Category: Social Activism


A source with the Merritt Community Cinema Society says that there is a similar organization in Nelson organizing at this time to have a community theater society for first run movies and live theater. However the source says that they  have also gained charitable status as well. The local effort remains a non-profit but imply that Charitable status is desirable.

The difference between the two organizations is tax receipts for donations, as a non-profit, the tax advantage is limited to business donations that can use it as an expense for promotion of their business.

The project is aimed at being a stable source of funding for the local arts council and is touted at a price tag of 5 million dollars. The project has raised enough money to acquire land and has not yet gotten a design in place.

http://merrittmovietheatre.com/

Today in history: April 10th 1970

Paul MacCartney leaves the Beatles for personal reasons.

Get ready for earth day

Flowers over

April 22  will be here quicker then you think. The international observance  of the earth and its systems will be even more relevant this year as a movement toward global environmental engineering seems to be being whispered.

If all you do on that day is take hold of some  recyclable material and get into the system you will be doing a lot if collectively we all do it.

http://www.earthday.ca/

Today in history: March 31 1889

The Eiffel tower is officially opened.

Country run

The 5th annual Merritt Country Run is on Sunday June 8th 2014 starting a Voght Park, on Canford avenue. The sunday event is billed as  having certified Routes , Walk or run, for individuals, or teams. You can register online at  http://www.merrittcountryrun.ca

Events run from 5km,10km,and a half marathon.

Follow the run at twitter@merrittrun or mcrun@facebook.com

 

Today in History: March 28th 1959

The communist government of China declares the government of Tibet as being no more.

Today there is a job fair or career promotion and awareness event at the Shacken Indian Band Hall, all day.  The featured speaker is Aliyah Rodiminkski from Okanogan college.

Other representations come from Thompson Rivers College, First West Kelowna College, the British Columbia Aboriginal Mine Training association and NVIT.

Billed as ” Programs that can take you to the top”

FMI: Debra Manuel 250-378-5410

Today in History: March 18th 37

The Roman Senate nulls Tiberius’s will and makes Caligula emperor.

TGIF- long read

The public library hosted a read athon on September 26th as a part of Freedom to read week. In one time block 4 young men and women from local media read pieces that they choose as controversial. Workers From Q101 radio. The Merritt Herald editor the Shaw Cable programmer e by a community member, Carmen Fairley, billed as a media consumer.
There were presentations from a local author of Squawker a children’s book about having a pet crow . Squawker was locally produced and published.
Numbers of community members including Tracy Dunsmore from the CPO, Mayor Susan Roline, and classes from the high school maintained a continuous out load reading vigil from opening at 10 AM till closing at 8 PM.
Freedom to read week ends March 3rd.

Today in history: February 28th 1991

The first gulf war ends

TGIF-theater

The Merritt Community Theater Society, has a published business proposal  that they informally discussed this week at some meetings in the Merritt Civic Center. Interested people included economic development consultants from Kamloops and Mayor and council members.

Rich Hodgson a contact for the group said the group is looking for 5 million dollars to complete the project and have raised enough to buy the property in the Rail yard mall downtown Merritt.

The group said that they will be free from property taxes for five years as would anyone else doing new construction in the downtown. This is an economic development strategy of the city of Merritt.

Today in history: February 21, 1925

The New Yorker publishes its first issue

Tailing ponds

 

The February 20th speaker at the Nicola Naturalists is Richard Doucette. Richard is a official of Tech/ Highland Valley Copper and his presentation is “reclamation of a Tailing pond”

The Nicola naturalists have their presentations in the Lecture Theater at the local Community college NVIT on Belshaw avenue Merritt. They are member and invitee driven but they post ” everyone welcome membership or donation requested.”

Their website is  Http://www.nicolanaturalists.ca/  they are a member of the BC naturalists.

