieties of apples and crab apples are blended, he said. Straight from the press, the juice would keep for 10 to 14 days without processing, he added.
• Three Cranbrook men pleaded guilty to B.C. Fisheries Act charges in provincial court, after being found with undersized fish in their posession at Whitetail Lake, and for using natural bait and treble hooks.
The regulations for Whitetail Lake at the time stipulated a two-fish limit, a minimum length of 40 centimetres, no food stuff or natural bait, and use of a single hook only.
“Taxpayers have gone to great expense to establish Whitetail Lake as a special trophy fishery,” said conservation officer Buzz Harmsworth. “It is the only one in this region.”
The lake was then stocked with Gerard Rainbow Trout, and Mr. Harmsworth had recorded fish weighing up to 11 pounds taken from the lake.
Parent fish from Kootenay Lake at that time weighed up to 35 pounds.