I haven’t done a Mayor’s report for awhile and so am taking this opportunity to bring you up to date on some changes within the Village of Nakusp. First off, welcome to our new CAO Laurie Taylor who comes to us Keremeos. It is great to have her working for us.
We are into our 7th month as a new council and are being kept fairly busy. In my last Mayor’s report I told you that we had met and set up our strategic priorities for the next four years. One of our priorities was to support a Biomass project and currently a standing committee is in the process of being set up to move in that direction. If we are successful in obtaining funding and moving the project forward, it will be a benefit to not only the Village of Nakusp and our facilities, but to School District 10 as well. We would also see a new youth centre.
The second priority that we are moving forward on is upgrading the chalets at the Nakusp Hot Springs. The Hot Springs building is just completing a new roof on the facility. We ran into some problems and had to replace two main beams. We are also in the process of re-roofing units 1 and 2 of the chalets. As a community, we are fortunate that we own our own hot springs and the Nakusp Hot Springs has a huge potential to be an economic driver to our community providing jobs and bringing more income into the community.
You will notice that we have placed some planters on Broadway. If these work out well, we will add some more next year.
Just a reminder that watering restrictions are in place year round and are on odd and even days 7-9 in the morning and 7-9 in the evening. We are working with Columbia Basin Trust on the water smart program this year. There will be yellow flags placed on lawns where water restrictions are not being observed. Then fines will be put in place.
The cost of providing water is getting extremely expensive and the more treated water we have to provide, the more it will cost the tax payer.
Curbside recycling pick up has been in place for a year now and the more people use it, the more efficient and cost effective it will be. The RDCK recycling bins will be eventually moved to the landfill due to the issues of the current area being abused and the need to protect the ground water around the wells. We are asking RDCK to provide a glass bin drop off to compensate for the curbside pickup – glass can not be put into the curb pick-up.
Unfortunately, the water levels will be significantly lower this year due to the extreme dry spell in the United States and the need to send water downstream. We are working with BC Hydro to see if there is any way they can use some of the non-treaty storage water to keep our lake a little higher. Council will be looking at having discussions with the government on this issue.
On the brighter side, there are two community driven projects that are nearing completion, one being the Kinship building (the old health centre) where a collective has been working to upgrade the building for the use of several programs and house the Nakusp and Area Youth Society. There will be an open house on June 24. The other project is the Old Firehall Collective which is seeing a complete overhaul and has provided jobs in the community through various programs and should see completion to lock up sometime in July.
The Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Governments held their AGM in Nakusp in April and was very well attended. The delegates were very impressed with Nakusp and all we have to offer for a small town and many have asked me to convey their thanks for the wonderful treatment they received while they were here. Mayor Jason Clarke of Silverton was elected to the AKBLG board. Congratulations Jason.
I attended the Federation of Canadian Municipality meetings in Edmonton in early June and there were 2000 delegates from all across Canada. We passed resolutions on various recommendations for the federal government to help our communities move forward. One of our concerns is that for every tax dollar paid to other levels of government, we receive eight cents in return and are expected to handle more and more services. Councillor Main, from Silverton was elected to the BC Caucus on the FCM board. Congratulations Leah.
Council and staff appreciate the support we have received and as always, are interested in your comments. Our year end report will be available by the end of the month. Please feel free to drop into the office and pick up a copy.
