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Weekly roundup: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on the move to Kelowna?, House break-in upsetting to Glenmore family, Three tower development proposed

A recap of last week
Daniel Taylor
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Here are the top stories for the week.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on the move… to Kelowna?

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have made it clear they’re on the move.

Mayor Colin Basran said Kelowna should receive some serious consideration from Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan for their upcoming move.

“If they’re so intent on becoming financially independent, surely the best place in British Columbia to start a small business is right here in Kelowna,” said Basran, citing a Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses report that called Kelowna the top entrepreneurial city in Canada of 2018.

“And that’s on top of all of the great lifestyle opportunities that would await them here.”

Cold wintry conditions create chaos across Central Okanagan

Early in the week of Jan. 13, temperatures plummeted as a cold-weather system swept into the region and meteorologists expect the cold temperatures to stick around until Friday.

To show just how quickly conditions changed, Environment Canada’s Doug Lundquist said temperatures dropped to -19 C from around 1 C in less than 24 hours on Jan. 12.

Wind gusts of 70 km/h also didn’t help, making the temperature feel like -28 C earlier in the week.

Urgent and primary care centre officially opens in Kelowna

B.C. minister of health Adrian Dix and others officially opened a new Kelowna Urgent and Primary Care Centre (UPCC) on Jan. 9 at 1141 Harvey Ave, where a Bank of Montreal branch used to be located.

“The Kelowna UPCC will help connect more people in Central Okanagan communities with the health care they need,” said Dix.

“Thousands of area residents who currently lack a primary-care provider will benefit from increased access to same-day appointments for urgent needs.”

Kelowna family recovering after traumatic break-in, theft in Glenmore

A Kelowna family is trying their best to recover after their home and safety was violated during a break-in in their Glenmore neighbourhood.

On Jan. 8, Ben Gorodetsky awoke to the “guttural and emotional screams” of his wife coming from the room of their young toddler.

Gorodetsky said his wife was putting their child back to bed at around 4:30 a.m. when she saw a hand reach into the room to try and turn the light on, however the hand didn’t belong to her husband.

“I was awoken (by the screams) and thought that something must have happened to our kid,” said Gorodetsky.

“I ran down the hall asking ‘what happened’ but whoever was there had fled. There was initial relief but a few minutes later we realized that stuff was gone.”

Three-tower development proposed for Kelowna’s Leon Avenue

Leon Avenue’s long-anticipated redevelopment could become reality in the form of three sky-high towers proposed by a Vancouver company.

Venue Kings Ticket Brokers submitted its development proposal to the City of Kelowna last Thursday, revealing its plans to construct two towers at the intersection of Water Street and Leon Avenue and another across from Kelowna’s Gospel Mission.

Kelowna to implement CCTV registry to help RCMP access video surveillance

The RCMP will soon have access to more security cameras in downtown Kelowna, thanks to a new pilot-project to register privately owned CCTV cameras in a database.

The City of Kelowna, Downtown Kelowna Association (DKA) and the RCMP have partnered to launch a program that will register the location of CCTV cameras at businesses in the area, providing police with quicker access to potential sources of video evidence.

Not enough shelters for the homeless as temperatures drop

Kelowna’s Gospel Mission is always busy, but executive director Randy Benson said they’ve seen an increase in people coming in the last few days because of the cold snap.

“Our capacity in our shelter is 76 beds and we’ve been running at capacity especially in this cold weather,” Benson said.

“On top of that, we’ve had a few people drop in at night that need to warm up and we try to accommodate them as well.”