Penticton restaurant reworks menu, comes up with community clean up idea

PENTICTON – A Penticton restaurant looking at new culinary feature ideas has expanded their menu musings to the broader community in a collaborative clean up effort.

The resulting Great Channel Clean 2016 is looking for volunteers to help out on Sunday, May 1.

“We were working on feature menu for April, thinking about doing a seafood feature menu, then we started thinking about doing a fundraiser to get people out and participating in things,” Pasta Factory manager Debra Williams says.

Williams, along with restaurant owner Dwayne Jordan, contacted Oceantec Scuba to see if any lake or river cleanups were taking place this year.

“They managed to recruit 12 volunteers divers, who will will sweep the Okanagan River Channel bottom, scooping up trash in mesh bags between Skaha Lake and Green Mountain Road while Hoodoo Adventures provides support above the water line with kayaks,” Williams says.

Pier Water Sports will also add some jet skis to the support team. Appleton Waste is donating a truck for the trash, and dumping fees have been waived at Campbell Mountain.

At this point, plans are to sweep only the southern portion of the channel.

“That’s as far as the Ministry of Environment will allow us to go,” Williams says, noting spawning beds upstream of Green Mountain Road are active this time of year.

Proceeds from returnable cans and bottles will be split between Penticton High School’s leadership class and the Penticton Indian Band School, who will also be helping out along with other members of the band.

Williams hopes to make the cleanup an annual event.

The clean up is expected to get underway at 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 1, depending on water conditions.

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