50 YEARS AGO:
Marilyn Colborne was the first regular teller-clerk in the new full-time Royal Bank in Clearwater. Al Miller was manager.
45 YEARS AGO:
Clearwater Search and Rescue disbanded, despite a record going back to 1965. Search master Reg Small said the group had not had a failure in its long history.
Clearwater Pharmacy closed its doors and was replaced by Isaac’s, operated by Dave Maxwell.
Voters in School District 26 were to vote on a $3.5 million referendum for a new secondary school in Clearwater, and elementary schools in Avola and Vavenby.
40 YEARS AGO:
A referendum was to seek a tax increase to offset the continuing deficits incurred by the North Thompson Sportsplex.
35 YEARS AGO:
The RCMP detachment in Blue River was being moved out – temporarily.
Most government operations – liquor store, forestry complex, highways department yard in Birch Island, and Human Resources office – were closed due to a strike by the B.C. Government Employees’ Union. Bear Creek Camp was operating on an emergency services basis.
30 YEARS AGO:
Forests Minister Dave Parker announced that Clearwater Forest District was to get a new office and warehouse facility, to be built on a 1.6 hectare site across from North Thompson Park. The company building it, would lease the building to B.C. Forest Service for 10 years.
Weyerhaeuser’s new Vavenby superintendent was Grant Gunn, formerly the woods manager. He took over from Bob Taylor.
Businessman Wayne Zral hoped to have 150 recreation vehicle sites ready by the following spring on the corner of land between Highway 5 and the road to Wells Gray Park.
25 YEARS AGO:
The first snowfall of the season led to three major vehicle accidents in 15 minutes on a Saturday morning. An elderly Burnaby woman died from injuries suffered when the van she was in left Highway 5 and rolled. The rear wheel drive vehicle had new snow tires installed on the front wheels.
20 YEARS AGO:
Construction started on a new bridge across First Canyon on the road to Wells Gray Park, and was due to be completed by June 15 of the following year. Nearly all the crew was locally hired.
15 YEARS AGO:
Steve Pelton, divisional manager of Slocan’s Vavenby mill announced that a fourth dry kiln would be built, creating a third shift and up to 40 new jobs.
The chairman of the Shuswap Nations Tribal Council and chief of the North Thompson Indian Band, along with the Little Shuwap Indian Band, signed an agreement with forest minister Michael de Jong, allowing each group to apply for a non-replaceable forest licence of 1.035 million cubic metres of fire-damaged timber in the Kamloops Timber Supply area.
10 YEARS AGO:
TNRD eWaste roundup day brought in seven tons of electronic waste from Clearwater residents. “We really did well there,” said Marcia Cleveland, waste reduction and education coordinator with Thompson-Nicola-Regional District.
The B.C. Music Educators Association named Clearwater’s Bruce Whitelaw Professional Music Educator for 2008.
5 YEARS AGO:
TNRD board approved allocating $5,000 to support an application for UNESCO Geopark status for the volcanoes of Wells Gray Park and area.
The regional district directors also approved giving $5,000 to Wells Gray Outdoor Club to help pay for phase one of the proposed Candle Creek mountain bike trail.
About 400 parade participants and onlookers took part in Remembrance Day ceremonies in Clearwater.
1 YEAR AGO:
Debris piles on fire lit up the evening sky around Clearwater. “We don’t want to leave those piles around for the upcoming summer,” said George Brcko, Wells Gray Community Forest general manager.
Clearwater residents Keith McNeill and Jean Nelson reported back after attending a Citizens Climate Lobby-Canada conference in Ottawa. CCL volunteers took part in 49 lobbying meetings with MPs, senators and senior bureaucrats to promote carbon fee-and-dividend as a way to control human-caused climate change.