Today in History: February 13th 1931

New Delhi becomes the capital of India

The me in Dementia

British Columbia has about 4 and a half million people and as of August last year fully one million of them were are on Canadian Pension plan. With an  overall death rate on par with the  Arab Emirates and less than half the national rate. BC enjoys over 20 percent of the population in some kind of retirement, capacity and memory can become a real issue especially when life engagement wains.

Succesful people have developed social skills over a life time that include an out going   sence of  giving to the community in a productive way and receiving back.

Diminishment seriously undermines  people’s ability to keep up  and sometimes makes engagement a struggle.

The Alzheimer’s Society of British Columbia is hosting a workshop  The me in Dementia at the Coast Canadian Inn Kamloops, March 28th 2014. ( 9 am to 4PM).Ph: 1 855-742-4803. Twenty dollars admission includes lunch.

Catch Phase: Increasing understanding along the Dementia Journey

Editors note:  We would like to acknowledge the efforts of  Gregory and  Colby Griffiths who as preteens have raised  monies in the  5 digit range for research into the disease by bottle drives. They also had the courage to lend their young voice to the in an interview last year on CFJC news in Kamloops.

Today in history: January 23 2002

A Reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Pakistan and later murdered.

The time to be heard at the public process for the Kinder Morgan  twinning project application is fast approaching. opening on Wednesday the 14th and ending on February 12th you must apply to the National Energy board to make a submission.

Here is the contact info according to Trans Mountain Pipeline; Kinder Morgans subsidiary and active agent in this application.

Grass seeding at a construction site in Merritt Photo KDG

Grass seeding at a construction site in Merritt
File: Photo KDG

Trans Mountain notes an error in the email notification that was sent to you this afternoon on behalf of the National Energy Board.

The correct email address for the National Energy Board’s Process Advisor, Reny Chakkalakal is transmountainpipeline.hearing@neb-one.gc.ca.


The National Energy Board (NEB) has issued an Application to Participate Notification about the hearing process for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project.

Those who wish to take part in the NEB hearing must apply to participate. The application to take part is on the NEB’s website at:

www.neb-one.gc.ca select Major Applications and Projects, then Trans Mountain Pipeline ULC – Trans Mountain Expansion.

Applications to participate in the NEB Hearing are due on or before noon on 12 February 2014.

If you need more information, the NEB has appointed Ms. Reny Chakkalakal as Process Advisor to give assistance.

Ms. Reny Chakkalakal Process Advisor, NEB E-mail: transmountainpipeline.hearing@neb-one.gc.ca  Telephone (toll free): 1-800-899-1265

The notice is also posted on the Trans Mountain website. You can read the full notice here.
Sincerely, The Trans Mountain Expansion Project Team

Today in history: January 17th 1946, 2007

The UN security council holds its first meeting.

The doomsday clock goes to 5 minutes to midnight in response to North Korean nuclear testing.

Mary Sandy is the presenter at the January 16th meeting of the Nicola  Naturalists. The First Nations people have a unique world view on the environment. Mary’s work has a focus on wildlife and ecosystems. She is an anthropologist with the Esh-km-am Cultural Resources Service. The service is based in the Nicola Valley and is used for gathering information on ecosystem.

The presentation begins a 7PM at the NVIT lecture theater. Free parking no food or drinks in the theater,admission by membership or donation requested all welcome.

Today in history: January 15th 1759

The British Museum opens.

Mary Sandy’s presentation was conditioned by a brief outlining of the first nations world view on environment and ecology. In a nut shell she defined western culture as seeing resources as  something to be possessed. She asserted that First Nations ideal is ” who do we share this with.” She contented that their view was holistic.

Sandy said her drive comes, believe it or not from Walt Disney’s methods of film making . She thinks that robust knowledge comes from tradition  and legends are based in some substance. Her father, she explains was born in 1903 and her grand mother  in 1886, her great grand mother whom she knew was born in 1861. They also were connected to two  living generations giving a legend of tradition that was even longer. Some legends based in stories: ie Coyote stole his long tail from rabbit.

