City water contaminated
In March the Kimberley City Council and the East Kootenay Medical Health Officer jointly announced that Kimberley's water supply was unfit to drink and that residents and business owners were advised to boil it.The population was generally quite surprised to learn that over the past couple of years about 22 people had been reported sick with a parasite called Giardian Lamblia.
The source of the trouble was the Mark Creek Watershed and the council and health authorities discussed at length some solutions to the problem.
After an initial excitement, the issue died down because there was little more to say.
Many residents started to boil their water, and restaurants had to, but many residents couldn't be bothered.
There had been, for some time, discussion concerning the parasitic danger in streams and lakes outside of the city but late March was the first ti me that anything had been said publicly about the city's water.
Voters approve a new paving referendum
The condition of Kimberley's streets has for some years been the subject of considerable derisive remarks and continual complaints to city hall.The public was asked to voice their choice in 1982 but the formula was soundly rejected.
This year council drafted another financing formula and when the city election took place on November 19, the referendum passed, but it was close.
The margin was so close in fact that the mayor and some of the newly elected aldermen expressed reservations as to how the plan could be acted on.
The referendum called for a special additional tax to be collected each of five years beginning in 1984 and the bill would total $400,000 per year then $2 when complete.
It is estimated that the paving tax over the general population would add $50 a year to the tax bill if a house were assessed at $50,000.
The poorest roads would receive the attention first. They would be portions of Fifth Avenue, 30th Avenue, the Fertilizer Road, Blaylock Street, Howard Street, Knighton Road, Moyie Street and lower Rotary Drive.
In that civic election, there was a remarkably small aldermanic field. Rob McIntyre and Lino Sacilotto were the newcomers with incumbent Dan Almack leading the poll.
The school board had no election because not enough people ran. Only Glen McKenzie was elected and it was by acclamation.
1984
Withdrawal of services and threats of further pullouts from Kimberley continued to dog the community leaders when spring arrived.
Not only did the conservation officer service become a foregone conclusion, but there was now talk of reducing the ambulance service and of shutting down the East Kootenay College Kimberley campus.
The ambulance crisis surfaced in late April when it was learned that the Kimberley service would be downgraded by not having the service staffed full time with paid personnel, and using Cranbrook ambulances for patient transfers.
Pressure was put on the regional manager Terry Garrow when the entire membership of the local ambulance society decided to quit in protest.
A strong delegation was sent to Victoria and the decision was reversed but the episode caused quite a stir in the community.
The other big issue was the rumor of the closure of the East Kootenay College Kimberley campus, which was at first denied.
Ty Colgur of Cranbrook who is the chairman of the college board, said Kimberley's city council was jumping the gun, as was the Bavarian Society, but it turned out that the college was going to close the campus all along.
The apparent lack of candor on behalf of the college strained relations.
The Kimberley School Board made some decisions that would ease the threat of teacher layoffs and they included compressing the school day at Selkirk and eliminating teachers' preparation time.
In other news, a mock accident was staged for emergency service at the Townsite Hill.
Participaction Committee got itself organized and the town was briefed on Expo 86.
Further has less over the closure of the East Kootenay College campus, and a lack of resolution over a teacher probation issue were dominant events during May and June.There was one big event that was fairly prominent and garnered a lot of public interest was Participaction.
After weeks of preparation, a committee established an evening of physical activity for members of the community on May 16 and the project was such a success that Kimberley was the top town in B.C. in terms of participation.
Participaction Day was a huge success. Not so successful was the continued lobbying for a stop to the desertion from the city of important services.
The East Kootenay Community College pulled out, however some positive thinking by officials with the city council and the district school board resulted in the launching of a replacement community education program that would offer the same courses.
A decision to pull the driver examination service out of the city was reversed.
A nagging issue that sprung up at the school board involved teachers who were upset over the lacing of seven of their colleagues on probation. The probation was decided on by the board as a way to cut staff if that became necessary, because there was not other alternatives in the public schools act. There was also no exemption from the controversial Bill Three which called for firing of public service people. Teachers considered the probation a blot on their records and wanted the decision rescinded.
The matter threatened to go to court and was eventually resolved in the fall when the exemption was achieved.
Kimberley lost several well known residents including Kimberley Pipe Band founder Hamish Scott and long time music teacher Ralph Yarwood. David McFarlane died tragically on the St. Mary's River while kayaking, promoting a huge, but futile search.
Finally, clean fresh water started flowing through the Matthew Creek water system to Marysville.
NextSalute to Kimberley - Index Page
Front Cover - Inside Front Cover
Page One 1896 - 1910, - Page Two 1900 - 1911, - Page Three 1912 - 1920, - Page Four 1921 - 1924, - Page Five 1925
Page Six 1926, - Page Seven 1927, - Page Eight 1928, - Page Nine 1929, - Page Ten 1930, -
Page Eleven 1930, - Page Twelve 1931/32, - Page Thirteen 1933 - 1936, - Page Fourteen 1937 - 1939, - Page Fifteen 1940, -
Page Sixteen 1941/42, - Page Seventeen 1943, - Page Eighteen 1944/45, - Page Nineteen 1945/46, - Page Twenty 1946/47, -
Page Twentyone 1948, - Page Twentytwo 1948, - Page Twentythree 1949, - Page Twentyfour 1950/51, - Page Twentyfive 1951, -
Page Twentysix 1952, - Page Twentyseven 1953, - Page Twentyeight 1954/55, - Page Twentynine 1955, - Page Thirty 1956/57, -
Page Thirtyone 1957/58, - Page Thirtytwo 1958/59, - Page Thirtythree 1959 - 1961, - Page Thirtyfour 1961/62, - Page Thirtyfive 1962/63, -
Page Thirtysix 1963/64, - Page Thirtyseven 1964 - 1966, - Page Thirtyeight 1967, - Page Thirtynine 1968 - 1970, - Page Forty 1970, -
Page Fortyone 1971, - Page Fortytwo 1972, - Page Fortythree 1973, - Page Fortyfour 1974/75, - Page Fortyfive 1975, -
Page Fortysix 1976, - Page Fortyseven 1976, - Page Fortyeight 1977/78, - Page Fortynine 1978, - Page Fifty 1979/80, -
Page Fiftyone 1981/82, - Page Fiftytwo 1982/83, - Page Fiftythree 1983/84, - Page Fiftyfour 1985, - Page Fiftyfive 1986/87, -
Page Fiftysix 1987/88, - Page Fiftyseven 1988/89, - Page Fiftyeight 1989 - 1991, - Page Fiftynine 1991/92, - Page Sixty 1993/94, -
Page Sixtyone 1995, - Page Sixtytwo 1996/97, - Page Sixtythree 1997/98, - Page Sixtyfour 1998/99, - Back CoverReturn to Keepers Index
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