Paper shredding

Now you can make sure your personal documents are disposed of safely while also helping improve community safety.

All through the month of March, The UPS Store in Penticton is accepting unwanted paper documents that it will shred in exchange for donations to South Okanagan Similkameen Crime Stoppers.

Since 1992, anonymous tipsters in the region have helped recover millions of dollars’ worth of stolen property and drugs.

But administering the program and paying rewards comes at a cost, and SOS Crime Stoppers receives no government funding. Normally, it builds its budget with fundraisers like dinners and auctions, but COVID-19 has presented other opportunities – like paper shredding.

“It is a win-win for everyone, in that you safely and securely get rid of your unwanted documents and at the same time help to keep your community safe by helping to fund South Okanagan Similkameen Crime Stoppers’ initiatives and programs,” the group said in a press release.

The UPS Store is located in the strip mall at 437 Winnipeg Street, near Subway.

With the news cycle we’ve been having in Penticton, today seems like the perfect day for an All-Good-News edition. Keeping with the theme of today’s special edition, I offer these pleasant observations.

• Mayor/council in Penticton appear to be at a stalemate with Solicitor General David Eby, the minister responsible for housing. The individual who, I believe, should step in and help negotiate some kind of compromise: Penticton MLA Dan Ashton.

• I’m sorry that Interior Health is pulling the plug on funding for Pathway Addiction Centre. By all accounts, they do a phenomenal job.

• Good luck and best wishes to Johnny Aantjes, who has sold Penticton Speedway. I know 2020 was a tough year for him with all the COVID regulations and constant uncertainty. I always admired his passion for his racetrack as well as his sense of community spirit through the Speedway Foundation.

• To date, it has generated zero letters to the editor, but the long-range facilities study by the Okanagan Skaha School District is significant. The public will have a chance for input in the near future. What’s positive about this study — the first of its kind in a decade — is we’re hearing words such as “transparency” and “public input.” That’s a positive start.

• All the best to Allan Carter and Catherine Buffie on their retirement. The couple has operated Your Dollar Store With More in Summerland for almost a decade. They survived with the big corporate giant, Dollarama, literally in the same plaza. I credit this to great service, knowing the names of their customers and giving back to the community through donations and generous discounts to good causes.

• The best weekly newspaper in the valley, in my opinion, is the Times Chronicle in Oliver and Osoyoos. Good writing, decent photography, accurate reporting and a sharp layout. People of the South Okanagan, you are fortunate to have such a strong paper for a relatively small community.

• Fans of “Super Quiz,” the popular puzzle has been moved to classifieds. Check it out today on Page B7.

DEAR EDITOR:

Kudos to Penticton council for listening to the taxpayers of the town. The townspeople didn’t want the development on Naramata Road and council listened.

Next, the taxpayers asked council why Penticton seems to be the favoured site for so many supportive housing and shelter projects and asked them to look into it. Council listened.

Our neighbouring community of Summerland, of which l am very familiar with, seems to be having difficulty with listening to its taxpayers. All councils make difficult choices and decisions but when do personal agendas override accountability?

Expensive decisions such as the solar project and wind farms should be put to a referendum first.

Coun. Richard Barkwill, through his investigations, found there was a $700,000 miscalculation which the consulting firm acknowledged.

So why is council unwilling to reconsider their decision?

Steve Goldie

Penticton