40 YEARS AGO
Approval of a $270,000 allocation redevelopment program at the Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital in Clearwater was announced by Health Minister Jim Nielsen and Claude Richmond, MLA for Kamloops. The plan, subject to the approval of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, will provide for renovations of the emergency, radiology and laboratory facilities.
Despite a nationwide postal strike of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, mail delivery between Heffley Creek and Valemount will remain unaffected. The postal service in this area is controlled by the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association and is now involved.
A new addition has been made to the staff at the Clearwater Times. Tim Haydon, a former resident of the BC Cariboo, has joined the paper. He attended high school in Williams Lake and went on to study English and journalism at Eastern Oregon State College in Oregon, where he worked on the college newspaper.
Work on the roof of the Stedman’s stored in Clearwater is scheduled for completion this week. The repairs to the store, which began a week prior, will reportedly cost $70,000.
35 YEARS AGO
Sunshine Valley and Miller Subdivision are to be included in Clearwater Improvement District for fire protection and street lighting. Greer subdivision and portions of Candle Creek area are also to be included in the fire district, though final approval for this has not yet been obtained from Victoria.
The B.C. Nurses Union has now extended its strike notice to 85 hospitals and health care facilities within the province, involving more than 5,600 nurses. Clearwater’s Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital and Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops are included in the group.
Safety Mart Bantam ‘B’ softball team will take part in the provincial championships being held in Barriere. Five teams will take part in the round robin competition with games. It is hoped that lots of spectators will cheer the team on.
30 YEARS AGO
A fire at about 3 p.m. Friday afternoon totally destroyed a trailer at Mountainview Trailer Court in Blackpool. No one was injured in the blaze. It apparently started from an overheated stove while cooking, according to the occupant. The structure was totally involved when Blackpool Volunteer Fire Department arrived.
Clearwater’s J.D. Logging Bantams under coaches Drew Cleaveley and Merv Anderson came first in their provincial softball finals in North Delta over the weekend. The boys won their first three games, then lost their fourth, to come second in the round robin. They then won four straight to take the double knockout playoffs.
The B.C. Midget C girls softball championships held in Clearwater over the weekend was a great success, organizers report. Officials, players, parents, coaches, groundskeepers, local tourist operations all worked together to make a memorable event.
25 YEARS AGO
The new Clearwater Community Health Care Centre, the long-awaited multi-level care facility, has been put on hold by newly-appointed Finance Minister Andrew Petter. The future of the Clearwater facility fell under a cloud of uncertainty with other major health capital projects when Petter brought down the provincial budget, announcing a freeze on, and review of, new capital spending.
As a result of a tip from forest workers, Barriere RCMP removed an illegal reforestation program from an old clear-cut north of Barriere Lakes Road, pulling a total of 51 juvenile marijuana plants that had been transplanted into the area in several small groups.
Bear Creek inmate Jonathan Michael Simister, 19, was last seen on Clearwater Valley Road at the entrance to the trail to Triple Decker Falls on Candle Creek. The inmate walked away from the open setting facility. He has not yet been apprehended.
20 YEARS AGO
Clearwater’s long-awaited multi-level health care centre is underway. Several dozen North Thompson Valley residents picked up a shovel to take part in a sod-turning ceremony. The mass participation was felt appropriate by many because the project came about only after years of combined effort by nearly all members of the community.
The road to Trophy Mountain is being fixed. BC Parks, Ministry of Forests and Thompson-Nicola Regional District are cooperating on a project to smooth out a series of waterbars and install culverts on the road. The problem over the years has been that the road belongs to Ministry of Forests, but leads to a BC Parks trailhead.
Clearwater experienced two brush fires last week over a two day period. With more hot and dry weather expected, local residents and visitors should use extreme caution with fire. There was a stump on fire near Clearwater Estates, followed by a small blaze in the bush near Clearwater Secondary School. Both flare-ups were quickly controlled by local firefighters.
15 YEARS AGO
The message was clear: The uranium mine can’t be allowed. Over a hundred residents gathered at a meeting the Yellowhead Ecological Association conducted and the opposition to the mine was heard loud and clear. The topic that came up more than once was the danger of the extraction of uranium ore to the health of the people who rely on the watershed of the valley.
Samantha Braaten didn’t realize when she received a pen pal from Australia in Grade 8 while in CSS that she and Rowena Peak would not only remain friends, but have the opportunity to meet — twice. They met for the first time six years ago in Los Angeles where they met up in Disneyland. They met again in Clearwater as Peak stopped in during her North America tour.
Tourism, Sport and the Arts Minister Olga Ilich was at the Vancouver International Airport to send off a group of young Indigenous athletes on their way to Denver, Colo., to represent B.C. at the 2006 North American Indigenous Games.
10 YEARS AGO
Several local residents took part in the fourth annual Walk4Justice when it passed through the North Thompson Valley. One of the principal organizers, Gladys Radek, has a niece who is among those missing along the “Highway of Tears” from Prince George to Prince Rupert. The walk left Vancouver and upon arriving in Kamloops, split into two teams: One team, led by Radek, came up the North Thompson Valley along the Yellowhead Highway. They made it from Kamloops to Valemount in seven days.
Concerns about preventing possible future damage from ATVs in the North Thompson caused the Clearwater ATV Club to invite a resource compliance technologist from Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources and a conservation officer to make a public presentation.
Six points regarding the proposed Harper Creek cooper-gold-silver mine near Clearwater were raised by a concerned citizen. The first was the proximity to known uranium deposits, followed by the tailings to be produced and their potential devastating effects. The third referred to a lack of uranium deposits found be researchers, he claims didn’t look in the right areas, and the fourth offers concerns over mountain caribou. The last two points pointed out increased road access would result in more wolves in the area and that goods should be processed in Canada.
5 YEARS AGO
Clearwater Secondary School principal Darren Coates congratulated Megan Sim after she was named top all-round student during the school’s year-end awards. The award also included the $500 Fred Allan Memorial Bursary from the Kamloops-Thompson Teachers Association.
A lightning strike started a bush and grass fire in Vavenby. The fire, which was about a half acre in size, was located on Allingham Way, close to the river. The blaze was easily contained but took about two to three hours to put out.
Last year, the Wells Gray Infocentre had the most visitors of any infocentre in the province. This year, the count for May was up 22 per cent over the previous May, with more than 9,000 people visiting.