Local country singer releases single in time for Valentine’s Day

A local country-music singer released his latest single on Valentine’s Day.

Ben Klick co-wrote Fishin’ Off The Moon, with Nashville songwriter Steve Dean.

“I was inspired by the Dreamworks character who sits on the moon before every fairy-tale”, said Klick in a news release.

“He watches everyone’s story and has seen love work out. I wanted to have a conversation with him to see if he could give me any advice to help with my love story.”

Klick said he was also inspired by B.C. jazz singer Michael Buble to create a new sound called “Crooner Country” fusing country music with hints of jazz, big band, and gospel.

Klick has used his time during the pandemic to record an album that will come out in June.

Snowpack levels in the Okanagan were 111% of normal in January, latest measurements indicate. That was down from 132% of normal in January. The snow depth at upper elevations decreased in the last month due to “relatively cool and very dry conditions” across much of the province, the B.C. River Forecast Centre says in its most recent bulletin.

But a number of winter storms at mountain elevations in the past week should restore the snowpack to deeper-than-usual conditions, the centre says.

The long-range weather forecast from Environment Canada is for near-normal temperatures across Southern B.C. from February through April, the centre notes.

The reclamation of once-derelict farmlands south of downtown Westbank is testament to the success of West Kelowna’s agricultural plan, city councillors heard Tuesday.

Five of six large agricultural properties around the end of Brown Road are either being actively farmed or soon will be, city planner Brent Magnan said.

That contrasts to the situation that existed in 2016 when there was almost no farming in the area and there was pressure from developers to open the barren lands for housing construction, Magnan said.

“As a whole, the area in generally is a real success story from an agricultural perspective because if you fast-forward to 2021we now have five of those six parcels under development for new agricultural uses, whether they’ve been planted with grapes or otherwise, or they actually have a cidery or a winery on them now,” he said.

Magnan made his comments after council heard some residents of Brown Road are upset that public access to a new winery, called the Crown and Thieves, is now going to be off that street rather than Harding Road, a cul-de-sac further south that overlooks Gellatly Bay.

Some Brown Roaders are bothered about the extra traffic the winery, made to look as if it’s a 400-year-old ruin, will bring to their street, council heard.

“I do understand the concern from the residents in the area but this definitely does meet the plan as to where we had hoped things would go when we did this agriculture plan back in 2016,” Magnan said.

A key part of the plan was the city signalling clearly it would not support residential development on the vacant properties along Brown Road.

That reduced pricing pressures on the properties, Magnan said.

“There had been a significant amount of speculation on those agricultural lands and interest in developing them, to extend the multi-family and residential components down into those areas,” he said.

Coun. Doug Findlater said it was a good-news story, with productive agricultural use again being made of farmlands and new wineries such as Crown and Thieves, which he called a “stellar facility.”