The long-standing Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival is hitting a high note before musicians even get the chance to tune up their instruments on stage.

Local community associations and employers met with the provincial government to discuss skilled labour and human-resource planning.

Thirty years after they were paddled through Vancouver’s False Creek as part of Expo 86, nine Chinese teak dragon boats will be restored by four people gaining work experience in Salmon Arm through a Job Creation Partnership with the Province of British Columbia.

Louis Thomas remembers his mother as a tireless advocate of First Nations culture, language and history. That’s why he’s thrilled that Mary Thomas’s lectures have been preserved for posterity at Voice of the Shuswap community radio, CKVS-FM 93.7.

The public is invited to attend a drop-in information session on Wednesday, June 24 about proposed Highway 1 improvements in Salmon Arm.

The voice, cultural lectures and experiences of Secwepemc elder Mary Thomas will be preserved for future generations, while one person will get valuable work experience in digital archiving, thanks to a funding partnership between the Government of B.C. and the Voice of the Shuswap Broadcast Society (VSBS).

A local historical gem received a thorough polishing and upgrade, thanks to a partnership between the government of B.C. and the Salmon Arm Museum and Heritage Association that gave four local people work experience.

There is a lot of buzz at Roderick Haig-Brown Park and no, it's not bees. Excavators and saws working on a multi-year construction project have left many new facilities, and the first of thousands of families have descended on the park to view the spawning salmon.

Travellers are advised that the 1100 Forest Service Road in the Seymour Arm area will be closed at the 14.7-kilometre mark from Monday, May 26 through Wednesday, June 25, 2014, while a bridge over the Seymour River is replaced.

Families visiting Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park, home to one of the largest sockeye salmon runs in North America, will notice something else this year as construction begins on a multi-year project to enhance visitor experiences.