When Castlegar fire chief Gerry Rempel says he has an open-door policy, he means to all age groups – and it shows. Rempel presented a new recruitment policy to council at its regular meeting Monday night, requesting the department open its doors to youth and retired firefighters, in defiance of current age restrictions that...

A local landmark – or eyesore, depending on your perspective – may soon be a thing of the past, as the City Centre Motel in downtown Castlegar has now come under the eye of local inspectors and safety officials. Mayor Lawrence Chernoff said the dilapitated state of the building has given rise to concerns it might meet a similar...

Columbia Basin Trust’s (CBT) Community Initiatives (CIP) and Affected Areas Programs (AAP) are currently accepting applications across the Basin for community-supported projects. The CIP and AAP are CBT’s largest and longest running programs and will provide communities with $3.3 million in 2010. This is the third of a three-year $10 million-commitment by CBT. “As long-standing […]

Castlegar police are asking the public to come forward with any information they might have regarding a home invasion last night. RCMP Sgt. Laurel Mathew said a man was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after an incident that took place at roughly 10:45 p.m. on Jan. 28, in the 3000 block of Fifth Avenue. “Preliminary investigation […]

Cannabis is the word of the week as the premier of the documentary two years in the making hits the airwaves tonight on CBC. The show, Cannabiz, follows the evolution of the marijuana culture and industry in the Grand Forks area from the mom and pop growers to the more criminalized elements evident today. Cannabiz highlights...

The five public post-secondary institutions providing education and training to British Columbia’s Southern Interior are joining forces to collaborate on new training opportunities and services.Leaders from the College of the Rockies, Selkirk College, Okanagan College, University of British Columbia Okanagan and Thompson...

Castlegar Mayor Lawrence Chernoff is publicly calling for province-wide tax reform in response to a range of issues facing B.C. municipalities, including Castlegar. Chernoff said the systems by which taxes are collected and distributed were created based on obsolete criteria – what made sense decades, or even centuries, ago does not serve the modern province’s […]

Castlegar police, while encouraging Olympic enthusiasm, are cautioning residents against overdoing it. RCMP Cpl. Mike Mysko, in charge of the city’s new Crime Reduction Unit, had an illustrative example of what not to do while celebrating the Olympic spirit. “(On the evening of Jan. 21), I was working one of our very first evening shifts […]

Photo courtesy DDC: Netta Zeberoff looks over the mounds that still have remnants of last year’s harvest. There is one thing in common with all species on Mother Earth – and that is food. People need good land to grow food in abundance – and thankfully there are those willing to share their piece of earth that would otherwise...

The five public post-secondary institutions providing education and training to B.C. Southern Interior are joining forces to collaborate on new training opportunities and services. Leaders from the College of the Rockies, Selkirk College, Okanagan College, University of B.C. Okanagan and Thompson Rivers University recently ...