Dear Kyra: Thank you for writing a rebuttal with regard to the hiring of a second deputy fire chief and the Fire Chief as the airport manager. It certainly has ignited a lot of dialogue in our community – which is great. Almost a year ago, council debated the merits of hiring a second deputy fire chief during our budget...

Dear Kyra: Thank you for writing a rebuttal with regard to the hiring of a second deputy fire chief and the Fire Chief as the airport manager. It certainly has ignited a lot of dialogue in our community – which is great. Almost a year ago, council debated the merits of hiring a second deputy fire chief during our budget...

I have read with interest some of the comments and letters written about the City's hiring of a second Deputy Fire Chief. I have been interested to see the comments because often times when members of our community write, they have brilliant ideas and cogent arguments that serve the community well. It is this reason that...

Ed note: This letter is in reference to comments made by Paul Therderahn in a letter to the editor published in the Castlegar News, and to a comment made by Ron Armbruster in response to my subsequent rebuttal of that letter in The Source (see https://castlegarsource.com/news/comment-rebuttal-letter-editor-26720#.Ul8JyRDRUik...

For those of you who haven't been following this story, this is a response to the comment after my column last week, which can be read at https://castlegarsource.com/news/comment-rebuttal-letter-editor-26720#.Ul5BThDRUik To the author of said comment: My response is so late in coming because I've really been searching my soul...

“Those who do not know the past will repeat it.”       -- George Santayana “History does not repeat itself. People do.”               -- Voltaire “The chief practical use of history is to save us from plausible historical analogies.”                                                                                                ...

To the City of Castlegar, Thanks goes out to Deb McIntosh for bringing forward the idea of rainbow crosswalks downtown! Cheers to her and to the City Council for making the effort to make a symbolic gesture of tolerance and respect for diversity. Not only is it coming from a genuine place of good will, it's coming from the ...

"It's not easy being green," said Kermit the Frog. Turns out it's not so easy being anything involving more than one colour these days, if the crosswalk debate is any indication. How did Lifesavers ever get its rainbow coalition of colours into a single package without mass revolt about things with holes in the middle (gutter...

I've been doing this a fairly long time, and I've read lots of writing that has made me angry over the years, but few pieces have infuriated me to the same degree as a letter to the editor published in the Castlegar News last week. I believe when you put writing out into the public domain, be it as a trained journalist or as...

 There are some online stories that seem to have a life of their own. Several versions are making the rounds by email – some got their start well before I took office in 2006. Most seem to have a kernel of truth that has been distorted over time, just like the old game of telephone. After being passed along through a number...