January 2016

The City of Kelowna has big plans for Rutland, an older community east of downtown, specifically Dougall Road where it hopes to create a "Rutland Town Centre."

It might all begin with a car wash, a new development which recently passed before council in January. The plan for the proposed car wash facility was approved. The plan for the car wash is to have six self-serve bays and one drive-through bay. It will connect with the existing Centex station on Dougall Road and Highway 33 in Rutland. A single-family home currently sits on the property and will be demolished.

A spokesman for the City of Kelowna, Terry Barton, has stated that he believes this future car wash is the first foray into a series of plans to redevelop the street in the

If you have an old wood burning stove in your home, like the old pot-bellied stoves you see in the movies, the provincial government and the B.C. Lung Association are encouraging you to get rid of it.

In fact, there’s a $250 rebate for those qualified purchasers who trade in their old clunker in favour of a brand new, cleaner-burning appliance that’s EPA and CSA-certified, while funds last.

The Regional District of Central Okanagan is hoping to improve air quality in Kelowna and area with a wood stove exchange program.  Participating retailers will take your old stove and recycle it, providing you with the paperwork required to apply for rebates when you purchase an electric, wood-pellet or gas-burning heating product.

The program has

The Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board (OMREB) has released figures from December 2015 and records continue to be set as the region's real estate market booms.

Year-over-year, December sales were up 6.7% with 444 residential units moving off the market, with a year-end total of 7,988 units sold in all areas of the Okanagan. This is 6.2% more than 2014 totals.

The previous record for most units sold in one year was in 2007 when 8,702 transactions occurred in the region.

OMREB president said in an association press release that the housing market in B.C.'s Okanagan region has experienced considerable momentum which he believes will carry through to 2016 with a very strong market in the first half of the year.

Christopher Miller remains