In response to a letter from District of Clearwater Mayor John Harwood to the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, a service review of the TV rebroadcasting service shared by Clearwater and Electoral Area “A” (Wells Gray Country) will be completed in 2014.
The TNRD board of directors decided to go ahead with the review during its March 13 meeting.
In his letter, Harwood noted that both Clearwater’s town council and the joint services committee (which handles services jointly provided by the District and the TNRD, such as the Sportsplex) had asked for a review.
“Council supports evaluation of the TV rebroadcasting services in order to understand the usage and viability of this service,” the mayor wrote.
“Council is requesting that the Thompson-Nicola Regional District complete this service review to enable the District of Clearwater and Wells Gray Country services committee (Area A) to have a clear understanding of how many people actually use the system and if it is necessary to continue funding,” he asked.
$20-limit free Disposal Day schedule
The schedule for $20-limit free Disposal Day and Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Round-Up locations was brought forward for consideration by the board.
In 2011 the board instructed staff to offer a day at least once every two years at every TNRD disposal facility where people could dispose of for free material that otherwise would cost up to $20 in fees.
Free disposal day events are targeted at facilities that last had a disposal day in 2012, as well as the five major eco-depots. HHW Round- Ups are targeted at eco-depots where the TNRD has not yet established Product Care Plus facilities (Clearwater Eco-Depot already is a Product Care Plus facility and so people can dispose of designated hazardous wastes there year-round).
In the upper North Thompson, there will be $20-limit free Disposal Days at Clearwater and at Blue River. Vavenby had a $20-limit free Disposal Day in 2013.
The events will be held in April and May, although the exact dates have not yet been decided.
Annual out-of-town board meetings
The next three annual out-of-town board meetings will be held in the following locations:
• Aug. 21, 2014 — Lytton
• 2015 — Sun Peaks
• 2016 — Merritt
Annual out-of-town board meetings provide an opportunity for residents to attend a board meeting in their local areas.
NDIT funding application
An application will be submitted to Northern Development Initiatives Trust (NDIT) for a grant totalling up to $50,000 for the following projects:
• A partnership with Explore Gold Country to commission high-quality tourism and motion-picture location photos based on Canadian Tourism Commission Explorer Quotient Tool.
• Commissioning vignettes in consultation with Electoral Areas “I” and “E” representatives and stakeholders for economic development and promotional purposes.
• Creating rack cards depicting TNRD Locations Movie Map to distribute to all BC Info Centres, BC Ferries and Vancouver Airport (YVR) for one calendar year, plus augmenting the website with GPS coordinate capacity for smartphones.
Regional vignette gets green light
A four-minute-long vignette will be produced to be used as a promotional tool for economic development and tourism in the TNRD.
The production cost will not exceed $20,000.
The vignette could be hosted on websites of member municipalities, the TNRD and Thompson-Nicola Film Commission websites, tourism and economic development websites and, potentially, some local cable television stations.
It also would be available to business owners residing within the TNRD to use a promotional material or for display at trade shows and events.
Annual funding for web portal maintenance
As the Invest Thompson-Nicola BC web portal was launched in 2013, ongoing site maintenance will be funded at a cost of $3,000 per year to ensure the site continues to provide access to economic development information for investors interested in the TNRD.
