INSIDE: READ ALL ABOUT IT AS KTW CELEBRATES ITS 25TH ANNIVERSARY!
DE K A M L O O P S
Kamloops, B.C., Canada X 30 cents at Newsstands
TUESDAY
Tuesday, June 25, 2013 X Volume 26 No. 50
THIS WEEK
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Man accused of strangling his pet cat By Tim Petruk STAFF REPORTER tim@kamloopsthisweek.com
THE HONEY AND THE BEE Two-year-old (almost three) Luella Harder shows she is very much at home in the garden as she takes an up-close look at a busy bee at work in the newly opened Carmel Public Produce Garden. The free garden (go ahead — pick some food!) is a combined effort of many groups within the city and has been relocated to Tranquille Road and Elm Street from its former home on Victoria Street in downtown Kamloops. Dave Eagles/KTW
Here’s your chance to help decide councillors’ wages what its deadlines would be. Instead, they left that up to city staff, who have created a timeline that would have the committee reporting back by October. The city will begin recruiting committee members on Wednesday, June 26, according to the report, with an application deadline of July 12. Meetings will run through the summer and early fall. The goal is to have a recommendation on council pay ready by Sept. 30. According to the report, the committee will not only look at council salaries, but also members’ benefits, monthly allowances and a yearly adjustment scale. It will also look at how council pay should be re-examined in the future.
By Andrea Klassen STAFF REPORTER andrea@kamloopsthisweek.com
Want to have a say in what councillors should be paid? Get your applications ready. According to a report prepared for today’s (June 25) Kamloops city council meeting, the city will start this week to take applications for a citizen committee on council pay When councillors opted to give themselves a raise of slightly more than $1,000 earlier this month, they also agreed to set up a committee to study their pay further. At the suggestion of Coun. Donovan Cavers, councillors didn’t get involved in deciding how the committee would look or
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The committee will have five members, all of whom must reside within city limits. “Representation shall include a diverse spectrum of age, economic status, work experience and activity in different sectors of the community,” according to the report. To apply, interested parties must submit resumes detailing their qualifications and experience, as well as cover letters explaining why they would like to sit on the committee. Kamloops has not always followed the advice of its task forces. The last time a committee reviewed council’s salary, in 2002, councillors balked at what would have been a substantial raise and voted instead to take yearly cost-of-living increases based on the consumer price index.
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A Kamloops man is facing criminal charges after his cat was killed in a manner described by one investigator as “horrific.” Steven Seidel, 27, is facing one count of causing unnecessary pain and suffering to an animal and two counts of causing an animal to continue to be in distress. BCSPCA Const. Kent Kokoska said a tip from the public led investigators to a North Kamloops apartment building on March 14. The body of a cat, named Oreo, was found in a dumpster behind the building. Kokoska said Seidel, who lives in the building, was the cat’s owner — which makes the case unique. “Clearly, when you have a family pet that meets its demise at the hands of its caretaker, its last minutes knowing fear, that would be a horrific way to die,” he said. “Incidents, all ranges of neglect and abuse, these things happen. But, to die literally at the hands of your caregiver — it is very rare.” Investigators allege Seidel strangled the cat to death. If convicted, he faces up to two years in jail and $75,000 in fines, as well as a lifetime ban on owning animals. “In either case, we would be hoping the judiciary would be looking at a lifetime ban and counselling,” Kokoska said. Marcie Moriarty, chief prevention and enforcement officer for the BCSPCA, agreed with Kokoska. “It is so disturbing to think that an innocent animal would have suffered and died under such horrifying and unnecessary circumstances,” she said. “We hope the courts will take this case very seriously and that justice will be served for this poor animal.” Charges against Seidel were sworn earlier this month. A date has not yet been set for his first court appearance.
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