35 YEARS AGO: Unsettled weather was believed to have kept the crowds down at the Strawberry Festival held in Clearwater. MLA Bud Smith opened the ceremonies that afternoon after which MLA Nelson Riis explained how the queen is crowned - by the amount of draw tickets sold. Janet Wilkie was crowned queen of the 1987 Strawberry Festival by Riis with Cindy Nelson as her princess. Throughout the weekend, a men’s slo pitch tournament took place with seven teams in total. Activities included Bingo, wheel of fortune, strawberries and ice cream and the Lion concession wagon.
30 YEARS AGO: Clearwater River salmon hatchery is to be closed, but the shutdown is to be postponed until the following year so it could be used to help revive the upper Adams River sockeye run. The hatchery, which had been scheduled to be mothballed one year ago, was brought back to life to serve as a native run fisheries research and training centre. Reason for the closure is a 60 per cent cutback of about $1 million in funding from the federal government to the Shuswap Nation fisheries program, according to North Thompson Indian Band councillor Fred Fortier.
25 YEARS AGO: RCMP were seeking information that would find the owner and/or driver of a 1977-79 brown-on-brown Ford pickup which was believed to be responsible for the destruction of several thousand dollars-worth of damage to traffic signs in the Clearwater town core. A number of stop signs were knocked over.
15 YEARS AGO: Water laden with chemicals and devoid of oxygen from the depths of Dutch Lake was responsible for last year’s fish kill, said a panel of experts working on the lake. More than 20 people showed up to the Clearwater Legion for an information session on the state of Dutch Lake, and to discuss possible solutions. Experts explained the lake needed to be studied further. The decomposition of the fish showed that they had likely died in the fall, before the lake had frozen. One believed a chemical-laden layer of water, devoid of oxygen and sitting at the bottom of the lake, “burped,” rising to the surface and killing the lake’s fish.
10 YEARS AGO: Clearwater Secondary School principal Alan Stel had one more crisis to deal with during his final days of being in charge at the local high school - a snake got loose and was missing inside the building for several days. The snake, which went by the name of Reginald, had been a fixture in one of the science labs at the school for several years. The aquarium it was in had apparently moved at the lid left ajar. The snake was missing for five days before custodian Monika Menard brought in her dog, Ellie, to aid in the search. After a few minutes, the snake was found next to a desk across the room from its aquarium.
newsroom@clearwatertimes.com
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