You are presumed to be honest and responsible without evidence to the contrary beyond a reasonable doubt… on the balance of probablilties you are justified by 51 % likelyhood.
The old court house on Nicola avenue , in Merritt. File Photo Photo KDG
The local community college NVIT is have in an Aboriginal Community Engagement evening at the auditorium at he school on March 1st.
The Chief Judge of the provincial Court of BC will be there. Thomas J. Crabtree was appointed toi the court in February of 1999 becoming its chief in April of 2010.
His honour participates in the Provincial Court Journalism Students Education Program.
The event is at lunch hour free parking.
On this Day: February 24th 2011
The last launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery (OV103).
Where are they now! The city had this store front for feral cats some years ago this time of year would be hard on these creatures . An activist group later stared a sanctuary for feral animals on a piece of property in an unincorporated area west of Merritt. They called the the place Angels. Angel’s Animal Rescue – Merritt, BC. They have a Facebook page:
The price of gasoline is down again in Merritt BC to 92.9 cents per liter at the down town Petro Canada, corner of Nicola and Voght.
A check on Gas Buddy shows that it is a full 5 cents a liter less money here then 5 BC outlets are selling gas for. The BC average is 96.9 a liter national is 10 cents a liter less and prices are trending down.
The City of Merritt has just received delivery on two replacement 21 passenger Chevrolet buses, they are replacing two diesel units and are gasoline. Reasonably there can be no connection to this with gas price however we don’t have a gasoline levi for transit in the City such as Vancouver’s.
A referendum over transit tax was defeated in the lower mainland last year. That tax would have been a increase to the Provincial Sales tax like US cities Seattle and Los Angeles.
Merritt is part of the provincial transit system.
British Columbia Transportation Financing Authority (BCTFA)
The dedicated tax for the British Columbia Transportation Financing Authority on clear gasoline and clear diesel fuel sold anywhere in the province is 6.75¢ per liter.
Trans Link:Vancouver area.
The dedicated tax on clear gasoline and clear diesel fuel sold inside the South Coast British Columbia transportation service region (SCTA) is 17¢ per litre.
Frank Trenholm installs new license plates to new buses delivered to Merritt, Feb 3/ 16
Victoria Area:
The dedicated tax on clear gasoline and clear diesel fuel sold inside the Victoria regional transit service area (VRTA) is 3.5¢ per liter.
Total BC taxes including 7 (6.5) cent carbon tax is 21.17 cents for us here in Merritt. Most expensive is Vancouver @ 31.17 a liter.
The carbon tax element is supposed to be a neutral tax and is used to reduce personal and corporate income tax:
The tax puts a price on carbon to:
Encourage individuals, businesses, industry and others to use less fossil fuel and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions;
send a consistent price signal;
ensure those who produce emissions pay for them; and
make clean energy alternatives more attractive.
There is also federal excise tax of 10 cents and a 5 percent GST, there are no taxes dedicated to transit or road maintenance or construction on alternate energies. This in our view can make carbon tax regressive.
Tax on diesel fuel is slightly higher for BC but federal taxes are less then half that of gasoline.
Merritt’s total minimum tax on gasoline is 32.73 cents a liter,Vancouver is 44.28 cents. As taxes move toward 50 percent of the pump price it raises the specter and possibility of regulation and world market Alberta oil less attractive.
KDG.
On this day February 5th 1958
A hydrogen device is lost by the US Air force off the coast of Georgia never to be recovered.
Urban living: this marmot takes advantage of a concrete pad for shelter. Photo KDG
Groundhog Day (Canadian French: Jour de la Marmotte; Pennsylvania German: Grundsaudaag, Murmeltiertag) is a traditional holiday celebrated on February 2. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, then spring will come early; if it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will persist for six more weeks.[1]
Modern customs of the holiday involve celebrations where early morning festivals are held to watch the groundhog emerging from its burrow.
Source Wikipedia
Be up early: There is a story going round that the Ground Hog ran off with the pardoned Thanksgiving Turkey to South America: heard in a murmur as departing:” Dam climate activists. ”
On this Day: February 2nd 1988
Auntie Anne’s restaurant chain is established.
There are some higher power poles being installed on Voght street in Merritt this week. The poles have a three tiered vertical stake system for power lines like the one installed north of town to the highland Valley substation. they end at the Merritt substation underground hub in front of the Court House and at the corner near the Rotary park entrance to the south.
There is a mark out for more poles going through the area of Central Park, ( just got a lacrosse court) and a gated community and on through the golf course and over to the Merritt Green Energy wood waste generator.
An apprentice using a plum bob on a pole says that the remaining 61 KV line west of Merritt is still in place and is to remain. There is unconfirmed talk of another Hydro IPP in the future out that direction.
The 61 KV line was removed from Voght street and was the line to the highland valley before the Green energy project.
The poles on are being steel cased 16 feet in the ground with crushed backfill.
The has town green energy project with 14 people working to complete the 40 kilo watt wood waste burner.
The casing are about the style and diameter used on pipelines. A source says there is an advantage of being able to remove a pole with a jet pump truck.
On this day: January 29th 1900
The American baseball league is formed with 8 teams.
