Here are the top stories of the week.
Rockets’ Nolan Foote captures gold with Canada at World Junior Championships
Kelowna Rockets captain Nolan Foote was greeted by the entire team when he arrived at the Kelowna International Airport late Monday night.
On Jan. 5, Foote captured a gold medal with Canada at the World Junior Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic, after defeating the Russians in an epic nail-biter 4-3.
“It’s incredible. It feels really good,” Foote said upon his arrival at YLW.
“You grow up watching the World Juniors as a kid and you dream of it, so it’s definitely an amazing feeling.”
Rockets’ Nolan Foote captures gold with Canada at World Junior Championships https://t.co/XKyVaBRhyE
— Kelowna Capital News (@KelownaCapNews) January 5, 2020
Kelowna’s only video store, Leo’s Videos, is back in business
Kelowna’s only video store, Leo’s Videos, will not be closing after all.
The popular video store was in the midst of a blowout sale when Bartel was made an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“We made the deal at 11 p.m. last night and now we have new owners,” said Bartel.
“We had over 30 people who were interested in the store over the past six months. I’m very happy we managed to make this deal happen.”
Former Kelowna cop accused of threatening domestic violence victim with sexual assault
Another woman is suing former Kelowna Mountie Brian Mathew Burkett or sexual harassment following a 2016 complaint of domestic violence.
He left the RCMP in August 2017 after a woman filed a claim that he’d demanded nude photos from her. He is also criminally accused of seven counts of breach of trust for incidents alleged to have occurred between October 2015 and August 2016.
According to court documents, the woman, who wishes to stay anonymous, claims Burkett responded to her home after a neighbour reported a domestic assault in May 2016. She claims he took note of her address and her cell and work phone numbers. The woman was under the impression this was standard procedure.
Burkett then allegedly texted her inappropriate pictures of himself and told her he expected “certain sexual favours.”
Kelowna’s most expensive home assessed at $10.5 million
Kelowna is still home to the highest-priced single residential property in the Okanagan, according to B.C. Assessment.
Once again a waterfront home on Hobson Road in the south Mission area of Kelowna came in as the most expensive residential property in the region with an assessed value of just over $10.5 million.
The 9,761-square-foot, one-storey, four-bedroom house at 4358 Hobson was built in 1974 and sits on 1.764 acres.
VIDEO: Kelowna animal rescue team headed to fire-ravaged Australia to help wildlife
Brad Pattison and his team are headed to Australia where wildfires are devastating the country and have killed an estimated 1 billion animals.
His team members come from Kelowna, Calgary, and as far out as Kitchener, Ont. Pattison himself has done rescue work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, in 2010 after the earthquake in Haiti and last year during B.C.’s wildfire season.
“The type of situation we’re stepping into is very, very big. The scope of it is too much to comprehend at times,” Pattison said.
“What my team is expecting is the ugliest part of how nature does things. As we’ve seen from footage, there’s a lot of sadness and devastation. There are many souls that have been lost and one of the reasons we want to go is we want to help these souls that are alive to stay alive.”
Kelowna animal rescue expert Brad Pattison and his team will be travelling to Australia to help with wildlife rescue efforts. https://t.co/MWk49iesYC
— Kelowna Capital News (@KelownaCapNews) January 9, 2020
Snowmobiler lucky to be alive after accident near Big White
A snowmobiler is lucky to be alive after suffering serious injuries in the backcountry near Big White.
On Tuesday, Jan. 7, a single snowmobiler joined another group of snowmobilers out on a trail.
While the group was riding, the snowmobiler who joined the group hit a tree, sustaining serious injuries and cracking his helmet. The other riders sent a call for help with an emergency locator beacon.
At approximately 10 p.m., the individual was transported on a utility vehicle to a forestry service road near Big White where an ambulance was waiting for him.
Kelowna community group urges the city to do more in the fight climate change
A Kelowna neighbourhood association is asking the city to take action and mitigate the effects of climate change on the community.
In a letter addressed to the mayor and city council, the Kelowna South-Central Association of Neighbourhoods (KSAN) urged council to “adopt and support actions to counter climate change effects, which can extend locally, across the valley, the province and the nation.”