For defeating a three-term incumbent to become Nelson's first female mayor, the Starhas named Deb Kozak its 2014 Newsmaker of the Year. As she was sworn in last month, Kozak said it was "no small thing to be the first woman elected mayor in 117 years" and that she "felt the weight of the chain of office" on her shoulders - similar to what Annie Garland Foster must have felt when she became the first woman elected to city council in 1920. [continues 498 words]
Stunning. Impressive. Historic. Those are just a few adjectives to describe Deb Kozak's upset win Saturday in knocking off three-time incumbent Nelson mayor John Dooley. I was among those guessing Dooley would be unstoppable, given a lack of polarizing issues in the campaign. The mayoral race was instead about "leadership style." While some on council were clearly dissatisfied with Dooley at the helm, I never got the same sense from the community at large. Early on, I speculated Pat Severyn's candidacy would benefit Kozak by drawing away votes that would otherwise go to Dooley, but as the campaign progressed I began to think the opposite would be true, as Severyn and Kozak seemed to be singing from the same song sheet. [continues 1399 words]
A website devoted to marijuana tourism claims pot is "virtually legal" in Nelson, although its editor admits the page is "pretty outdated" and the city's police chief disagrees with most of it. Creston RCMP Staff Sgt. Bob Gollan recently referred to webehigh.org in a quarterly report to town council. He said they find pot in just about every vehicle they stop and noted the website rated Creston at 4.5 and Nelson at five on a scale where one is "very illegal" and five is "virtually legal." [continues 700 words]
Woman Gets $500 After Police Search Although he rejected most of her arguments, a judge has ordered the City of Nelson to pay a woman $500 in damages over a police search conducted almost five years ago. Charity Mason sued the city, Cst. Drew Turner, and then-chief Dan Maluta after the pick-up truck she and partner Vaughn Blais were in was pulled over on the south end of the orange bridge on the morning of June 26, 2009 for a possible traffic violation. [continues 565 words]
Chances appear slim Health Canada has notified the Regional District of Central Kootenay of five potential applicants for new medicinal marijuana licenses, including two in the lower Slocan Valley, one on the Arrow Lakes, and one in rural Kaslo. As of April 1, Canadians licensed to use medical pot will no longer be allowed to grow their own supply. Small-scale producers are expected to be replaced with large commercial operations. "The chances of us having a legal grow-up in the RDCK are pretty slim, because the government appears to be favouring large corporations," rural Kaslo director Andy Shadrack said last week. [continues 270 words]
The Regional District of Central Kootenay has rejected a rezoning application from a North Shore couple for a proposed commercial medical marijuana operation. The board took its lead this morning from area director Ron Mickel in denying the request to change the property's classification from residential to agricultural. "The potential for impact on residences was too high," Mickel said after the meeting. "The applicant felt very strongly that there wouldn't be, but to go from a residential zone to an agricultural zone with basically an industrial development that close to a fairly heavily populated area, I don't think was right." [continues 229 words]
A rural Nelson regional district director says he hasn't made up his mind about a zoning application for a commercial medical marijuana operation. A North Shore couple has applied to rezone their 40-acre residential property as agricultural, which would let them grow medicinal pot and employ up to ten people. They were previously denied a variance application. Although they don't yet have a license, they're hoping to be among the first to receive one under new federal regulations that took effect last week. [continues 536 words]
Growing medical marijuana is fine, the Regional District of Central Kootenay says, so long as it's on agricultural land. The board passed a resolution Thursday confirming medical pot operations are allowed in areas zoned agricultural or that fall within the agricultural land reserve. But while chair John Kettle called it "a harmless, generic motion," it still resulted in some discussion about whether the board should make any decisions before new federal regulations are fully enacted. Those rules are expected to restrict legal marijuana grow-ops to industrial and agricultural areas and eliminate small-scale producers in favour of commercial-size operations with greater security. [continues 356 words]
Could municipalities and regional districts get into the medicinal marijuana growing business? There's nothing to stop them, the MP for Kootenay-Columbia told the Regional District of Central Kootenay board Thursday. David Wilks made a presentation on new rules to be phased in over the next year, which will see mom-and-pop medical grow operations replaced with larger operations with greater security. Rural Castlegar director Andy Davidoff asked if any consideration has been given to local government getting involved. He suggested greenhouses could be built on landfill sites, powered by methane gas. [continues 852 words]
A North Shore couple hoping to receive one of the first licenses to produce medical marijuana under new federal regulations has run into a bureaucratic roadblock. The Regional District of Central Kootenay last week denied a variance application to let the couple expand two outbuildings on their property to a combined 4,435 square feet (412 square meters) - more than four times the maximum size allowed for a home-based business in a residential area - and increase the number of permitted employees from two to four. [continues 801 words]
Nelson City Council Debates Marijuana While Washington state voters approved decriminalizing marijuana this year, the idea of supporting a similar initiative in BC unleashed the greatest furor around the Nelson city council table in recent memory. In June, councillor Donna Macdonald introduced a motion asking the mayor to join eight of his counterparts in backing Stop the Violence BC - a coalition of academics, law enforcement officials, and others hoping to "starve organized crime of the profits they reap as a result of [marijuana] prohibition." [continues 429 words]
"Except as authorized under the regulations, no person shall possess =C2=85 cannabis, its preparations, derivatives and similar synthetic preparations, including =C2=85 cannabis (marihuana)." - Controlled Drugs and Substances Act More than twice as many marijuana possession charges have been laid in Nelson in recent years compared to a decade ago. The Vancouver Sun reported last week on the rise in charges for simple possession province-wide: 88 per cent between 2002 and 2011, far in excess of the population increase over the same period. [continues 713 words]
Local RCMP seized more than 10,000 kilograms of marijuana over the summer from outdoor grow-ops, a haul the regional commander calls "significant." "I have absolutely no doubt the majority of this marijuana is distributed and exported by the hands of organized criminal groups to other markets in Canada and the United States," Insp. Nick Romanchuk said in a release. "While we certainly haven't eliminated the marijuana industry, the effect of removing in excess of 40 million cigarettes from the illicit market will have a significant impact on the safety of our communities." [continues 258 words]
