Charlotte Helston

VERNON - It’s evening on the third Saturday of the month, and the lights are on in the Coldstream Women’s Institute Hall. People pour into the building, pay the $5 admission and hunt for seats, or as it nears 7 p.m., leftover standing room. The Coldstream Coffee House has earned a name for itself across...

IMPRESS YOUR DINNER GUESTS WITH AN UNCONVENTIONAL ART COLLECTION VERNON - It’s a great conversation piece—and it’s a rental. You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars to hang great, original art in your home. The Vernon Public Art Gallery will rent it to you. “Not everyone can afford to buy original artwork, or for...

ARMSTRONG - The Koersens are used to wildlife encounters, but they didn’t know what to think when a large herd of elk took up residency on their Armstrong farm. “It was quite a surprise,” Susan Koersen says. “We get moose walking through the property, lots of bears, coyotes and deer. Elk is new.” She and...

VERNON - Two Vernon athletes came close to bringing home Olympic medals.  This morning Justin Dorey, 26, competed in the first ever men's ski half pipe event, after placing first in the qualification round. He was a gold medal hopeful, but crashed in both his Olympic runs. First his skis caught the edge of a...

VERNON - Ill-fitting life jackets and moderate intoxication were factors in the deaths of two men caught in a tempest last spring. A B.C. coroner has found that Albert James Castanelli, 47, and Frederick Basil Marshall, 50, both died of asphyxia due to drowning after their 12 foot aluminum McCullock fishing boat capsized in Kalamalka...

VERNON - The store manager of a gas station that went up in flames has been charged with arson. Donald Jeffrey Thomas, 43, faces six counts in connection to a 2012 fire at the Super Save gas station on Highway 97 in Enderby, including arson and mischief endangering life. The fire, which firefighters said originated...

STIGMA GOING UP IN SMOKE VERNON - Teagan Blair can finally buy his medicine without feeling like a criminal. The 23-year-old used to buy off the street, not fully knowing what he was getting. That was before the Herbal Health Centre opened seven months ago on Kalamalka Lake Road, just outside the City of Vernon....

DYING TO TEXT YOUR LOVED ONE? VERNON - Drivers across the province may not be able to afford taking their loved one out for a Valentines Day dinner tonight after being ticketed for distracted driving. Plenty of the $167 fines were being handed out this morning downtown Vernon, and it was likely the same story...

VERNON – You may have noticed the new electronic message boards on Highway 97 and…

VERNON - The average Vernon home will be shelling out an extra $30 in taxes this year. City of Vernon council approved the 2014 financial plan this week, which brings with it a 3.2 per cent tax increase. Of that, 1.9 per cent will go toward infrastructure upgrades and the remainder to the city’s operational...

VERNON - Vernon City Hall almost waited for a year-long comprehensive trails study to be completed before installing a lamp post on a popular neighbourhood path. Coun. Catherine Lord has been lobbying for the safety feature since last November. The light would illuminate a trail connecting 43 Avenue with amenities on Okanagan Landing Road. Lord...

VERNON - Vehicles charging through storefronts has become a bit of a trend in the North Okanagan. Around 6 a.m. this morning, a car crashed through glass into the 7-Eleven on 27 Street in Vernon. The vehicle hurdled over concrete barriers and the sidewalk, coming to a stop inside the store. RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk...

VERNON - North Okanagan RCMP are stretched thin for manpower. This week, Superintendent Reg Burgess told Vernon council the detachment has been struggling with staffing levels for a year and a half. It has consistently coped with between 12-16 soft vacancies. “Ongoing issues caused by long and short term medical absences and compounded by the...

VERNON - A group of snowmobilers who couldn’t cancel their emergency call drew a full team of rescuers to Hunter's Range over the long weekend. One of three snowmobilers got himself stuck and separated from his friends Monday afternoon and activated his emergency beacon. Vernon Search and Rescue teams, as well as a helicopter, were...

VERNON - The driver who accidentally rammed into an Armstrong business last week has been charged. RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk says the 80-something man is charged under the motor vehicle act with driving without due care and attention. “The investigators learned that the elderly gentleman had just received a prosthetic leg within the last month...

VERNON - It’s the one week you won’t be charged late fees for overdue books. The Okanagan Regional Library is asking the public to hold onto borrowed books after a water pipe burst Monday night at the year-and-a-half old Vernon branch. Library spokesperson Michele Rule says the damage is around the book drop area on...

VERNON - A Vernon business has once again been broken into. Crooks busted into Shoppers Drug Mart on 31 Avenue last October, and again over the long weekend. Both times the shop’s front display window was smashed and used to access the store. This time, thieves broke in around 5 a.m. Monday and made off...

VERNON - A senior was mugged in plain daylight at the CIBC bank downtown Vernon, and the audacity of the incident has police concerned. RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk says an 83-year-old man was withdrawing cash from the bank machine at CIBC on 30 Avenue around 2:30 p.m. Monday. Being a holiday, the bank was closed,...

VERNON - Here to rescue you from February blues is the Vernon Winter Carnival. The 54th annual event has a superhero theme this year and executive director Diana Williamson says it’s shaping up to be a fantastic 10 days of February fun. “There are a lot of unique interpretations that are coming out of the...