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Charlotte Helston
REPORTER
Charlotte Helston grew up in Armstrong and after four years studying writing at the University of Victoria, she came back to do what she loves most: Connect with the community and bringing its stories to life.
Covering Vernon for iNFOnews.ca has reinforced her belief in community. The people and the stories she encounters every day—at the courthouse, City Hall or on the street—show the big tales in a small town.
If you have an opinion to share or a story you'd like covered, contact Charlotte at Charlotte Helston or call 250-309-5230.
Charlotte Helston's Stories
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Not all candidates play by signage rules in Vernon election campaign
VERNON - There’s concern some political candidates are breaking rules in the Vernon municipal election race. At a meeting Tuesday, City of Vernon staff put forward a recommendation that council direct administration to enforce a bylaw that has been around for years dictating where candidates can put signs, and where they can’t. The problem is...
Keeping the Civic Arena running won’t come cheap
VERNON - It will cost the City of Vernon $75,000 in repairs alone to keep the Civic Arena running until a replacement ice sheet is built. City representatives had little choice but to provide the money for arena upgrades at a council meeting Tuesday. A referendum on decommissioning Civic Arena and borrowing funds for an...
Nurses union sounds alarm after third care-home death
SALMON ARM - The dementia patient who attacked a fellow resident at a Shuswap care home had already assaulted people at the facility, including a nurse, and was flagged as aggressive, says a spokesperson for the B.C. Nurses Union. That patient’s name has not been released, but the name of the man who wandered into...
ELECTIONS 2014: Your Vernon candidates
VERNON - Nominations for the upcoming municipal election officially closed at 4 p.m. Friday, leaving the following candidates vying for seats. Five are running for mayor of Vernon: Victor Cumming, Jamie Morrow, Akbal Mund, Mary-Jo O’Keefe, and Klaus Tribes. The 14 who tossed their hat in for one of the City of Vernon’s six councillor...
Greater Vernon may appeal arena referendum veto
VERNON - Greater Vernon officials may appeal a ruling from the province forbidding a referendum on borrowing money to replace the Civic Arena. The question was set to be on the November municipal election ballot, but the Inspector of Municipalities refused to approve the referendum due to concerns about the North Okanagan Regional District borrowing...
Watch this sneak peak of Disney’s Tomorrowland
VERNON - The scene actress Britt Robertson is transported to when she touches a magical pin in a trailer from Tomorrowland looks like any number of farmer’s fields in the North Okanagan, and in this Disney film, it very well could be. Parts of the $250-million film, which co-stars George Clooney and Hugh Laurie, were...
He threatened and stole from his own mother for drug money
VERNON - A Vernon man who racked up thousands of dollars of debt on his mother’s credit cards to feed an addiction was handed a nearly five-year jail sentence this week on extortion and fraud charges. Jeffrey Arishenkoff, born in 1980, must also pay $101,595 in restitution for the offenses, provincial court judge Lisa Wyatt...
Government paves over safety feature because of ‘noise complaints’
OYAMA - The Ministry of Transportation is removing a safety feature on the new highway in Lake Country to spare nearby residents an associated rumbling sound. Rumble strips, the grooved edges found on most highways, were installed on the new $78-million section of Highway 97 through Oyama but it seems the feature had an unpleasant...
HELSTON: Don’t be afraid to call the conservation officer
Residents across the Interior contacted the conservation service over the past year to report wildlife encounters ranging from simple sightings to bizarre and in some cases, tragic extremes. There was a cougar found inside a Vernon home chewing on a squeaky toy, a pack of wolves that killed a woman’s dog in Merritt, aggressive coyotes...
The Okanagan as seen from the eyes of someone falling from the sky
OKANAGAN - They look like sky ninjas or superheroes soaring above the clouds, and you might recognize their birds eye view of the ground below. Skydiving enthusiast Chris Ellom captured some incredible footage of his favourite sky dives this past August and September taken as much as 11,000 feet above the Okanagan Valley, high enough...
Surrendered dog in animal cruelty case stolen from SPCA
PENTICTON - One of the dogs under the care of the SPCA following an animal cruelty investigation in Vernon was stolen Wednesday night. South Okanagan/ Similkameen branch manager Corinne Ross says staff arrived Thursday morning to feed the dogs and realized one of the surrendered carlin pinschers was gone. “Someone had taken wire cutters and...
