Barkerville Opens on May 14th

CELEBRATE "ON THE CREEK" THIS SUMMER

The opening of Barkerville Historic Town is always an exciting time in the Wells, Barkerville, Bowron Lakes area. Not only does it represent the start of the tourist season, but it also offers a number of ancillary benefits, including fresh baked goodies, amazing local entertainment, excellent food, enhanced shopping possibilities, and of course the return of all of the charismatic and multi-talented Barkerville employees.

Along with all of the annual special events, returning merchants, and ongoing street activities, Barkerville has a couple of new offerings for the upcoming season.

Chief amongst the new activities is an archealogical dig that will take place throughout the spring and summer. This dig, led by an archaeologist from Simon Fraser University, is open to the public, and will give visitors to the park an idea of the rich history beneath their feet.

There have been a few changes amongst the park's many contractors, with a new operator running the Wake-up-Jake Restaurant and a new contractor running the three Provincial campgrounds near Barkerville Historic Town (Lowhee, Government Hill and Forest Rose).

The new contractor running the Wake-up-Jake will be implementing a brand-new menu, and the campsite contractor will have all three campgrounds open all summer, with Forest Rose Campground now a "horse-friendly" campground, with paddock rental available.

Last, but not least, the Theatre Royal will be offering a great selection of new shows this year. For an overview of their spring and summer schedule visit their website.

For up-to-date information on Barkerville Historic Town, including interactive tours, a full events list, and a synopsis of daily activities, visit the www.barkerville.ca website.

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No Tax Increase for 2007 & Other Good News

APRIL 17, 2007 COUNCIL MEETING HIGHLIGHTS

The District of Wells Council Meeting on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 was full of good news for Wells residents.

At the meeting, the District of Wells Council officially adopted a 2007 budget that calls for no increase in municipal taxes.

According to Gary Champagne, Chief Administrative Officer of the District of Wells, this budget balances the needs of the growing community of Wells, with the operational requirement of the District of Wells.

"There will be no increase in municipal taxes for 2007," said Champagne. "And, even with no increase, the level of services provided by the District of Wells will remain unaffected."

Other items of interest at the April 17, 2007 Council Meeting included the awarding of the District of Wells Grants-in-Aid for 2007, and the unveiling of the entries for the Name the Lanes Contest..

A total of $6,000.00 in cash grants were approved by Council for non-profit organizations in Wells and area.

A breakdown of the Grants-in-Aid rewards are as follows:

Wells Barkerville Cemetery Trust - $250.00
Wells Historical Society - $1,500.00
Island Mountain Arts - $1,250.00
Wells & Area Trails Society - $1,000.00
Wells Barkerville School - $250.00
Wells Recreation Society - $1,000.00
Wells Best Seniors - $500.00
Wells Barkerville School PAC - $250.00

The meeting also provided Council with the opportunity to review the entries for the Unnamed Lanes Contest. In all 15 people provided a varied and eclectic list of suggestions for the five unnamed lanes.

Because of the large number of suggestions, it was decided that Council would review all of the entries over the coming weeks, and pick the winners at the May 1, 2007 meeting. For a full list of the entries click here. For the original contest poster with the locations of the lanes click here.

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Wells Celebrates Earth Day

COMMUNITY GARDEN BLESSING

What better way to celebrate Earth Day then to hold a garden blessing for the new Wells Community Garden.

At least that's what a group of Wells residence thought, and so, on the afternoon of Sunday, April 22, approximately 20 people got together to welcome this new community endeavour.

The blessing, which was led by Rose Danby, provided individuals with the opportunity to give a gift to the garden (i.e. a feather, or nice rock, or a rake, or anything else suitable), along with a piece of "earth lovin' poetry or quote."

There were a number of inspiring pieces read, and the assorted crowd had a variety of gifts for the garden, both of the useful variety (garden tools) and the inspirational variety (garden plaque).

At the end of the blessing, Megan Topham, from the Wells Community Garden Committee cut a ceremonial ribbon to mark the beginning of the gardening season.

The Wells Community Garden Committee will be having a work party to get started on the garden at 11:00 AM on Saturday, May 5. All are invited.

For more information contact Megan Topham at (250) 994-6809.

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Movie Footage Filmed in Wells

SNOW BUDDIES SCENES FILMED

Although it wasn't quite the huge production that was rumoured, the community of Wells will be featured in an upcoming motion picture... kinda.

On Sunday, April 22 a small film crew from the Disney production Snow Buddies made their way up to the community. They spent two full days filming in and around the Wells, Barkerville area, collecting footage of the beautiful early spring (late winter?) scenery.

The footage will be used for background/cutaway shots for the film, and the area will be representing the fictional Alaskan town of Ferntiuktuk.

It was originally thought that the entire Snow Buddies production would be coming to the community, after they ran into problems due to a spate of warm weather while filming in the Vancouver area.

However, according to the Delta Optimist News, the production instead moved their location to Ladner, where they turned a portion of the village into a winter wonderland, complete with fake snow.

Snow Buddies follows the Alaskan adventures of characters from a film called Air Buddies, which was a sequel to Air Bud, a movie about a basketball playing dog. The movie, which is expected to be released sometime in 2008, has had a controversial production after two of the puppies involved in the filming fell ill and had to be put down, prompting calls of a boycott from a number of groups, including PETA.

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