Category: Social Activism


The new pellet plant idled by technical problems shows up on the property tax assessment rolls at about 3.1 million dollars in actual value. The value contributes to an over all real property value of about 900 million dollars in the small city of Merritt with its population of about 8000 people.

The company that owns it is said to have another in Ontario and are in difficulty at this time with some legal contentions. The plant was to employ about 50 people and did employ and produce a product . The product is said to have had an unsuitable moisture content for burning. A marketing  of the product for animal beds was tried and then an additional dryer purchases and on the property uninstalled.

The plant contributes to the tax base and in the opinion of citizens needs to be used. A belief  exists that it was a good way of dealing with bug killed timber that has started to be a problem in regular sawmills due to dryness.

Today in history: July 31,1970

Black tot day, the British Navy ends rum rations as a official act.

BC Day

The long weekend is the weekend after next and it is called BC Day.the holiday is one of 9 legal or statutory holidays. To be paid and average days pay for the holiday you have had to been employed with the employer for 30 days and worked 15 of the last 30 days.

If you work on the stat holiday you be paid 1 and a half times the rate for all hours worked up to 12  then you must be paid double time for hours worked over 12.

The BC Day holiday is one of the long weekends that occurs in 8 months of the calendar year and  boxing day is not a legal holiday  in December.

Today in history, July 24 1967

The visiting French National President makes his Viva Quebec Libre statement to 100,000 people.

Library to go

The regional district library offers a library to go service of free e books and audiobook downloads.

This applies to computers PC or Mac, tablets eg I Pad, mobile phones, E readers but not kindle..

The books  borrowed automatically expires with the due date of 7, 14, or 21 days

To try the service go to “Library to Go” and browse or search the e catalogue. after noting which formats your particular device supports.

downloads.bclibrary.ca

Today in history: July 17  1948

The South Korean constitution is proclaimed.

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Country run

There are signs about town with a success banner draped over them. the signs once bore registration info  for the Merritt Country Run that was held on Sunday. Three hundred 25 runners participated in the event that ranged from  around the park to 5 K, 10 k, and a half marathon of 21 K.

Although the event stressed participation the first in , a fellow 7 feet tall and named Hans  said that he qualified  over 20 times for the Boston Marathon. This was in response to the question ” Did you know that you placed ahead of a Boston Marathon qualifier ” ;John Peachey 4rth in in the half Marathon said he qualified in Victoria for the Boston but never made the trip to the east coast.

The last three in were all women pushing baby carriages. We didn”t ask how far they had entered to run.

Today in history June 12,1939

The Baseball hall of fame opens in Coopers Town USA

100 dollar prize

The organizers of the river festival on June 8th are offering a hundred dollars for the best costume at their June 8th event. Today the art for the festival is due. The Baillie House,Merritt BC is receiving 5 x 7 small paintings on the topic of rivers.

Bev Veale an oft principal in the Valley Visual Artists turned in a half-dozen entries this AM promising to make the day a cultural delight.

No you can”t put maschera on your right eye and come as a sockeye.

Today in History,June 6th,1946

The National Basketball League is established with 11 teams

Rivers Day, water festival

June 8th there is a rivers day celebration at Rotary park. 100

 Dollars for the best dress up , fish water , environment. music and photo/ painting contest.

Displays and PR come as you are if not a fish.

Today in History, May 10, 1924

J Edgar Hoover is made the director of the FBI and stays on till 1972 and his death.

Merritt Country Run

Sunday June 10th,2012 There is a run to raise money for the disadvantaged in minor sport ext.

5 km run walk/ run (9:00 am)

10km walk/ run (9:00am)

21 km run/walk (8:00am)

The event is at Voght Park.

Minor hockey in Merritt has traditionally used the concession at  the arena for funds to keep fees down for better access to minor hockey. 

www.merrittcountyrun.ca

Today in History, May 8, 1912

Paramount Pictures is  founded.

Curb to curb

The water and sewer upgrade on 1st avenue is now being paved over. Curb to curb asphalt is being rolled out today and that is an improvement over the street when it was tore up last year.

The City of Merritt has the Civic Center a facility that has a main auditorium that can accommodate about 500 people. As well there are ancillary meeting rooms are available at varying rates the best rates are reserved for non profits tha ideal with youth issues. The highest rate is for commercial activity. It is a popular venue for an annual home show. The show takes up the facility and is well attended by business here and from other communities. The local arts counsel makes good use of it and has at least 4 quality programs a year. For the benefit of all but in particular an amenity for those that have chosen Merritt for retirement .

