• After a safe and slow start to the 2020 boating season, the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue station on Shuswap Lake responded to three emergency calls, including two on June 23.
The rescue boat received a medical call shortly after 5 a.m. on Saturday, June 13 to assist a woman experiencing severe abdominal pain at the Tiilis Landing campsite.
Station leader Fred Banham said the woman was safely on shore and in the waiting ambulance by around 7:15 a.m.
The RCMSAR station was called for another medical emergency at 12:04 a.m. Banham said a woman on a houseboat had fallen down a steep stairway and hit her head on the way down.
The other people on board suspected she may have suffered a spinal injury and so kept her lying on the deck until the RCMSAR and ambulance crew arrived.
• The fluctuating level of Shuswap Lake kept forecasters and lakefront property owners guessing as to whether it would continue to rise.
As of Friday, June 26, Shuswap Lake Watch, a website that relies on measurements taken near Sicamous, showed the lake level continued to rise.
The Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) stated the lake level had reached 349.018 metres, and had remained stable over the past 24-hour reporting period.
• Police responded to a physical altercation in which a Sicamous man was bear sprayed on June 13. The conflict took place in the parking lot of the Sicamous 7-Eleven.
Police determined a 23-year-old Sicamous man was sprayed with bear repellent during an altercation with a 25-year-old man from the Enderby area. Police seized the bear spray and released both men without charges; neither of them suffered significant injuries.
• A trio of Conservative Members of Parliament representing communities in the Okanagan and Shuswap wanted to see more federal resources devoted to preventing the spread of invasive species into B.C.’s waterways.
A statement from Mel Arnold (North Okanagan-Shuswap), Dan Albas (Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola) and Tracy Gray (Kelowna-Lake Country) suggested Western Canada wasn’t getting its fair share of invasive species protection funds. “The vast majority of federal resources allotted for preventing or eradicating aquatic invasive species (AIS), including zebra and quagga mussels (ZQM), do not make it past the Great Lakes giving Western Canada, including British Columbia, little access to federal supports,” read the statement.
• The Edmonton Police Service released the name of a man found dead in Sicamous after his vehicle was sought in connection with a suspicious death in Edmonton. Luis Antonio Candela-Gonzalez, 39, was found dead in a wooded area near Sicamous on the evening of July 11.
A white 2019 Toyota Tacoma believed to be linked to the death of an Edmonton woman early that morning was a short distance from where his body was found.
Candela-Gonzalez’s body was found after a Sicamous RCMP officer spotted the truck, identical to the one sought by the Edmonton police, parked along the Trans-Canada Highway in Malakwa.
• In a ceremony held at the Sicamous district hall on Friday, July 24, government dignitaries and members of the Splatsin First Nation gathered for a first look at plans for the Shuswap and Secwepmc Healing Centre to be located at 417-425 Main St.
Construction of the new building to house offices for doctors and other medical services will be aided by a $5,923,931 grant from the federal government.
