By Keith Powell
Cranbrook: Memorial Arena Reopens
The City of Cranbrook held a community celebration and grand reopening for the Memorial Arena on Saturday, April 27, 2024.
The City held the formal event to recognize the contributions of more than twenty dedicated contractors and commercial businesses that supported the massive effort to save the Memorial Arena and have it reopened for the public and for users.
The repairs made to the Memorial Arena were budgeted at $3-million and included a generous $500,000 contribution from the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK). Cranbrook’s New Dawn Construction was the general contractor on the project.
Sparwood: New Pita Pit to Open
As part of the Canco Petroleum outlet in Sparwood, a new Pita Pit quick service restaurant is slated to open. The finishing touches are being put to the project which sits adjacent to the recently opened McDonald’s restaurant in Sparwood’s rapidly developing Middletown Place area.
Pita Pits motto is “Fresh thinking, healthy eating.”
Pita Pit first opened in Kingston, Ontario in 1995. There are more than 450 Pita Pit stores in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.
Cranbrook: Automated garbage collection slated for city
Preparation for the start of the new automated garbage collection program in Cranbrook is to begin the first week of May with the delivery of the garbage collection carts to residents throughout the city.
Between May 9 and May 24, 2024, the City’s contractor will be delivering one 240 litre wheeled cart for garbage to each residential household, along with an information guide. Each cart is tagged and has its own serial number that is connected to each household. It is important that garbage carts stay with the designated household, and residents that move do not take any garbage or recycling collection carts with them.
The City is scheduled to officially begin residential automated garbage collection services on Monday, June 3, 2024.
Kootenays: Three companies receive funding to bolster manufacturing
A cash infusion of $1.2 million from the Province of BC will support local manufacturing in the Kootenays. As a result of the B.C. Manufacturing Jobs Fund (BCMJF), the Province of BC is investing over $1 million in three projects with the intention to grow local businesses and create new jobs throughout the Kootenays.
1) Kimberley: Stoke Juice will receive as much as $618,000 to construct a manufacturing facility that will enable them to double production, access new markets, offer cold storage and transportation.
2) Invermere: Kicking Horse Coffee Co. will receive as much as $330,000 to purchase new equipment that will increase production, efficiency and the automation of their manufacturing.
3) Harrop: The Harrop-Procter Community Cooperative will receive some $215,000 to upgrade the mill by replacing equipment to improve efficiency and adapt to smaller diameter logs.