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Vernon
Former Vernon vice-principal punished for boosting student’s grades
VERNON - A former Vernon vice-principal has been reprimanded for boosting a student’s grades. The B.C. Teacher Regulation Branch is suspending former Vernon Secondary School vice-principal Tony Martin Dolinar’s teaching certificate for one month because he increased the grades “of a student whom he wished to favour” without the consent of the student’s teacher. Dolinar...
North Okanagan school district axes positions and prepares for the next tough decision
SALMON ARM - The North Okanagan school district is looking at closing schools and reducing the number of trustees on its board to settle ongoing financial challenges in the operating budget. Those ideas surfaced at a board meeting Tuesday as trustees passed a preliminary budget for the 2014/15 school year that would involve laying off teachers...
Preliminary inquiry set to hear evidence in Vernon child pornography case
VERNON - The courts will decide next month whether a man accused of luring girls online for sexual purposes will stand trial. David Willerth, born in 1974, was arrested last summer on a slew of online luring and child pornography charges. A preliminary inquiry to determine if there is enough evidence for the matter to...
New recycling program could be unfair to seniors, people with disabilities
VERNON - Vernon City Hall is learning from its populace you can’t put everyone in the same box. Multi-Material B.C. is set to take over the city’s recycling system next Monday, and that will involve shifting pick up from blue bags to blue bins. There are concerns seniors and people with disabilities will struggle with...
Vernon woman pleads to have mother’s stolen ashes returned
VERNON - A Vernon woman is pleading to have her mother’s ashes returned after they were stolen in a break and enter. “I can’t even focus on anything else, I’ll do anything to get my mother back,” Manon Care says. “I feel more violated than when she passed away a couple months ago.” Care kept...
New Vernon visitor centre stalled by approval process
VERNON - People passing through Vernon won’t be able to visit the city’s new tourism centre for at least a few more weeks. The visitor information centre was pegged to open May 1 on 39 Avenue beside Civic Arena, but the Ministry of Transportation’s approval process to rezone the property is taking longer than expected....
Sweet gesture helped firefighters tackle weekend blaze
LUMBY - A long night of firefighting became a little easier through the generosity of a Lumby restauranteur. Around a dozen members of the Lumby volunteer fire department were called to Shuswap Avenue around 10 p.m. Sunday to battle a fire in a machine shop. It was well after most shops closed, and the firefighters...
New motorcyclist dies in head-on collision near Enderby
NORTH OKANAGAN - Police responded to a fatal motorcycle accident in Enderby mere hours after attending the scene of a tragic car crash in Lumby involving two brothers. Police and emergency crews responded to the motorcycle around 10:30 a.m. Sunday. Cpl. Gerry Kovacs says a 64-year-old Enderby man new to motorcycling was killed in a...
Passenger watches his brother die in Lumby car crash
NORTH OKANAGAN - A Lumby man tried to save his brother before he died after an early morning car crash Sunday. The 23-year-old man and his 25-year-old brother at the wheel were on their way to help some friends having vehicle troubles around 2:20 a.m. Along the 1000 block of Whitevale Road near Lumby, the 2003...
RBC Cup a boon for local economy
VERNON - The return of the RBC Cup is expected to bring economic benefits to the region for years to come. Vernon is hosting the national Junior A Hockey Championship for the first time since 1990, and the city’s economic development manager Kevin Poole says it’s going to infuse the local economy with players and...
UPDATE: Foerster senior sentenced; pleads guilty to accessory in teen’s murder
HELPED SON GET NEW IDENTITY, AVOID POLICE KELOWNA - Stephen Roy Foerster was sentenced to three years in jail for helping his son Matthew Foerster avoid detection by police following the murder of Armstrong teen Taylor Van Diest. Foerster, 60, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder after the fact Wednesday morning in a Kelowna Supreme...
Victim’s brother was driving in weekend crash
VERNON — The 14-year-old Vernon boy who died in a head-on collision last weekend, was being driven by his older brother. Rodney Boring, the passenger in a Pontiac Sunfire involved in a head-on crash with a pickup truck on Highway 97 near Oyama, died at the scene, while the 17-year-old driver was airlifted to Kelowna...
Pair of suspicious fires ignite concerns
VERNON - A pair of suspicious fires have police and the fire department looking for answers. The Vernon Fire Department responded to back to back dumpster fires Saturday night. The first was in a large construction dumpster on Kalamalka Road around 11:30 p.m., and the second at 44 Avenue and 27 Street by Shoppers Drug...
Vernon teen killed in weekend crash identified
VERNON - The boy who died in a crash on Highway 97 near Crystal Waters Road May 4 has been identified. He was Rodney Michael Boring, 14, of Vernon. Boring was the passenger in a Pontiac Sunfire involved in a collision with a full-sized pickup truck at about 3:45 p.m. Sunday. He died at the...
Shovels pierce soil for Predator Ridge firehall
VERNON - Construction is underway for the new fire hall at Predator Ridge. The City of Vernon, Vernon Fire Rescue Services and Predator Ridge Golf Resort broke ground yesterday for the two-bay fire station to be built at the resort. City approval for the $60,000 design of the project came January 12, 2011. Another $600,000...