Author: Osoyoos Times

“We need a major shift in how we think and deal with water,” said Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells on March 26, as he was introducing the public release of the Okanagan Water Supply and Demand Project.
The release was held in Kelowna at the Manteo Beach Club on Okanagan Lake – and the 135-kilometre-long lake was visible outside the window of the packed meeting room.

“We have a great challenge ahead of us,” said former B.C. Premier Bill Vander Zalm on a recent tour through Osoyoos.
Vander Zalm brought his “Fight HST” message to the Sonora Community Centre on March 28 to rally volunteers in the upcoming Initiative Petition drive to convince the provincial government to repeal the pending Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).
Vander Zalm, as well as Chris Delaney, the lead organizer of the Fight HST campaign, spoke to about 150 people who showed up to the rally and the pair elicited cheers and clapping throughout the hour-long session.

The Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) is looking into the financial background of a project that brought power to a number of properties on Anarchist Mountain in the 1980s in response to concerns raised by several mountain residents.
In 1981, a number of mountain property owners petitioned the RDOS to have power lines installed that would bring electricity to roughly 30 properties in an area including parts of Hewitt Road, Long Joe Road, Chapman Road and Observatory Road.

An Ontario-based ecologist who has worked to build 16 wetlands throughout the South Okanagan is hoping plans to expand Hwy. 97 north of Osoyoos won’t damage a small wetland area that is home to tiger salamanders and Pacific tree frogs.
Sara Ashpole, a researcher with the University of Waterloo, is acting as a consultant to the B.C. Transportation Ministry as it prepares to build four new lanes of highway between Graveyard Hill and Dead Man’s Lake.
Part of the highway expansion plan includes having an intersection off the new roadway at Road 22, right next to a small wetland.