JUNE
Pilot crashes biplane at airshow
Campbell River pilot Dr. Bill Phipps, 71, was in stable condition after a dramatic crash during an airshow at Nanaimo Airport on June 4.
Phipps, who has performed in his white bi-plane at the annual Fly In at the Campbell Hill airport since 2005, was the Nanaimo airshow’s opening act. Six minutes into the eight minute performance, a thousand people watched his self-built Steen Skybolt bi-plane crash into a grassy section off the tarmac.
Phipps suffered significant facial and internal injuries as well as broken bones. No one on the ground was injured, but the plane was destroyed.
Phipps said he’s been performing at air shows for 17 years in the biplane he built with a friend.
“Frankly, I’m still unaware as to what actually happened,” he said in an Aug. 30 interview from his home. “I don’t know if it was my mistake or if something was wrong with the airplane.”
Town receives $400,000 grant
Ashcroft’s application for a Towns for Tomorrow provincial $400,000 grant had been successful. The funds will be used for sewer treatment plant upgrades, with the Village spending $175,000 of its own money from the federal Gas Tax Revenues program.
Administrator Michelle Allen said the upgrades will provide backup power at the plant and at the Public Works building so that workers “don’t have to babysit the plant during power outages” to make sure the effluent doesn’t back up into the river.
Ashcroft woman drowns in Hat Creek
A 69 year old Ashcroft woman perished in the fast moving waters of Hat Creek.
Ashcroft RCMP were called to Historic Hat Creek Ranch early Sunday morning, June 12, after receiving a group of campers had reported that one of their own was missing.
Members of the Ashcroft and Clinton RCMP Detachment, the RCMP’s dog section from Kamloops and Kamloops’ Search and Rescue searched the grounds for over two hours. She was located nearby in Hat Creek and was pronounced dead at the scene.
JULY
Half $million grow op dismantled
RCMP discovered a marijuana grow operation in the Twall Lake area and seized hundreds of plants and equipment.
On July 19 just before noon, officers in an RCMP helicopter flying from Kelowna to Lillooet noticed the outdoor grow-op on a mountainside by Venables Valley.
Ashcroft RCMP attended the remote site, and seized 665 marijuana plants in various stages of growth, as well as equipment that included water barrels and an elaborate drip irrigation system. Fully grown, the plants would have a street value of half a million dollars.
