VALLEYINBRIEF

Correction

No date has been set for the 2018 annual general meeting of the Protect Penticton Parks Society. Incorrect information appeared in a letter titled, “What does park protection mean?” which ran in Tuesday’s edition.The Herald regrets the error. The society says it will communicate the AGM date to members once it’s set.

Keremeos cancels evacuation alerts

Owners of 869 properties in the Keremeos area could breathe a bit easier Wednesday, as the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen cancelled evacuation alerts that had been in place since July 31 due to the Snowy Mountain fire.

An evacuation order for the Cathedral Lakes Lodge related to the Cool Creek fire was also rescinded, but converted to an alert, joining 83 other properties under caution due to that incident.

Thanks to more precise mapping made possible by improved visibility from the air, the estimated size of the Cool Creek fire was reduced Tuesday from 17,000 to 14,400 hectares, according to the BC Wildfire Service.

However, the blaze, which originated about 20 kilometres northeast of Eastgate in Manning Park, is still considered out of control, as is the Old Tom Creek fire near Olalla, which held steady at 1,000 hectares.

The Snowy Mountain fire, near Keremeos, is classified as being held, but it grew in size by 13,400 hectares to 17,0000 as of Tuesday, the BC Wildfire Service said, after it consumed more land on its north flank and merged with a separate fire along the Canada-U.S. border.

Over budget tender may be negotiated

Summerland council has agreed to cancel the tender process for the first two phases of trail construction for the Giant’s Head Mountain redevelopment project.

On Monday, council also authorized staff to negotiate the cost of the contract with Cabin Forestry Services Ltd. in order to agree on an amount that falls within the project’s budget.

Cabin Forestry submitted the only bid, which was $300,000 — equal to 48 per cent of project’s entire construction budget of $627,000.

It’s becoming more frequent that local governments are receiving tenders significantly over budget, chief administrative officer Linda Tynan said.

After reviewing the submitted tender pricing sheet and comparing each item line-by-line with the estimated budget, Bench Site Design determined “there may be some options to negotiate aspects of the work,” recreation manager Lori Mullin told council.

Bench Site Design prepared both the detailed design and the tender documents for the project.

“Staff will also reach out to the Summerland Rotary Club who are partners in this project to see if they are able to contribute additional funding for the project,” Mullin said.

The construction project is targeted to begin in September 2018 and be completed by the end of March 2019.