• B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) completed its preliminary design for the proposed Quesnel North-South Interconnector, which would allow traffic on Highway 97 to flow around the city’s downtown core.
The proposed interconnector would see a new four-lane highway turn off Front Street between Gordon Avenue and River Park Road and re-connect to Highway 97 on the east side of the Quesnel River. The project would include rebuilding the Quesnel River Bridge and the Quesnel Rail Crossing north of the existing structures, and may require the acquisition of several North Quesnel properties, according to the ministry’s North-South Interconnector Question and Answer document.
• Members of Lhtako Dené First Nation held a grand opening for the new George Longe Memorial Park.
Helping cut a red ribbon that was tied to the large wooden archway with five bears created by carver Dean Ross of Pioneer Log Homes was Connelly Longe, who proudly held Longe’s young granddaughter Alayna. George Longe’s death in 2018 devastated the tight-knit community.
• A touch football game in support of the Quesnel Youth Centre took place on Saturday, Aug. 15. The event included a raffle for Carey Price and Eric Lindros signed jerseys and raised more than $4,000 to help the centre reopen.• The Quesnel School District prepared for students and teachers returning to classrooms.
Superintendent Sue-Ellen Miller said the district will need to submit their return-to-school plan for provincial approval on Aug. 21. Miller said the plan is for students to be put into cohorts. Elementary school students will be in groups of 60, and older students will be organized in groups of 120.
• Quesnel and District 4-H members were rewarded for their hard work during their annual auction at Alex Fraser Park on Sunday, Aug. 23.
Nearly $80,000 was spent on steer, rabbits and swine raised by 4-H members. Local 4-H leader Cody Dillabough said the auction changed because of COVID-19, with a lot of the collaboration online.
• Local artists Lee-Anne Chisholm and Aaron Harder began compiling a mural with more than 100 tiles painted by local residents, which will act as the leaves of a tree.
Chisholm and Harder have started the backdrop, a stylized landscape of Quesnel’s riverwalk. The Quesnel Art Gallery sold 128 hexagons to community members, who took them home to paint them for what will become the Community Spirit Mural.
• After detailed assessments of the landslide on Quesnel-Hydraulic Road, which has been washed out since April, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure reversed its plans to open a single-lane roadway through the slide area.
The news came as a blow to residents south of the slide — mainly ranchers who need to get cattle to sale in the next few weeks. The community has been rallying for the road to be fixed since heavy rain and freshet washed it out this spring.
The detour route — via French Road to Highway 97 at Kersley — is unfeasible for the 53-foot cattle liners needed to transport the animals.
READ MORE: MOTI reverses plans to re-open Quesnel-Hydraulic Road