Fourteen dogs and seven horses surrendered following animal cruelty investigation in Vernon
VERNON - Fourteen dogs and seven horses in conditions ranging from poor to life-threatening are in the care of the South Okanagan SPCA after investigators executed a search warrant at a Vernon hobby farm. Senior animal protection officer Kathy Woodward says the dogs, including four puppies, were living in a pen with a dirt bottom,...
The Okanagan’s connection to popular new movie Gone Girl
KELOWNA - A Kelowna born actress has a cameo role in the new movie Gone Girl, starring Ben Affleck. Lauren Glazier plays a ‘fashionista’ in the mystery thriller about a missing woman and the husband suspected of killing her. It isn’t Glazier’s first time on the silver screen. She’s appeared in a range of short films...
Okanagan hockey refs flee burning car
ENDERBY - Three Okanagan hockey referees are lucky to be alive after an off-ice collision Friday night. Jeremy Silzer, 24, of Vernon says he and two other refs, one from Winfield and one from Kelowna, were returning home from a Junior B hockey game in Sicamous around 10 p.m. They were just rounding a corner...
Check out the neat surprise these North Okanagan residents found on their game camera
ENDERBY - Some North Okanagan residents found a warm and fuzzy surprise on their game camera this past summer: two baby bears. The cubs were caught wrestling, attacking the camera and playing around in a clearing. The camera was located about 100 meters from the photographers’ home on a forested property just outside Enderby. The...
Will Vernon have to turn away exhibitors from its own international art show?
VERNON - An international art show—the likes of which has never been seen before in the Okanagan—is coming to Vernon, but organizers don’t know where they’re going to put it. The Okanagan Print Triennial was launched by the Vernon Public Art Gallery, the Kelowna Art Gallery and UBC Okanagan in Vernon in 2009 as a...
Vernon man expected to plead guilty to luring, child porn charges
VERNON - A Vernon man was scheduled to enter intended guilty pleas Monday in Vernon Supreme Court on various child pornography related charges, but that won’t happen for another few weeks. David Clayton Willerth, born in 1974, faces 25 counts, including luring children under 16 over the computer, making or publishing child pornography and invitation...
Man charged with aggravated assault that left victim with serious head injuries
VERNON - A charge has been laid in connection with a violent assault that sent a man to hospital with a fractured skull. Lucas Slizak, 23, faces a charge of aggravated assault in relation to a Sept. 21 incident at Monashee’s Bar and Grill. The victim, a 23-year-old Vernon man, was allegedly punched, kicked in...
Okanagan Regional Library eyes staff and service cuts
OKANAGAN - The union representing Okanagan Regional Library workers is sounding the alarm over proposed staff and service cuts at branches throughout the valley. Deb Dolman, vice president of CUPE Local 1123, says an alarming 375 staff hours at 19 branches are on the chopping block as part of the regional library’s plan to improve...
Trap set for yet another North Okanagan cougar
NORTH OKANAGAN - A cougar preying on house cats in a North Okanagan subdivision marks yet another big cat encounter in what has been a busy year for the conservation service. Sgt. Josh Lockwood of the North Okanagan Conservation Service says the latest cougar was spotted two weeks ago in the McLeod subdivision, north-east of...
HELSTON: A test for distracted driving
My thumbs play hopscotch on the keyboard, darting from letter to space bar, and as they root around for the exclamation point, I fail to notice a dog bounding onto the road. My focus rears up from the text message but it’s too late. Good thing it’s just an obstacle course and the golden retriever...
Lost, confiscated and forgotten at the Kelowna airport
KELOWNA - Wallets, passports and designer bags—among hundreds of other lost items—are collected, meticulously logged and stored by the Kelowna International Airport each month. Only some find their way back home. Reuniting items with their owners is always the goal, says airport spokesperson Jenelle Hynes, it’s just not always the reality. Some items are given...
IN TWEETS: It’s October already
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Autumn may have officially arrived with the fall equinox Sept. 22, but for many, it’s the first day of October that really feels like the start of a new season. Oct. 1 delivered sunny skies across the valley and warm enough temperatures to still get away with shorts and a T-shirt. But on...
Future uncertain for Canada’s oldest horse-racing track
VERNON - The future of horse racing in the Interior remains more uncertain thanks to mounting woes for Vernon's troubled Kin Race Track. The society that runs the track has battled for years to keep it open. Already tight on cash from fighting a legal battle with the City of Vernon to continue racing horses...