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Charlotte Helston
REPORTER
Charlotte Helston grew up in Armstrong and after four years studying writing at the University of Victoria, she came back to do what she loves most: Connect with the community and bringing its stories to life.
Covering Vernon for iNFOnews.ca has reinforced her belief in community. The people and the stories she encounters every day—at the courthouse, City Hall or on the street—show the big tales in a small town.
If you have an opinion to share or a story you'd like covered, contact Charlotte at Charlotte Helston or call 250-309-5230.
Charlotte Helston's Stories
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Okanagan Regional Library axes service in some communities
OKANAGAN - The Okanagan Regional Library has already cut services at some branches, and more are on the chopping block. It’s all part of a process to improve equity at the regional library’s 29 service locations, after a financial audit found some discrepancies. Some branches, including those in West Kelowna, the City of Kelowna, the...
Judge throws cold water on this short cut police use to get warrants
LAKE COUNTRY - Police in B.C. may find it a little tougher to obtain a search warrant after a B.C. Supreme Court justice in the Okanagan put a roadblock on a common short cut used by police for years. Justice Gary Weatherill tossed out a search warrant in a Lake Country pot case Oct. 23,...
Food Network to showcase Shuswap Pie Company
SALMON ARM - Camera crews and a Food Network host rolled in to Salmon Arm recently for a little piece of the pie. The TV Series You Gotta Eat Here, hosted by comedian John Catucci, will feature the Shuswap Pie Company, along with The Jammery and The Burner Restaurant and Lounge, in an upcoming episode....
Machinery running on graveyard shift the night teen worker died was an anomaly
VERNON - A Tolko employee knew two days in advance machines would be running during the ordinarily quiet graveyard clean-up shift to accommodate extra production, a coroner’s inquiry into the death of a Lumby teen heard Thursday. Bradley Haslam, 18, became entangled in a conveyer belt at Tolko’s Lavington mill in June 2013 and died....
UPDATE: RCMP investigate downtown Vernon fatal crash
VERNON – A Kelowna woman is dead and a Vernon woman is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after their car was T-boned by a mini-van in downtown Vernon in the early hours Thursday morning. RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk says the accident happened around 1:15 a.m. at the intersection of 30 Avenue and 32 Street (Highway...
Murdered soldier remembered online
OTTAWA - We are learning more about the soldier killed in Wednesday’s shooting at Parliament Hill. He was Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, 24, a reservist from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders regiment. Cirillo was standing guard at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, carrying an unloaded rifle, when he was gunned down. Cirillo, from Hamilton, Ont.,...
Man captures incredible photo of picnicking bear in Coldstream
LAST DAY TO ENTER OUR CAPTION CONTEST AND DON'T FORGET TO LIKE YOUR FAVOURITES! VERNON - It was a scene right out of a children's story: A bear nonchalantly snacking on chestnuts at a picnic table. No, it’s not photoshopped. Rick Zoethout, with Cidel Moving and Storage, captured the photo while loading items into a...
Nurses union sounds alarm after third care-home death
SALMON ARM - The dementia patient who attacked a fellow resident at a Shuswap care home had already assaulted people at the facility, including a nurse, and was flagged as aggressive, says a spokesperson for the B.C. Nurses Union. That patient’s name has not been released, but the name of the man who wandered into...
Government paves over safety feature because of ‘noise complaints’
OYAMA - The Ministry of Transportation is removing a safety feature on the new highway in Lake Country to spare nearby residents an associated rumbling sound. Rumble strips, the grooved edges found on most highways, were installed on the new $78-million section of Highway 97 through Oyama but it seems the feature had an unpleasant...
HELSTON: Don’t be afraid to call the conservation officer
Residents across the Interior contacted the conservation service over the past year to report wildlife encounters ranging from simple sightings to bizarre and in some cases, tragic extremes. There was a cougar found inside a Vernon home chewing on a squeaky toy, a pack of wolves that killed a woman’s dog in Merritt, aggressive coyotes...
The Okanagan as seen from the eyes of someone falling from the sky
OKANAGAN - They look like sky ninjas or superheroes soaring above the clouds, and you might recognize their birds eye view of the ground below. Skydiving enthusiast Chris Ellom captured some incredible footage of his favourite sky dives this past August and September taken as much as 11,000 feet above the Okanagan Valley, high enough...
