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Vernon

North Okanagan school district axes positions and prepares for the next tough decision

SALMON ARM - The North Okanagan school district is looking at closing schools and reducing the number of trustees on its board to settle ongoing financial challenges in the operating budget. Those ideas surfaced at a board meeting Tuesday as trustees passed a preliminary budget for the 2014/15 school year that would involve laying off teachers...

Preliminary inquiry set to hear evidence in Vernon child pornography case

VERNON - The courts will decide next month whether a man accused of luring girls online for sexual purposes will stand trial. David Willerth, born in 1974, was arrested last summer on a slew of online luring and child pornography charges. A preliminary inquiry to determine if there is enough evidence for the matter to...

Sweet gesture helped firefighters tackle weekend blaze

LUMBY - A long night of firefighting became a little easier through the generosity of a Lumby restauranteur. Around a dozen members of the Lumby volunteer fire department were called to Shuswap Avenue around 10 p.m. Sunday to battle a fire in a machine shop. It was well after most shops closed, and the firefighters...

Coroner identifies man in fatal accident near Grindrod

ENDERBY - The B.C. Coroners Service identified a man who crashed his motorcycle near Grindrod May 11. He was Herman Gerrits, 64, of Enderby. Gerrits was driving a motorcycle north on the Enderby/Grindrod Road at about 10:30 a.m. when he collided with a southbound vehicle.  Gerrits' family was notified of his death. The B.C. Coroners...

New recycling program could be unfair to seniors, people with disabilities

VERNON - Vernon City Hall is learning from its populace you can’t put everyone in the same box. Multi-Material B.C. is set to take over the city’s recycling system next Monday, and that will involve shifting pick up from blue bags to blue bins. There are concerns seniors and people with disabilities will struggle with...

Vernon woman pleads to have mother’s stolen ashes returned

VERNON - A Vernon woman is pleading to have her mother’s ashes returned after they were stolen in a break and enter.  “I can’t even focus on anything else, I’ll do anything to get my mother back,” Manon Care says. “I feel more violated than when she passed away a couple months ago.” Care kept...

New Vernon visitor centre stalled by approval process

VERNON - People passing through Vernon won’t be able to visit the city’s new tourism centre for at least a few more weeks. The visitor information centre was pegged to open May 1 on 39 Avenue beside Civic Arena, but the Ministry of Transportation’s approval process to rezone the property is taking longer than expected....

RBC Cup: Vipers win, aim to overthrow Kings tonight

VERNON - The Vernon Vipers evened the record last night with a win against the Yorkton Terriers. Monday night's game began with an early 0-1 lead for Vernon in the first period and it appears to have fueled their confidence. They scored four more early in the second, but Yorkton wasn't going out without a...

New motorcyclist dies in head-on collision near Enderby

NORTH OKANAGAN - Police responded to a fatal motorcycle accident in Enderby mere hours after attending the scene of a tragic car crash in Lumby involving two brothers. Police and emergency crews responded to the motorcycle around 10:30 a.m. Sunday. Cpl. Gerry Kovacs says a 64-year-old Enderby man new to motorcycling was killed in a...

Passenger watches his brother die in Lumby car crash

NORTH OKANAGAN - A Lumby man tried to save his brother before he died after an early morning car crash Sunday. The 23-year-old man and his 25-year-old brother at the wheel were on their way to help some friends having vehicle troubles around 2:20 a.m. Along the 1000 block of Whitevale Road near Lumby, the 2003...

Victim’s brother was driving in weekend crash

VERNON — The 14-year-old Vernon boy who died in a head-on collision last weekend, was being driven by his older brother. Rodney Boring, the passenger in a Pontiac Sunfire involved in a head-on crash with a pickup truck on Highway 97 near Oyama, died at the scene, while the 17-year-old driver was airlifted to Kelowna...

