Careful Footsteps

 

Spring is happening and the many precious wildflowers that rejoin the landscape every year are here.  A footstep or two does not destroy these native plants that make our area so valued by the world but all terrain vehicles rip up the roots and destroy them.  Some of the first plants to flower, inhabit the lower elevations in the open grasslands which are popular with cyclists and 'ATV ers'.  Let's hope with more awareness, users of these areas will stay on the trails.  When passing by at speed, these fragile beauties too often go unnoticed by many.

All these flowers were out and about this last week.

Yellow Bells, Fritillaria

Pasque Flower, Prairie Crocus

Sagebrush Buttercups, Ranunculus

Safe Lawns - Please Come

On behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society, Wildsight and the Pesticide Free Columbia Basin network, I am pleased to invite you to join us and special guest Paul Tukey, author of The Organic Lawn Care Manual and Executive Producer of the award-winning documentary A Chemical Reaction on his tour of the East Kootenay. Further details about events happening in your community are listed below.
Paul Tukey, of  http://safelawns.org/   is the author of the Organic Lawn Care Manual and is the Executive Producer of the award winning documentary A Chemical Reaction. Winner of the prestigious Horticultural Communicator of the Year Award from the American Horticultural Society, Mr. Tukey makes upwards of 100-120 appearances a year across North America. Lauded for his ability to turn a mundane subject — lawn care — into a rousing public discourse, he has been featured in thousands of media outlets from Good Morning America in the U.S., to the CBC in Canada, as well as National Geographic, Readers Digest and the New York Times, which called him “The godfather of the natural lawn care movement.”

Monday April 18 in the Elk Valley


At 3:00 pm in Fernie join a public workshop with organic lawn care expert Paul Tukey on how to have a healthy and pesticide-free lawn and at the Fernie Aquatic Centre in the multi-purpose room. This workshop will provide you with tips, strategies, resources and tools as we learn together about how we can have beautiful, and healthy, lawns and gardens while protecting ourselves from the health and environmental risks of non-essential pesticides.

At 7:00 pm, ‘A Chemical Reaction’ community film screening will be held at the Sparwood Curling Club Lounge. Admission by donation. Film to be followed by a discussion and Q&A with Paul Tukey.

Tuesday April 19 in the Columbia Valley


1:00 pm – in Golden, join a public workshop at the Kicking Horse River Lodge with organic lawn care expert Paul Tukey on how to have a healthy and pesticide-free lawn and garden. This workshop will provide you with tips, strategies, resources and tools as we learn together about how we can have beautiful, and healthy, lawns and gardens while protecting ourselves from the health and environmental risks of non-essential pesticides.

At 6:30 pm, join the Invermere Lawn & Garden Kick-Off at the Lions Hall at the Crossroads where 'A Chemical Reaction' film screening will be followed by a discussion and Q&A with Paul Tukey. Admission by donation.

Wednesday April 20 in Kimberley
 At Centre 64 in Kimberley, join the Lawn & Garden Hoe Down where Paul Tukey will be providing a series of How To Lawn and Garden workshops offered at 2:30 pm, 4:30 pm and 7:00 pm. This event will include simultaneous community screenings of A Chemical Reaction at these times. Join us for a workshop, the film or both! Please note for the Kimberley Lawn and Garden Hoe Down you do need to pre-register for the workshop time of your choice. Please register by providing your name and phone number to kimcran@wildsight.ca or to 250 427-2535. For more information: http://www.wildsight.ca/events/kimberley-garden-hoe-down

Thursday April 21 in Cranbrook
At 7:00 pm at the College of the Rockies Lecture Theatre, join us for a community screening of the award-winning documentary ‘A Chemical Reaction’ followed by a discussion and Q&A with special guest Paul Tukey. Admission by donation.