Budget discussions are coming up for Merritt. Policing ,is a number one cost and results matter.
The City has in the past taken retreats for discussions. There is a drop in session at the city with the Mayor on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month they are advertised for times in the city page of the local Newspaper The Merritt Herald.
Mayor Neil Menard says he’s available for inputs…
Old technology is heavy ! A nighttime attempted heist ended with the goods abandoned on the sidewalk. Coldwater Hotel, Merritt. File Photo KDG
Old technology is heavy !
A night time heist ended with the goods abandoned on the sidewalk.
Coldwater Hotel, Merritt.
File Photo KDG
On this Day: January 26th 1911
Glenn Curtiss has the first successful flight of a seaplane.
The Nicola Naturalists are having their January presentation meeting on the 21st of the month. Frank Ritcey of Wild Safe BC will talk about safety about wildlife and in particular bears.
Frank Ritcey is the Provincial Coordinator for WildSafeBC, based in Kamloops. Run by the BC Conservation Foundation this program focuses on how we can minimize our impact on the wildlife we observe and keep ourselves safe at the same time. Frank was raised in the wilds of Wells Gray Park by his pioneering mother, Clara Ritcey, and Park Biologist father Ralph Ritcey. Frank’s love of nature has been with him his whole life and he still spends much time filming and studying nature. Frank often contributes to CBC’s popular North by Northwest show.
The meeting starts at 7PM and is open to the public (membership or donation requested) , no food or drinks allowed in the NVIT lecture theater, however there is free parking. NVIT is a local community college founded in part by Grand Chief Gordon Antoine ( deceased) , Gordon was a member of the Coldwater Indian Band and promoted education for his people, he is survived by his wife Janice a principal of the Coldwater Indian Band K -12 school.
The Nicola Naturalists use the lecture theater at NVIT as a non profit and provide a bursary to natural resource students as a matter of consideration for its use.
A Quilt hangs in City Hall in Merritt by Local Andrea Rogers.
Photo KDG
The Local Arts Council is presenting a local.s show in January, at the Old Court House Gallery,Nicola avenue Merritt BC. Kim Le Clair is a publisher of a local one sheet newsletter as well as holding a job at Merritt Printing. If shes not eclectic see is industrious. Here is a view of her abilities and the DAT of the presentation from the gallery director.
January’s artist is Kim LeClair. Her show: A World of Influence- A Worldview of Quilts From a Small Town will begin on January 15-30 with a reception on January 15 from 5pm to 7pm and the public is invited.
Also…
There is a show within a show as Kim shares her textiles as, “A World of Fabrics Comes to Merritt.
This promises to be a fantastic show and very different than what we have had in the past. Kim is a wonderful artist who has chosen textiles as her main medium. I hope you’ll all come to see this show.
The Court house Gallery is a 1840 Nicola Avenue and is open Thursdays through Saturday Noon to 6PM. Kim’s show precurses the Community Art Show in February. According to Kathy Delquist Gray the February show is open to all that would enter and pay a 5 dollar entry fee for the first item entered.
Editors note: Three entries to the Community show seems reasonable to us.
On this Day: January 6th 1540
Henry the VIII th marries Anne of Cleves.
A high pressure system bringing calm and cool weather to the Nicola Valley is producing snow the persists here. For the first time in decades we will have snow that builds and needs removal. The city worked at night to plow snow into the center of streets to truck it out of the core of the city.
Snow removal can be a burden to local government budgets, especially in places like Moscow. We have escaped this to a good degree for years as warming fronts usually followed snow falls.
The two week forecast sees below freezing highs giving more then a month of snow pack.
The new year will bring a need for new calendars unless you completely rely on phones or computers here is a brief survey of calendar availability in small town Merritt BC.:
Hub Insurance broker’s were all gone in November same for Royal Le page Reality.
Royal Bank, and CIBC available, picked up one from each on the 29th of January.
The local Shriner s sell a cash calendar as a fund raiser with prizes. The first being $1000.00 on January first, the Coldwater Hotel has one displayed already.
A source says that The Dollar Store has calendar’s for something over a dollar.
The Old Court House on Nicola Avenue , in Merritt. File Photo: KDG
The love to dance studio is offering line dancing on Tuesday nights at 6:30 PM. This small rural communities population is suited to Line Dancing because of its cowboy culture.
Line Dancing has only been offered for Community Rec 12 classes at the local high school as far as we can recall. The desert in had a group of line dancing children at the height of the Merritt Mountain Music Festival. We attended a Hearts and Stroke Society Convention in Kamloops some decades ago and we had instruction and practice in sessions at the convention. We took our new skills out on the town and tried them at a local NC in the evening. Kudos to the business located at the Old Courthouse Gallery, 2000 block Nicola Avenue in Merritt.
A line dance is a choreographed dance with a repeated sequence of steps in which a group of people dance in one or more lines or rows without regard for the gender of the individuals, all facing either each other or in the same direction, and executing the steps at the same time. Unlike in circle dancing, line dancers are not in physical contact with each other. source Wikipedia
Kevin Griffiths
percypaschal
The Proprietor Review 