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Tough weekend for Blazers, Broncos Page A15
TUESDAY
Tuesday, September 24, 2013 X Volume 26 No. 76
THIS WEEK
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Pot public hearing tonight
A suspicious fire at the rear of the New Life Mission Thrift Store on Seymour Street on Monday, Sept. 23, has caused extensive damage. Andrea Klassen/KTW
Fire latest crisis to hit New Life Mission By Dale Bass STAFF REPORTER dale@kamloopsthisweek.com
The New Life Mission Thrift Store will be closed for an undetermined length of time after a fire behind the building caused extensive damage. Terry Butcher, the mission’s programs manager, said forensic investigators have been at the building at 342 Seymour St. in downtown Kamloops since the fire was reported at 5 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 23, and, while they have not confirmed anything, he said “it looks like arson.” Butcher said a mattress and some chairs had been placed against the rear door and ignited,
with flames spreading into the building and leading to extensive smoke and water damage. “There’s an inch of water on the main floor,” Butcher said. “The whole back of the building is gone.” Butcher said there was extensive smoke damage to the administration offices above the store. Insurance adjusters have been called in to assist but, he said, much of the inventory is destroyed and the rest will have to be assessed to determine if it can be salvaged. Traffic was detoured on Monday morning and a building next to the store evacuated. Seymour Street was re-opened later on Monday, but the alley was expected to be
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closed for a longer period of time. It’s the second crisis to hit the mission in recent weeks. Most recently, the mission was forced to shut down its women’s residential treatment program and put the building up for sale in an attempt to get its finances shored up. “You know, every time we start to get ahead, something happens,” Butcher said. “But, there’s not much more we can do. Forward is the only way to go.” Kamloops RCMP Cpl. Cheryl Bush said it is too early in the investigation to determine if the fire may be linked to a string of arsons in the downtown core on Sept. 10, after which a 31-year-old woman was arrested.
It’s a public hearing nearly a year in the making. Tonight (Sept. 24), Kamloops city council will decide whether to adopt new regulations around medical marijuana grow-ops that would restrict them to city industrial lands. The changes were first proposed last fall, but the city spent much of the year waiting for the federal government to make its own major changes to the way it runs Canada’s medicalmarijuana program. When the city first looked at changing its bylaw, Health Canada was issuing medicalmarijuana growing licences to individual users, which led many people to grow at home. Now, the government is moving to a series of big, commercial grows, from where pot will be mailed to registered users. Under the city’s new regulations, grow-ops must also be at least 150 metres from residential areas, day cares, schools, parks and other locales “catering to individuals under the age of 18.” Tonight’s public hearing begins at 7 p.m. at Kamloops City Hall, 7 Victoria St. W.
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