The Civic Center is also now enjoying curb to curb pavement on the vacating street to the west of  the building.

Today in history, April 12. 1955

The polio vaccine developed by Dr.Salk is declared safe and effective.

SharkWater

A film presented by a young couple last evening  at the lecture theater, NVIT , Merritt Campus ,admission a 4 dollar donation.

Marie Josee (MJ) Arsenault did a preamble to a film that had excellent photography and direction. Beautiful coral reefs and ocean flora and fauna gave a pleasant context to present a pressing issue to the Eco-Odyssey Foundation.

The view of the film maker, a Rob Stewart, was that sharks a great and no threat to people.

The film is far from propaganda as there are diverging views presented however you still get the sence of public relations and a bias. The bias is based in the concern for the de-fining of sharks and may be legitimate. The big plus is the awareness of the environment and the volume of the world population in people who demand protein and social capital from the ecosystem and the limits on hunter gather systems ability to  provide.

The film has some gore as the removal of fins and landing of hooked sharks is presented.

Paul Watson and his international effort to interfere with non complies in international waters was a surprise  in the film. His confrontational style is uncomfortable, maybe by design.

Paul Watson  a Canadian was one of Time Magazines heroes of of the environment of the 20th century. He also championed Timber wolf’s in British Columbia.

The presenters have a web site: www.eco-odyssey.com

 Editors Note:

Our view is that predators like sharks are part of the eco-system and keep us safe from disease by consuming the weak and sick in the ocean similar to all top predators. The film  presents a view and statistics that humans are safe from them and there are only 5 deaths a year and most from bleeding. we think that that is not accurate and that another dynamic exists in open ocean especially when debris and rough water is prevalent. Sharks in large numbers eat anything, in that context. Historically in at least one instance the crew of the USS Indianapolis torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on its return from delivering the Atomic bomb to the Enola Gay experienced huge losses to sharks over a time  in the water.

Here is an eyewitness account by a survivor from the Indianapolis,Woody James:

The day wore on and the sharks were around, hundreds of them. You’d hear guys scream, especially late in the afternoon. Seemed like the sharks were the worst late in the afternoon than they were during the day. Then they fed at night too. Everything would be quiet and then you’d hear somebody scream and you knew a shark had got him.
USS Indianapolis org website.
This may be an abnormal and may add to the hysteria over sharks. However a lot of the fatalities and shark attacks come from places that also rely on tourism and there may be a problem for reporting.It does seem that time in the water is a factor for feeding.The website Missing at Sea reports 64 people with unknown status missing from cruIse ships now and dating from 1995 to 2009.
There are 440 species of sharks and the Tiger Shark is said to eat anything.
Shark killings or harvesting estimates are 100 million a year. There are many myths and misconceptions about sharks. However they like other predators are keen to blood  scent and can be attracted to chumming and made more aggressive.
In the macro sence they seem as less of a threat then lightning however people should educate themselves in how to avoid being in trouble around them and what the specific risks are. We can safely assume that the low amount of documented deaths is not the whole story.
The film Sharkwater was released in 2007; eco-odyssey has Merritt mailing address at this time. There are at least 4 Shark sanctuaries in the world at this time including The Bahamas.
Want to do something for sharks.
Eco-odyssey
PO Box 2019
Merritt,BC Canada
V1K-1B8
 
 

Today in history, March 29th,1882

The Knights of Columbus are established.

Book burning

Its freedom to read week and the library had a book burning. Placing about 50 odd books on a table that someone had asked to be withdrawn or taken out of some system some where. The display had fire wood on it and if a library patron had not taken one of the items to the counter and asked that it be spared it would have been burned this coming Monday, after freedom to read week was past. The last book saved from the fires happened late morning today. The book was redeemed from the fire by a middle aged First Nations patron who happened to be along with a radio (Q101 FM ) official.

The last book saved was a book by Timothy Findley that dealt with an incident when Army officers raped a fellow officer in the First World War.Titled The Wars, someone had asked that it be withdrawn because it promoted homo sexuality. In some contexts it could be difficult to ask that it be saved from a burning. The jacket cover includes flames of fire.

An member of the RCMP, had asked to have a copy of a book recently removed, as reported by a local paper.

 The Temptress a book close to  and dealing with Women On Top remained on the shelf and was not placed on the table to be saved.

Editors note: The local police are seen as using resentment to extricate information from people; its incredulus that they didn’t know about freedom to read week coming up so soon. We trust that the public library remains a place of intellectual freedom and not constrained by the suspicions of the police.

 Today in History , March 1 1912

The first parachute jump from a moving airplane is accomplished  by Albert Perry