RBC Cup a boon for local economy

VERNON - The return of the RBC Cup is expected to bring economic benefits to the region for years to come. Vernon is hosting the national Junior A Hockey Championship for the first time since 1990, and the city’s economic development manager Kevin Poole says it’s going to infuse the local economy with players and...

UPDATE: Foerster senior sentenced; pleads guilty to accessory in teen’s murder

HELPED SON GET NEW IDENTITY, AVOID POLICE KELOWNA - Stephen Roy Foerster was sentenced to three years in jail for helping his son Matthew Foerster avoid detection by police following the murder of Armstrong teen Taylor Van Diest. Foerster, 60, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder after the fact Wednesday morning in a Kelowna Supreme...

Vernon teen killed in weekend crash identified

VERNON - The boy who died in a crash on Highway 97 near Crystal Waters Road May 4 has been identified. He was Rodney Michael Boring, 14, of Vernon.  Boring was the passenger in a Pontiac Sunfire involved in a collision with a full-sized pickup truck at about 3:45 p.m. Sunday. He died at the...

Pair of suspicious fires ignite concerns

VERNON - A pair of suspicious fires have police and the fire department looking for answers. The Vernon Fire Department responded to back to back dumpster fires Saturday night. The first was in a large construction dumpster on Kalamalka Road around 11:30 p.m., and the second at 44 Avenue and 27 Street by Shoppers Drug...

Shovels pierce soil for Predator Ridge firehall

VERNON - Construction is underway for the new fire hall at Predator Ridge. The City of Vernon, Vernon Fire Rescue Services and Predator Ridge Golf Resort broke ground yesterday for the two-bay fire station to be built at the resort. City approval for the $60,000 design of the project came January 12, 2011. Another $600,000...

Halley’s Comet debris trail sets the sky aglitter tonight

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - A peak at the annual debris trail from Halley’s Comet may be possible tonight and early Tuesday morning if skies clear. Every spring bits of the debris trail burn up resulting in the annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower. This year the peak will occur tonight, Monday, May 5, through Tuesday morning. The bright...

Motorcyclist takes spill on highway through Vernon

VERNON - A motorcyclist was rushed to hospital this morning after taking a spill on Highway 97 in Vernon. Capt. Darren Cecchini with Vernon Fire Services says the 50-something motorcyclist was cut off by a car on 32 Street across from the EconoLodge around 9:30 a.m. Monday, forcing him to halt abruptly and lay his...

Unsellable donations costing Salvation Army precious funds

VERNON - The Salvation Army Thrift Shop isn’t always getting a good deal when it comes to donations, especially at this time of year. Instead of being sold for funds, some items actually cost the organization to get rid of. For Salvation Army store manager Gary Rich, it’s a weekly frustration that balloons in the...

Spring cleaning on the Coquihalla

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN — If you plan on hitting the highways this week plan for delays as crews clean and fix highways hit hard by a cold, wet winter that left potholes and frost heaves on many roads in the region. Work has already begun on some highways and over the next week drivers can expect to...

In their shoes: Riding along with Vernon bylaw

VERNON - I thought bylaw officers spent all their time shoving parking tickets on my windshield with uncanny timing until I suited up in a protective vest and accompanied them on a typical evening shift. We didn’t go near a single parking meter. On a Friday night, Vernon bylaw officer Russ Lutsenko handed me the...

How one word can turn your life upside down

“ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN, BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT YOU HAVE” VERNON - Just a few weeks ago, 17-year-old Dennon Leibel was attending his last few classes before graduating high school. Now, he’s in a hospital bed, going through his first round of chemo. The word cancer turned his life, and his family’s, upside down. It was...

Silver Star Road earns gold so far in worst roads survey

VERNON - A stretch of pavement — or lack thereof — in Vernon is topping the list in BCAA’s worst roads survey. Voting opened earlier this week, and it didn’t take long for Vernon’s Silver Star Road to climb to first place. The survey is open until May 26, so results could still change gears....