40 YEARS AGO:
Parmajit Kler won a $1,000 scholarship at Clearwater Secondary School.
The Ministry of Education makes scholarships available every year for each school district.
A local committee is comprised of a principal (Jim London), two counsellors (Suzanne Wood and Ken Madland) and a school board representative (Jean Nelson). The committee arranges for the examinations to be written by the students on four of their preferred subjects along with a standard government English examination.
Kler attended BCIT for electrical engineering.
35 YEARS AGO:
A collision with a black bear is believed to be the cause of an accident which resulted in the death of the driver of a loaded transport truck.
Tracks appeared to indicate the accident occured while the eastbound truck was about one-third the way down the long hill in the vicinity of Schilling’s dairy farm in Darfield. The vehicle struck the animal which was thought to have just come out of the corn field onto the highway.
It appeared the impact forced the vehicle to cross the centreline and veer off the edge of the highway by a small side road.
30 YEARS AGO:
Clearwater’s Wells Gray Park Infocentre welcomed its 250,000th visitor Tuesday afternoon.
Linda Flygare, a tour guide from Canmore, Alta., was the quarter millionth tourist to enter the building since it opened in June, 1986.
The count had stuck at 249,999 all morning Tuesday, and infocentre manager Vi Mayer for a while was afraid that the presentations to the special guest might have had to wait until the next day.
Ms. Flygare received a number of mementoes from Ellen Hidgson, who represented BC Parks, the building owners, including books on Wells Gray Park and a free subscription to The Times.
25 YEARS AGO:
“They’re lucky to be alive,” said Sgt. Rex Henry, NCO i/c of the Clearwater RCMP Detachment.
Rick White, 38, and Dale McDonald, 38, both of Surrey, lived to tell the tale when their 14-foot aluminum boat shot over Osprey Falls at the Clearwater Lake outlet Thursday afternoon, dropping the three occupants into the cold Clearwater River.
The third member of their party, Kenny Vandal, 26, of Burnaby is still missing and presumed drowned.
Neither of the survivors remembers approaching the falls or realizing they were about to go over.
20 YEARS AGO:
School District 73 trustees experienced firsthand some of the difficulties faced by Blue River youngsters in getting an education.
Trustees and senior school district staff made the two-and-a-half hour drive from Kamloops to hold a school board meeting at Blue River Elementary School.
“This is the first time that the board has met in Blue River since the amalgamation of School District 26 with the Kamloops school district,” said school board chair Ken Christian.
“I think it’s been a big dose in reality for those of us who haven’t been out here for a long time.”
The annual meeting would likely have been in Clearwater had it not been for Bert Walker’s, another trustee, suggestion.
15 YEARS AGO:
In Clearwater Secondary School sports, the Senior Raiders Boys volleyball team beat Kamloops Christian School in two straight sets during a play-day at KCS on Wednesday.
The Raiders also beat Ashcroft two straight, but lost to St. Ann’s in three sets.
This was the Raiders’ first session of league play.
“I was really impressed with how they played,” commented CSS athletic director Libby Toman. “They have real potential.”
10 YEARS AGO:
District of Clearwater has directed that council approach the Honourable Michael de Jong, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General requesting the province to consider purchasing back the Bear Creek Camp facility as it was a functioning facility in the past, and reestablish it as a minimum security prison.
“We can safely state the disappointment the community felt when Bear Creek Correctional Centre closed,” said councillor Walker.
If the proposal moves forward, council would be prepared to hold a public meeting where concerned residents could voice their concerns.
Councillor Buck suggested a survey be put on the District website.
5 YEARS AGO:
There are about 150 employees at Canfor-Vavenby and their payroll is close to $20 million per year, according to division manager Steve Planeta.
Overall, the division brings in nearly $100 million per year to the local economy, he said.
Those statistics were among the information passed along during a public tour of the sawmill facility as part of National Forest Week.
Despite the big numbers, it isn’t easy to make money in the forest industry these days.
Canfor-Vavenby was profitable during the first part of this year but not in the second.