A diver inspects the Underwater Archaeological Association of British Columbia plaque on the wreck of the S.S. Whitesmith near Sicamous in February 2015. (Copper Island Diving photo)

A diver inspects the Underwater Archaeological Association of British Columbia plaque on the wreck of the S.S. Whitesmith near Sicamous in February 2015. (Copper Island Diving photo)

Eagle Valley News year in review – March

A look back of the events that made the news in 2019.

Some 18 months after the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development taped a stop-work order to the door of the 14-by-14 foot Eagle Pass lookout cabin and began an investigation into its reconstruction, the ministry confirmed the structure would not be torn down.

Eagle River Secondary students and staff were working together for months on a play called Café Murder, to be staged on Wednesday, March 13 and Thursday, March 14.

A March 11 rockslide on Highway 97A was concerning to some Swansea Point residents who have experienced slides in the past. “This was huge. Those rocks were, like my husband says, the size of small cars,” said Lois Schurek, a resident of Swansea Point, north of where the March 11 slide took place.

School District 83 announced plans for precautionary radon testing in all district schools for the fall. Operations manager Trevor Bettcher clarifies this testing is just a preventative measure, and there is currently no indication of increased radon levels in district schools.

The CSRD donated nine computers, one printer, a server, a network switch and a firewall to the Malakwa Learning Centre. In addition to the equipment donation, CSRD Information Technology staff ensured the computers were refurbished, set up and working properly. “The very generous donation of computers and necessary equipment and the time of staff to install it from the CSRD has added so much to the Malakwa Learning Centre,” said Rhona Martin, CSRD board chair and Electoral Area E (Rural Sicamous-Malakwa) director.

“We dive it on a regular basis,” said Copper Island Diving’s Paul Downie of the SS Whitesmith, the last known steam-powered vessel to transport people and cargo up and down the Shuswap Lake. The Whitesmith met its end in 1933 after a storm blew it against the pilings of the old CPR hotel once located on the west shore of the Sicamous Channel. A broken piling punctured the ice-breaker ferry’s hull and it slipped beneath the lake’s surface.


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