Council agreed to an amendment of the Building Inspection Services contract with the TNRD that will now stipulate that the TNRD is liable for any mistakes made by the building inspector.

Mayor John Ranta said Council asked the TNRD to make that change the last time the contract came up for renewal. Now the Municipal Insurance Association is requiring them to make that change. According to older contracts, even though TNRD staff did the work, the municipality was liable for their mistakes.

I guess the MIA has more sway than the Village of Cache Creek, remarked Ranta.

Council granted a funding request for  $1,500 from the Cache Creek Beautification Society.

The money funds their various projects, such as:

– Community Clean ups on Apr. 28 and June 9, beginning at 6 pm at the Community Hall;

– a Garden Tour planned for Aug. 28 in Cache Creek;

– their quarterly newsletter;

– planning for re-entry in the provincial Communities in Bloom competition in 2012; and

– various projects planned to increase the attractiveness of Cache Creek.

The Society has been in existence since 2003.

Council was invited to a Tea celebrating Lodge 263 AshcroftÕs 50th anniversary on Saturday, May 7 at  the Cache Creek Community Hall.

Council received an invitation from the Village of Clinton to participate in their Western Heritage Parade on Saturday, May 28. The parade begins at Reg Conn Park at 11 am and heads uptown.

The May Ball Rodeo starts later on the same day at 1 pm at the Rodeo Grounds and carries over to Sunday.

Coun. Jim Loucks reported that the water system upgrade project “has had a little bit of a hitch” when panels for prefabricated building arrived the wrong size and had to be returned. He said there was a problem with shipping the right ones, but that they were expected to arrive by now. He said it won’t affect the projet’s completion date.

Council agreed to consider appointing a Council member to the board of the Friends of Historic Hat Creek Ranch Society at the Society’s invitation.

A letter from the Society’s president Jack Jeyes indicated that they had passed a resolution at their Annual General Meeting in December to expand their board to allow representatives from Cache Creek, Ashcroft, Clinton, Bonaparte, Area E and Area I.

Coun. Loucks questioned why the Ashcroft Indian Band was left off the invitation list and wanted the Village to ask the Society if it was just an oversight.

“I think it separates the community by not including them,” he said.

He made a motion to send the letter, but it was not endorsed by a seconder.

Jeyes’ letter stated: “The Board of Directors of the Friends of Historic Hat Creek Ranch Society has been looking for ways of improving communications between Hat Creek Ranch and our community stakeholders, especially the elected representative in our region.”

They hoped to do this through membership from local government.

Council accepted an invitation to enter a float in the Saturday, June 18 Ashcroft Rodeo Parade.

The annual rodeo begins the same day and carries over to Sunday.

Council agreed to tender out the contract for the renovations but said they would not necessarily accept any bid received for the work.

Council’s wish list for the basement renovations amounted to almost $500,000 and they had to scale back plans to meet their $200,000 budget.

Some items have been removed from the plans, such as the display cabinets and the add-on washrooms. The current washrooms will be restructured, the entire basement will be renovated with replacement of plumbing, heating and electrical and sound-proofing in the ceiling.

Council received notice from Elections Canada that they will be using the Community Hall for voting in the federal election on May 2.

In the past, the federal election has used the Pentecostal Church as their polling station in Cache Creek.

After the last election, the Village wrote to Elections Canada to point out that the Community Hall was central, available and accessible.