Twenty-eight bears killed in area this August; 15 within Kimberley city limits
While the dramatic number of bear destructions in Kimberley has dropped off in the last week, conservation officers are not yet convinced the problem has disappeared.
"It's slowing down in Kimberley, but I'm not saying it's ending," said conservation officer Ray Gilewicz, referring to the numerous bears which were destroyed in Kimberley two weeks ago. "We're getting a few sightings within Kimberley of bears, but they haven't seemed to have posed the problem that they did a week or two ago."
Last month, the number of bears venturing into the city and eventually having to be destroyed reached one of its highest levels ever, said Gilewicz.
"We tallied up our August figures and in the month of August we had 126 complaints and we killed a total of 28 bears," said the conservation officer, adding that most of those destroyed were young black bears. "Fifteen of those were in Kimberley, five in Cranbrook, three in Skookumchuck, three in Wycliffe and two were on the highway."
This Nov. 16, Christmas arrived early in Kimberley.
Santa came in the form of Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Jim Doyle who was bearing a $5.1-million gift for the community.
A gymnasium full of McKim Middle School students and teachers were brought to their feet as Doyle announced that the McKim school and theatre would be completely rebuilt from the gymnasium east.
"We're ecstatic, just absolutely ecstatic," said McKim principal Lynn Hauptman following the announcement. "We've been waiting for this for quite some time."
School District No. 6 officials, students, teachers and the community at large have been waiting for an announcement about the fate of the collapsed McKim theatre and adjoining school for eight months now.
Kimberley director of instruction George Watson said the wind was taken out of many sails when the theatre roof slowly descended to the ground on March 6, 1999.
"A real community tragedy was imposed on us when that facility went down," said Watson. "A lot of lifeblood went out of a lot of folks."
The theatre had been fully renovated just two years prior to the collapse thanks to many Kimberley residents who launched a one-year Save the McKim Theatre campaign to raise $200,000 toward the $600,000 project.
School District No. 6 secured funds last year to reconstruct the east-most sec-tion of the school and to upgrade the central office portion. However, when the theatre, located between the gymnasium and office area, collapsed, School Board officials and McKim administrators rethought their positions and decided to lobby the provincial government for a complete rebuild of the school, except for the gymnasium and music room which were built in 1988.
The new school will include a library, shop, classrooms and theatre and will provide space for 350 students.
The dense forest west of Kimberley has started to come down, as Cominco and United Communities of Calgary begin clearing roads for their 1,200-acre development.
While the proposed residential development known as Kimberley West has been talked about for nearly a decade, it wasn't until this fall that concrete work began on the area.
"The road right of way has been cleared," said Cominco general manager Don Boyle, whose company is jointly taking on the Kimberley West project with Calgary-based real estate developer United. "We're essentially doing the first phase which is 47 lots. The lots have been defined and a limited amount of clearing has been done on those sites."
United marketing manager Alix Halpen said the lots, which are expected to be priced at approximately $50,000 each, will be marketed this winter (but haven't been listed yet).
"We'll be doing a lot of advertising in Calgary to Kimberley which will include some direct mailing and putting billboard-sized signs on the site."
While the first phase of the development includes just 47 residential lots, future plans call for the development of most of the 1,200 acres of Kimberley West lands.
"The first phase is single family, but in the future it could be anything from condos to hotels," said Halpen adding that she anticipates the phase-one lots to be sold to people looking for recreational property. "There's going to be a small percentage of people that will be full-time residents, but I think the majority will be resort homes."
Halpen added that purchasers of the first-phase lots will be required to leave as much forest standing on their property as possible.
"We'll site the houses when people submit their drawings, because we don't want people to go in and clearcut, we want to leave it forested as much as possible," said Halpen. "So far there's been a lot of interest."
In an unanimous decision on Dec. 13, Kimberley City Council officially decided to get into the golfing game.
Following a lengthy debate, all six city councillors voted to move forward with a plan to build a third Kimberley golf course on land just south of Marysville.
With a comprehensive feasibility study showing that the golf course would turn a profit in its first year of operation and go on to show $1 million in annual returns in less than 10 years, all councillors agreed that a third golf course would be a valuable asset to the community.
However, several questions were raised about how the $4.7 million golf course project could be accomplished in such a way as to not thwart the building of an aquatic centre.
Newly elected councillor Ron McRae said, based on election feedback, he believed the community had a real concern about the golf course coming in th way of quick development of an aquatic facility.
"When we make this decision, I don't want the aquatic centre to get lost," said McRae. "If we vote in favor of a third golf course, we need to stay the course in terms of getting an aquatic centre."
Mayor Jim Ogilvie was adamant in his argument that the $4.7 million in proceeds from the sale of the Trickle Creek Golf Course needed to be reinvested in an economic generator rather than a swimming pool, which are notorious for running annual operating deficits of up to $300,000 or more.
"We can do anything with that money ($4.7 million) - we can reinvest it, put it in the bank or build a pool if that's what we feel," said Ogilvie, explaining that he still believes the City has a moral obligation to put the money back into an economic generator like a third golf course since over $2 million in grants from the provincial and federal governments were originally invested in Trickle Creek. "If we take the proceeds from Trickle Creek and build a pool, I think we can kiss any future grants goodbye because both the provincial and federal governments put money into Trickle Creek and both expected us to reinvest it (in an economic generator)." The course is expected to be operational by the 2002 golf season, with net profits in that year projected to be $178.000.
Back CoverSalute 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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