Ed. Note: The following is the first in a series of stories depicting Castlegar's Hidden Heroes, leading up to an exhibit this summer at the Kootenay Gallery of Art: The Hidden Hero Project is a portrait series celebrating the everyday heroes who live and give in Castlegar. Community members were asked to nominate people as...

“What’s the most important thing for a person to do?” I put this question to our church congregation a few weeks ago. The reading for that week was about a fig tree that had not produced fruit for several years. The landowner wanted to cut it down to put the soil to other use, but a servant pleaded to give the tree another ...

ICBC premiums are rising! The corporation is losing billions, we have to get costs under control! Let's put out the ICBC dumpster fire by reducing what we pay out in claims, but assure crash victims that they will be properly taken care of. That's about all you can get into a 30 second sound bite but if there are a few more...

Left lane hogs were back in the news again this week. The CTV Vancouver news story that I watched complained that drivers were not being held to account by police for failing to move out of the left lane and letting other drivers pass. The report claims that based on ticket numbers reported by ICBC the number of drivers...

How often do you get to watch a fabulous movie, support an excellent local enterprise AND give to a good cause all at the same time? You will April 11 at 7 p.m., if you go to see A Star is Born at the Castle Theatre, starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga (to watch the official trailer, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSbzyEJ8X9E...

Castlegar’s 2019 graduating class has come together in a project that proves ‘kids these days’ can be pretty spectacular, as they honour a local first responder who was killed in a tragic MVI in November. Wayne Kernachan, owner of Keegz South Country Towing, was only 51 when he tried to help a motorist in distress and was...

Avalanche Canada, in partnership with Parks Canada and Alberta’s Kananaskis Country, is issuing a Special Public Avalanche Warning for recreational backcountry users, in effect immediately. The warning is widespread and applies to all the forecast regions in western Canada. For a map of the regions involved, click here....

The first annual Ignite Kootenay Women’s Conference was a resounding success.  Over 160 women from across the Kootenays attended the two-day event. Among other things, we learned about money personalities, the Grief Ring Theory, how to better deal with anxiety and guilt, the importance of mindset, and how gratitude can literally...

Oceanside Community Safety is a group of volunteers that want to make a difference. Their Traffic Watch program is an expansion of Speedwatch that now includes Cell Watch and Intersection Watch. Intersection Watch volunteers observe drivers at an intersection to check compliance with traffic laws and remind drivers of their...

Castlegar’s own Deborah Chmara has been named 2019’s Public Safety Lifeline Volunteer of the Year by Emergency Management B.C. Many locals will recognize Chmara’s name from her 35 years of teaching English and Social Studies, first in Blueberry, then at Twin Rivers, then Kinnaird Middle School and finally Stanley Humphries ...