Surprise visit to Oliver by Premier Christy Clark. The premier bringing with her a cheque in the amount of $525 thousand to help with the cost of repairs on the Gallagher Lake syphon damaged by a rock fall in January.

Mayor Ron Hovanes says the Town had budgeted $475 thousand dollars so there is a million dollars now committed to a long term solution to the present problem and to the future security of the water supply in the South Okanagan.

Premier Clark touched on the importance of water to the 30 million dollar a year agriculture business and mentioned as well K & C Silvaculture the largest producer of seedlings in Western North American.

Clark credited MLA Linda Larson for the hard work in getting the emergency grant. The premier came, she said because Linda could not – telling her audience that Linda was with her husband Larry at Vancouver General Hospital where he is undergoing important surgery today.

Pictured Clark, Hovanes an Councillor Yvonne Weinert, standing in for OIB Chief Clarence Louie.

The Town is now ready to make temporary repairs to the syphon by inserting a sleeve through the damaged portion of the concrete pipe which will allow water to flow April 1st. A more permanent solution will be found by engineers by the fall at which time crews will fix the water course in a more permanent manner.