Looking back at what made headlines in 2018 from the pages of the Eagle Valley News.
Here’s a glimpse from August 2018:
• The local marine search and rescue officials hope to turn Sicamous into a hub for training commercial and emergency social services boat operators.
Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (RCMSAR) station #106 personnel plan to construct a boathouse with a training centre for the local RCMSAR members and open training to members of other organizations and the public.
• Stolen jewelry worth approximately $73,000, which was recovered during a traffic stop in Malakwa, has been returned to its Chilliwack owners, and the thieves have been deported. The three people in the rental vehicle were not Canadian citizens and carried no passports or valid driver’s licences.
A concession stand that will see all-season use will be installed at the Sicamous Beach Park soon.
The manufactured structure will be purchased by the District with an $80,000 contribution from the Eagle Valley Snowmobile Club.
Shuswap Lake is B.C.s best for boaters. In a poll conducted by Boating BC, Shuswap Lake was voted the best boating destination in B.C. for 2018, netting 30 per cent of the votes, beating out Heriot Bay on Quadra Island which finished second with 19 per cent of the vote.
It was a turning point of the First World War, a short but intense battle in early August 1918 that marked the beginning of the end for the German Empire.
Delegates from those warring nations will be marking the 100th anniversary of the battle of Amiens in France beginning on Aug. 8, 2018. Among them will be Rob Sutherland, the station leader of the Shuswap Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue station.
Sutherland, who is veteran of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry and who has a family connection to the PPCLI’s First World War activities, will participate in an official anniversary ceremony commemorating the battle where more than 1,200 Canadians were killed or wounded in only four days of fighting.
• The loved ones of a New Zealand women who died after jumping from the Bruhn Bridge in Sicamous are raising funds to ease the financial burden of funeral expenses and returning her body home.
New Zealand media has identified the deceased woman as 23-year-old Danni Hogan.
Hogan was one of four people who jumped from the 20-metre high bridge into the Sicamous channel.
• The plan for a community wellness centre in Sicamous that would concentrate necessary medical care into a single building on Main Street is beginning to take shape.
In its application to the province for $100,000 in funding, the District of Sicamous states the building to be designed could house up to four doctors, one nurse practitioner, one physiotherapist, one chiropractor and one optometrist.
At the annual Swansea Point community barbecue, the Swansea Point Fire Department and Community Association honoured Don Herrmann for his 25 years of dedication and service. Herrman has served as a firefighter and captain in the department. He received his 25-year service pin, certificates of appreciation from the fire department and the Columbia Shuswap Regional District, and from the Office of the Fire Commissioner,a 25 year service medal.
•A team of Sicamous firefighters has been deployed elsewhere in the province where wildfires threaten homes and properties.
Sicamous Fire Chief Brett Ogino received a request Aug. 23 to send the district fire department’s Structural Protection Unit north of Pemberton where the Grouse Creek Wildfire has reached an estimated 848 hectares. The Sicamous SPU team consists of Ogino, Chris Wilson, Peterson Bailey, Jason Reid and Joe McCulloch.
• Madison DeWitt of Sicamous was a member of the winning team at the U16A Canadian Fastpitch Championship in Winnipeg last week. DeWitt plays for the White Rock Renegades 02. Along with the honour of playing for a national championship team, DeWitt was named pitcher of the tournament.
@SalmonArm
jim.elliot@saobserver.net
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