Her discourse then went to the archeology of the local area and its climate and vegetation changes over 4 periods going back to pre glacier, 10.000 years bp ( before present.).

Mary is a member of the Coldwater Indian Band in Merritt BC Canada.

Twinning of the pipeline from Edmonton

The city of Merritt has the line that Kinder Morgan operates through its subsidiary Trans Mountain Pipeline running by here to Burnaby. If fact it goes right by the airstrip, Saunders Field. The pumping station at Kingsvale required an employee to be here at one time. There is no local contact now however there is pride in the general sence to have had them and for the 60 years they have operated without major problems in the valley  bringing energy to the lower mainland.

The  news letter they posted recently out lines their application and its vastness we hope that people are not deterred by its complexity and will look at it because now is the time they will have voice. To have that voice they need points to communicate concerns that are valid, we hope that people other then press , lawyers or professionals will be able to take the non jargon documents and voice there concerns: Below is their announcement.

The company proposes to build  a pipeline in segments that complete a twinning (or “looping”) of the pipeline in Alberta and BC with about987 km of new buried pipeline.New and modified facilities, including pump stations and tanks.Three new berths at the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, BC, each capable of handling Aframax class vessels.

This morning, Trans Mountain Pipelines filed a Facilities Application with the National Energy Board (NEB) for the proposed Trans Mountain Expansion Project. This application filing follows over a year and a half of engagement with pipeline and marinecommunities, a detailed environmental and socio-economic assessment, route assessments, and other various marine and terrestrial risk analyses and studies. This filing is a significant milestone in the development of this project and another step in the on-going engagement we will be having within your community.

When printed, the Application is over 15,000 pages and up to two metres high when stacked end on end. Please visit our Application website at http://application.transmountain.com.

The NEB will hold its own public engagement process, including a hearing on the Application before it makes a decision on the proposed Project. The hearing will allow people or groups who have been granted permission to participate by the NEB a chance to raise issues, present evidence, test evidence, and provide their input. Information on how to participate in this process can be found here: http://www.neb-one.gc.ca/clf-nsi/rthnb/pblcprtcptn/pblchrng/pblchrng-eng.html

We invite you to visit our website to see how we have addressed community interests along the pipeline and marine corridors. Over the coming months we will be approaching stakeholders to consult on specific elements within the application. We will also be returning to communities where we have visited before in our previous engagements to discuss the application and proposals contained within.

From the Trans Mountain Expansion Project, we wish you the best this holiday season and look forward to continuing our dialogue with you and your community in 2014.

Sincerely,
The Trans Mountain Expansion Project Team

Editors note: we respect all views that are brought in good faith. To carry out that we suggest that you look at the informationin in the application.   In our view we support the application as  we think our local environment would benefit by the effect of a twin pipeline with new pumping stations and technology being so close to the existing line by increasing scrutiny and attention, we think that the use of double hulled ships will be safer then reliance on forgien flags in international waters supplying the demand of  the oil market.

Today in history: December 18th 218

Second Punic war Hannibal defeats the Romans at the battle of Trebia

A hundred years of volunteering

Pursue the Passion Book

Pursue the Passion Book (Photo credit: pursuethepassion)

A hundred years  of volunteering in the Nicola valley! The Local health care auxiliary has a hundred years of volunteering in the area of Merritt. The society operated the local thrift shop nad has links to most non profit charitable groups in the city. It is calling for volunteers in recognition of its hundred years of service and the good work it has done.

Merritt has a hospital and a large government extended care facility as well as two significant private assisted living facilities. The local community college, NVIT has a care aid certificate program.

Editors note: The group is ideological driven and volunteering may be a step up to a career in Health care. The 100 years of service represents more then half the time  of European contact in the Nicola Valley.

They can be contacted at facebook.com/nvhca of nvhcaux@hotmail.com

Today in history: December 17th 1969

Project blue book the United States closes its books on the study of UFO’s