FEBRUARY
• Salmon Arm RCMP investigated an armed robbery of a city liquor store. The incident occurred on Jan. 29 at a business in the 900 block of Lakeshore Drive.
• Salmon Arm council received two letters with concerns regarding snow clearing of city sidewalks. “I rarely use the sidewalks in winter,” wrote Kathy McIntyre-Paul. “They are either unplowed or if they are, they have no sand or salt placed on them. With the typical cycles of cooling and warming in our region, ice is inevitable. I’ve fallen more than once on them.”
• The SAS senior boys basketball team emerged victorious from the George Elliot Coyote’s eight-team tournament.
• Raymond Edward Swann, 58, was found not criminally responsible for his actions in the death of Brian Watson in 2016. Swann admitted in court he was behind the wheel of a truck that struck and killed Watson outside Chase. Watson’s widow Ila cried after the verdict in a Kamloops court saying she was speechless and very sad.
• A group of homeless people living in tents on the west end of Salmon Arm along Highway 1 were ordered by police to move because they were camped on the right-of-way to be used for four-laning the highway. Volunteers were helping with the move, among them Chrissy Deye and Dan Sallis with the Crossroads Free Methodist Church. Deye said seven people were being housed in four rooms at the Travelodge, and the church has been fundraising for propane and heaters for those still living in tents.
• With only 42 licensed child-care spaces for children age three and under in the Shuswap, parents reported it was a struggle finding space for their children. Shuswap Daycare manager Karen Bubola said daycare was in crisis and getting worse. “We have lengthy waitlists – well over two years – and the only time spots that become available (for the infant to toddler age) is when they age out at three, and we can only take 12 at any time.”
• The total late sockeye return to the Shuswap dropped to 1.5 million in 2018 from 2.2 million the 2014. The estimates suggest that the mortality may have been a bit more than I was thinking in-season,” said Pacific Salmon Commission chief biologist Mike Lapointe.
• After finishing their regular season undefeated, Salmon Arm’s Jr. Golds basketball team kept up the stellar performance and swept the Okanagan zone championships, that included a 61-30 win over Vernon Secondary.
• Sicamous dairy farmer Nic Dewitt of Dari Delite Farm began marketing A2 milk, for people who have trouble digesting milk typically available on store shelves. “The big thing that caught our attention was they claim 50 per cent of people that are diagnosed lactose intolerant are actually sensitive to the protein in the milk,” said Dewitt.
• On Feb. 17, the Salmon Arm Silverbacks took on the Shuswap Open A Chix in a charity ringette game that raised more than $2,000 for cancer research.
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