Looking back at what made headlines in 2018 from the pages of the Salmon Arm Observer.
Here’s a glimpse from June 2018:
• A Salmon Arm woman lobbied the government to open another operating room. Maureen Kennah-Hafstein, who has had Parkinson’s for 12 years, has fought hard to find research and treatments to help her condition, including stepping into the boxing ring to try to help stave off deterioration in her balance and coordination. But her biggest fight is to open a door to treatment that could dramatically improve her health, a door to a second operating room in B.C. that would allow for already-trained surgeons to step in and begin doing deep brain stimulation, thereby reducing the wait times for Parkinson’s patients who have to wait nearly two years for the surgery.
• For three-quarters of a century, Avalon and Irvine Thomson have faced life’s challenges together. On May 29, the Blind Bay couple celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary – a rarity in which they have shared a busy, sometimes difficult, but, overall, an enriching time in each other’s company.
Avalon credits her marriage’s longevity to a combination of commitment, caring, family and faith.
Related: Facing life’s challenges together
• Police have made two arrests in a 2010 double homicide outside of Cranbrook that took the lives of two innocent people from Salmon Arm.
Colin Raymond Correia, 41, and Sheldon Joseph Hunter, 30 were arrested and charged with two counts of first degree murder.
Police were called to a Cranbrook residence on May 29, 2010, where officers found a dead woman and a man in critical condition who later died of his injuries. RCMP said there were early indications that it was a targeted incident but the victims, Leanne MacFarlane, 43, and Jeffry Todd Taylor, 42, were not the intended targets.
Police quickly determined it was a case of mistaken identity.
• The city agreed to purchase the SASCU Indoor Memorial Arena from the Salmon Arm and Shuswap Lake Agricultural Association, the organization which runs the annual fair. The agreement which sees the city paying $420,000 for the building at 351 Third St. SW as well as the lane way along Third Avenue SW was announced at Salmon Arm Council’s June 11 meeting.
• Police said the Salmon Arm Secondary student who tweeted about shooting students poses no threat to others.
When the student was arrested the morning of Thursday, June 14 as he arrived at school, he had no weapons in his possession.
The RCMP were notified by the U.S.-based Tactical Institute, staffed by combat-wounded veterans who monitor social media around the clock to watch for threats.
The Salmon Arm student’s tweets, beginning in February, refer to depression, suicide, self-loathing, rage and hating everyone. The series posted on June 13 speaks specifically about shooting students.
One tweet states: “See I’m going to make a list. A big one. Of people I hate and why. Names will be abbreviated for privacy reasons as I really don’t want to get charged. Look forward to it. Dropping it tomorrow.”
Related: Social media threat leads to arrest of Salmon Arm Secondary student
• The 2018 season of Wednesday on the Wharf kicked off with a special concert signalling the end of the 30-year career of Salmon Arm’s much-loved music teacher, Brian Pratt-Johnson.
As is tradition, Pratt-Johnson opened the season on the outdoor series by conducting a performance with the Salmon Arm Secondary jazz band, leading them in one final show before he hung up his teaching hat.
• Preparations began for the 2018 version of Dancing with the Shuswap Stars. This year’s crop of dancers include a politician, a physician, a firefighter, business owners and fitness instructors. In the couples amateur division: Shuswap MLA Greg Kyllo and his spouse Georgina Kyllo, Jordan Grieve and his wife, Brittany, Larry Cleave and Dana Thiessen, and Calab Markortoff and Amanda Moga.
In the Pro-am division it’s Alex Seal and Simone Goerner, Missy Mackintosh and Jens Goerner, Melissa Treleaven and Orlando Robertson, Graham Spence and Heather Stranks, and Phil McIntyre-Paul and Ingalise Abbott.
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