Top Stories – June 7 – Little Growth

The Pigeon Creek wildfire northwest of Peachland had no growth yesterday as it was a mostly smouldering ground fire and was last estimated at 33 hectares. The skimmer bomber group from Kamloops dropped water in the morning while a couple of bucketing helicopters provided afternoon air support. BC Wildfire increased the ground crew to 60 as they fought it in difficult terrain.

You can now call an Uber for a ride to most areas around here… just not to Southeast Kelowna or Gellatly Bay yet. The service began yesterday with Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas getting a ride to city hall. Not everyone at the ceremony was cheering though as in many places, full time taxis and other ride-sharing companies have taken a financial hit when Uber drove into town.

The local real estate report for May shows a continuation of lower prices and longer times to sell properties. The benchmark single family home sale price was down 6.7% from a year ago to just over a Million dollars, while the number of days to sell was up 79% to 47 days. For condos the price dropped 5.5% to $517,000, and the number of days to sell jumped 106% to 52.

Kelowna Council agreed to a pilot project allowing alcohol in three city parks this summer. Waterfront, Kinsmen, and Boyce Gyro Parks are cleared for drinking from July 4 to October 6. No glass containers are permitted. As we mentioned last week, booze will not be allowed on the BC Day or Labour Day long weekends as authorities are already stretched to the limit.

The Casorso Road and Gordon Drive bridge underpasses along the Mission Creek Greenway have reopened. They were closed last month due to freshet-driven levels in Mission Creek. RDCO parks staff have been out, made repairs as needed and reopened the trail accesses.

Research has moved up the time by which the Arctic Ocean is predicted to be free of summer ice. A paper in the journal Nature, has concluded the northern waters could be open for months at a time as early as 2030, even if humanity manages to drastically scale back its greenhouse gas emissions. Previous estimates had suggested the ice wouldn’t disappear until the 2040s at the earliest.

Investigators have determined the fire that gutted the Bankhead Convenience store a couple of days ago was deliberately set. A man was taken into custody, and released under strict bail conditions without charge as the investigation continues. He is to appear in court October 23rd.

Could it be a summer of travel headaches between Kelowna and Penticton? Highway 97 in Summerland was closed again yesterday at Lakeshore Drive South because of yet another rock slide. It has been reopened to single lane alternating traffic and Drive BC is indicating the next update will be at noon tomorrow.

Ninety percent of 275 Canadian construction companies say they are dealing with a shortage of skilled labour or trades. Many of them told K-P-M-G they may need to turn to other options, such as modularization or new technology, to get around the problem. But they also admit Canada’s construction industry has been slow to adopt new digital technologies.

Sports

Lots of action around the Apple Bowl today as the school district has its Track and Field event until about 3:30. Students from grades 4, 5 and 6 will be participating in a number of sports.

At Elks Stadium last night the Kelowna Falcons scored 5 runs in the 8th inning on the way to a 9-3 win over Nanaimo in their home opener. They will play again tonight starting at 6:35.

In Toronto, the Blue Jays bounced back from a thrashing the night before to beat the Astros 5-1. Game three of their four-game series begins this afternoon just after 4.