You may wish to watch some of these videos:
http://safelawns.org/video.cfm

For more information:
Patti Moore
Health Promotion Coordinator
Canadian Cancer Society, Southern Interior Region
Tel: (250)-426-8916 Fax: (250)-426-3947
Toll-Free: 1-800-656-6426
pmoore@bc.cancer.ca
http://www.cancer.ca/

'Tis the Season for Grant Giving

Anyone who volunteers with any sort of organisation knows fundraising is the hardest part of any project.  If it was not for Community Foundations, Businesses, Corporations, Service Clubs generous individuals etc. many projects would never get off the ground.  In our area the Columbia Basin Trust is one of the greatest benfactors to many projects.  The East Kootenay Credit Union just awarded their Community Grant to the Community Theatre for a great chair lift project which will make their productions and other entertainment that happens in The Studio Stage Door Theatre more accessible to those who cannot manage the stairs.

Another grant source that announced their recent recipients is the Real Estate Foundation of BC
http://www.realestatefoundation.com/grants/grants_approved/april2011  Looking through the list of recipients over the last few years it appears Cranbrook could take advantage of this source for a worthy project.

Volunteer Week was celebrated this last week and this post is to thank all those hard working individuals who write the grant applications, those who make the difficult decisions as to who should be awarded and those who make the funds available.

THANK YOU!

Mt. Baker Trashion Fashion Show Spectacular

April 14th at the Tamarack Mall turned a shopping trip into a sensational showing of fashion created by Mt. Baker students out of products that were given a second life.  Joseph's attention was captured and called me over to watch the show.  "They are so creative!"  "Look at this one!" He kept saying, obviously impressed.

Following the show people were gathered around talking and wanting to meet the people who created all this recycled wearable art and I was one of them.  Mikayla (sp?) Walker.  When asked where she got the inspiration for the dress, Mikayla said that her mother and her were surfing the internet and saw a tie train (as in the bottom flowing part of a gown) that was part of a dress.  So Mikayla drew her own design including the flowers and set about going to thrift/second hand stores to get the 94 ties for this dress that cost a whopping $16.  Mikayla did all the sewing with some help from her mother in tricky areas.  She definitely has a potential future career in fashion design.  Mikayla says that the experience of doing this show was a lot of fun, especially seeing all the creativity.  This is the first year for this event by Mt. Baker students and it certainly has the potential for a yearly event.

To view the You Tube video go here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s_rD2Djsec

Mikayla Walker's recycled tie dress

Submitted by Sharon Cross with pictures and video by Joseph Cross

What’s Happening….

Thursday April 14th
Rythmn and Word
Local writers, singers and songwriters
ManWoman, Heather Gemmell, Pete Durning
At Artrageous Gallery
7 –9:00pm
Free event in celebration of National Poetry Month

Friday April 15th
Through April 22, 29, and May 6th
Watercolour Workshop
Littlemac Art Studio
For more information
250-426-1982

Friday April 15th
Rocky Mountain Naturalists
Australia Slideshow
With Corinne De Zoete and John Przeczek
7:00pm
Superstore Community Room
For more information
250-489-1601

Friday April 15th
Riverdance
Cranbrook RecPlex
250-426-SEAT or 1-866-580-7328


Friday April 15th
Saltwater Cowboys at Ali Baba’s
Finnegan’s Pub


Saturday April 16th
Cranbrook Library Garage Sale


Saturday April 16th
Dance 7:00pm
Cranbrook Senior’s Hall
426-3844 426-2655

Saturday April 16th
The Kinnette Club of Cranbrook presents
An Evening of Elegance
Prestige Rocky Mountain Resort
250-919-2667

Saturday April 16th
Final Locals Coffee House
Studio Stage Door 7:30pm
Tickets $7 at Lotus Books and Swing Street Coffee House

Monday April 18th
Exhibition, Key City Theatre
Kathleen Turnbull
Meet the artist at 5:00pm

Monday April 18th
United Way AGM
Heritage Inn
6:00pm

Tuesday April 19th
Circus Terrifico
Key City Theatre 7:30pm

Thursday April 21st
Paul Tukey
7:00pm
COR
A Chemical Reaction
Pesticide Free Lawn Care

Who Knew?! There is a Hard Copy of the Growth Management Strategy in our Public Library

We know from our statistics that many people exit this blog on the link to the Growth Management Study but little did we know there was a copy for people to read in the Public Library.  We are truly sorry if we missed any public notification of this but we are now asking readers to please let any friends or relatives know that if they do not have access to a computer, a copy is available in the reference section of the library. Ref. no. 307.3.   By the pristine condition of this copy it doesn't appear to have left the shelf much since last October when it was accessioned.  Reading the hard copy of this report is much easier than scrolling through the web version.  The maps alone make for a much clearer understanding. 
There is also a copy available at the front counter of City Hall.