Surrendered dog in animal cruelty case stolen from SPCA
PENTICTON - One of the dogs under the care of the SPCA following an animal cruelty investigation in Vernon was stolen Wednesday night. South Okanagan/ Similkameen branch manager Corinne Ross says staff arrived Thursday morning to feed the dogs and realized one of the surrendered carlin pinschers was gone. “Someone had taken wire cutters and...
The Okanagan’s connection to popular new movie Gone Girl
KELOWNA - A Kelowna born actress has a cameo role in the new movie Gone Girl, starring Ben Affleck. Lauren Glazier plays a ‘fashionista’ in the mystery thriller about a missing woman and the husband suspected of killing her. It isn’t Glazier’s first time on the silver screen. She’s appeared in a range of short films...
Okanagan hockey refs flee burning car
ENDERBY - Three Okanagan hockey referees are lucky to be alive after an off-ice collision Friday night. Jeremy Silzer, 24, of Vernon says he and two other refs, one from Winfield and one from Kelowna, were returning home from a Junior B hockey game in Sicamous around 10 p.m. They were just rounding a corner...
Check out the neat surprise these North Okanagan residents found on their game camera
ENDERBY - Some North Okanagan residents found a warm and fuzzy surprise on their game camera this past summer: two baby bears. The cubs were caught wrestling, attacking the camera and playing around in a clearing. The camera was located about 100 meters from the photographers’ home on a forested property just outside Enderby. The...
Vernon man expected to plead guilty to luring, child porn charges
VERNON - A Vernon man was scheduled to enter intended guilty pleas Monday in Vernon Supreme Court on various child pornography related charges, but that won’t happen for another few weeks. David Clayton Willerth, born in 1974, faces 25 counts, including luring children under 16 over the computer, making or publishing child pornography and invitation...
Okanagan Regional Library eyes staff and service cuts
OKANAGAN - The union representing Okanagan Regional Library workers is sounding the alarm over proposed staff and service cuts at branches throughout the valley. Deb Dolman, vice president of CUPE Local 1123, says an alarming 375 staff hours at 19 branches are on the chopping block as part of the regional library’s plan to improve...
IN TWEETS: It’s October already
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Autumn may have officially arrived with the fall equinox Sept. 22, but for many, it’s the first day of October that really feels like the start of a new season. Oct. 1 delivered sunny skies across the valley and warm enough temperatures to still get away with shorts and a T-shirt. But on...
Future uncertain for Canada’s oldest horse-racing track
VERNON - The future of horse racing in the Interior remains more uncertain thanks to mounting woes for Vernon's troubled Kin Race Track. The society that runs the track has battled for years to keep it open. Already tight on cash from fighting a legal battle with the City of Vernon to continue racing horses...
You won’t believe what a tourist found while visiting Vernon
VERNON - Most people go home from a dig at Canada’s only opal mine with a small trinket. Others, like Donna Nelson, get very lucky. On a recent trip to Vernon, the Saskatchewan woman and her husband went on a dig with Opal Resources Canada, which operates the Opal Miners Gift Shop on Highway 97...
A cougar killed her dog and dropped it at her feet
VERNON - A Vernon family is readjusting to life without their beloved family dog after he was killed by a cougar in their backyard. Milton, a six-year-old Chihuahua/Maltese, was let out to play as usual the morning of Sept. 21 in the backyard of the family’s McLennan Road property in the BX area of Vernon....
Groundbreaking training will help Vernon search and rescue help you
VERNON - Members of Vernon Search and Rescue are trying something new as they huddle around a helicopter watching a teammate dangle a few feet off the ground. The apparatus they're using is called a winch, and it will allow qualified technicians the ability to descend as much as 300 feet to the ground to...
If you see this actor around the North Okanagan, be sure to call him ‘sir’
VERNON - The stars are aligning for Hollywood’s return to the North Okanagan. Okanagan film commissioner Jon Summerland says it’s looking like the Hollywood movie Go With Me, based on a best-selling book, will be filmed in the region. Oscar winning actor Sir Anthony Hopkins has already signed on to star in the thriller. “We’ve...
Matthew Foerster to appeal first degree murder conviction
ARMSTRONG - The man convicted of brutally killing an Armstrong teen is appealing his first degree murder verdict. A jury found Matthew Foerster, 28, guilty of murdering Taylor Van Diest, 18, in April of this year. The verdict carries an automatic life sentence, with no eligibility for parole for 25 years. But a notice of...