Most evacuees have disability
Dismay, disbelief and anger are among the prevailing emotions being experienced by people evacuated from a downtown Kelowna residential building that’s been deemed unsafe.
Residents of the six-storey Hadgraft Wilson Place have been told they’ll be out of their homes for at least a week. They’re allowed to take only a few of their possessions as they’re relocated.
“I can’t believe what’s happening. I just don’t like this at all,” resident Dale Ramsden said Monday morning outside the building at 1360 Bertram St.
Most but not all of the evacuees are people with cognitive disabilities. The 68-suite building, which opened just last year, is owned and managed by the Pathways Abilities Society.
“Some people have been crying pretty much straight since we found out we have to be evacuated,” Ramsden said. “Most of us, we’re handicapped. It makes things hard,” Ramsden said.
“We all have to be out of the building by 6 p.m. on Tuesday,” he said. “It’s a whole mess. I’m sad, I’m mad, but there’s nothing we can do. We just have to hope for the best.”
Ramsden and other residents interviewed outside the building gave startling accounts of the damage that has occurred inside the building, believed to be related to excavation work next door at the massive UBCO downtown campus construction site.
“There are cracks going up from the windowsills to the ceiling, and across the ceiling. The walls are splitting on the sides, the flooring looks like it’s separating,” said a resident who asked that her name not be published.
“Some of the doors through the stairwells aren’t closing correctly. Down in the parkade, you can see that the cement is lifting, and there’s big corners sticking upwards,” she said. “There are a lot of noises. Last night was very uneasy to sleep because you feel, whether it’s happening or not, that the building is actively shifting.”
Cracks, that appear to have been marked and numbered, are also visible on the building’s exterior foundation.
All of these problems with the building have developed in just the past two weeks, residents said. They were told at a hastily-called meeting on Easter Sunday that they’d have to evacuate to the Prestige Beach House motel on Abbott Street while the situation was further investigated.
Although residents have been told they’ll be displaced for at least a week, some fully expected they’ll be out of their homes for much longer given the extent of the damage.
“How could they possibly fix everything that’s wrong in just a few days? And if they did, what’s to stop it from happening again?” said one man, who also asked not to have his name published for fear it would complicate his efforts to obtain new housing.
B.C.’s hockey landscape has shifted again with the Merritt Centennials announcing this past weekend the club will play next season in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League.
The playoff-bound Centennials finished sixth in the B.C. Hockey League’s Interior Conference with a record of 22-26-5-1 and face the No. 3 Salmon Arm Silverbacks in Round 1 beginning this coming weekend.
Merritt will become the 21st KIJHL franchise and slot into the spot in the Bill Ohlhausen Division that was left vacant when the Summerland Steam announced in March they’re relocating to Williams Lake.
The Centennials, who just completed their 51st consecutive season, have also switched from community ownership to a new group led by local businessmen Brad Anstey and Daniel Schofield.
“Our ownership group is excited to keep the Merritt Centennials hockey in the community with its most dedicated fans, sponsors, alumni and volunteers,” said Anstey in a press release.
“We guarantee our commitment to grow the Centennials brand while building a competitive team with the best of sporting cultures. We are proud to become a member of a league that provides development opportunities for local and provincial players to continue to pursue their hockey goals and dreams.
We thank the City of Merritt and the KIJHL for this opportunity.”
Merritt has four natural rivals within a 90-minute drive of its 1,000-seat Nicola Valley Memorial Arena: the Kamloops Storm, Princeton Posse, Kelowna Chiefs and Chase Heat.
The KIJHL’s classification was bumped up from junior B to junior A, tier two, for the start of the 2023-24 season after the B.C. Hockey League split from Hockey Canada.
Merritt is the first team to leave the newly reformed BCHL, which added five clubs in Alberta midway through this regular season.