It's good to know there are alternatives for reading this report which has many implications for the growth and development of Cranbrook.

Dr. Greg Halseth at College of the Rockies

Barb O'Neil introduces Dr. Greg Halseth

‘Rebundling our assets,’ was one topic that Dr. Halseth talked about in his lecture on The New Rural Economies last evening at the College of the Rockies. A good crowd of people concerned and interested in exploring different ways to secure a local economy came out to hear Dr. Halseth. His lecture presented an overview of British Columbia’s economy from a historical perspective and also looked into the increasing speed of change, how it might affect the future and what to do about it.

The ideas presented in this lecture certainly mesh well with the goals of Cranbrook Connected. Dr. Halseth talked about how important it is to know what a community considers its assets to be and also to know its place in the world. It is also important to know what the aspirations of a community are. Knowing and rebundling these assets in creative ways to compete gives one avenue to pursue when stabilizing a local economy and aiming for those aspirations.

Dr. Greg Halseth

Another major theme of this lecture was the need for a strong foundation within a community, i.e. infrastructure. Current taxation systems and development cost charges are not enough to support current infrastructure needs. Dr. Halseth went on to say how municipal tax structure must change. Cranbrook is certainly not unique in this problem, which is consoling in some ways but leaves us with the question of how must this happen and when, if our infrastructure is to be brought up to standard.

More information from the Community Development Institute can be found at :
http://www.unbc.ca/cdi/toolkit.html

Cranbrook and District Chamber of Commerce Publish Their President’s Report in Wednesday's, April 6 Townsman.

Mr. Sean Campbell writes, “At last City Council meeting Councillor Davis commented on the vitriolic and personal attacks that our municipal leaders occasionally receive by mail”. This is a disturbing statement that requires substantiation. It is rather sad to see community leaders feeling and fearing some form of persecution. The supporting information Mr. Campbell provides is an angry rant by ‘Anachore’ sent to the Townsman website. Unfortunately, by reprinting it Mr. Campbell provides more attention and press than this comment and its’ author deserves.

Mr. Campbell is misinformed when he states that CLCS made an assumption two letters, (from CLCS and Jenny Humphrey) published on this blog, were the target of Councilor Davis’ disapproving comments.  Mr. Davis’s comments were indeed directed at these two letters plus two others (from Gene McDonald and the Arts Council) in response to the Five Year Financial Plan.  Mr. Davis quoted from them, at the council meeting. Further, we confirmed that fact with Mr. Davis right after the meeting although he was unable to show us the specific disrespectful comments he felt were directed at him or Council.

We appreciate that Mr. Campbell stated that the letters he reviewed were well written and respectful. It is important to read all public correspondence before making statements based on a single web comment or on hearsay. All council correspondence is included in council packages and is available through the City. We have read all four letters providing comment on the city’s five-year financial plan and all are respectful.

We certainly agree with Mr. Campbell in his concern over comments such as the one he quotes and agree our community would be a much less pleasant place to be without the support and volunteerism from the business community. Let us also remember volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds and all walks of life and they all need to be valued and respected for the work they do to make Cranbrook a better place to live.

Around Town and Looking Good

Many adults and children took a tour around our beautiful, light and spacious new firehall on Saturday. History books, safety equipment, informative displays, fire engines and even Santa's Sleigh all made for a very interesting and enjoyable visit - as did all the congenial tour guides!

Cranbrook's new Firehall had its' Open House on Saturday April 9th

Kitchen, lounge and extra technical/dispatch room

Scattered throughtout the building are many quotes suggested by the firefighters.

Pius Fink, Cranbrook's first Fire Chief 1908.

Many photos of Cranbrook's fire department personel are displayed in the entrance.

Wayne Price, Cranbrook's current Fire Chief (with his own unofficial firedog? 'Manny')

Spring is trying - very trying