Mayor Bev Parnham gave council the news that a new tsunami information pamphlet was moving into production.
“It clearly defines all the areas and where people are to go in the event of an evecuation,” said Parnham. “It really helps clarify the issues that came up during the last warning.”
The pamphlet is expected to be ready in the coming weeks, and steps are being taken to finalize its distribution.
The mayor explained council is considering several avenues of delivering the booklet, and one idea being pursued is enlisting the fire brigade and other volunteer groups to go door-to-door, beginning with the areas most at risk.
SALTS bursary
The council moved to accept an amended bursary offer from the Sail and Life Training Society after the society removed a clause from the offer which council objected to in its previous meeting.
The new offer, to fund a female youth to join the society on one of its tall ship voyages next summer, was unchanged save the removal of the prerequisite which stated that “Partner organizations must not provide or fund abortion services.”
Council felt that by accepting the initial offer it could be construed as taking sides on a divisive issue beyond its remit. The District had declined a similar offer last year on the same grounds.
The new offer, while welcomed, still drew some discussion around the council table.
“I know that the clause everyone was concerned about was the abortion one,” said Councillor Nikki Shaw, “but I recall that there was more to it; we have to be responsible for the youth — bringing them there and home safely, covering transportation and so on.”
Mayor Bev Parnham concluded the benefits outweighed the costs. “The cost to the District could possibly be a one-way bus ticket to Victoria. The net benefit could be outstanding — it could be life changing for the young person involved.”
The council did agree that it would need help selecting the nominee for the bursary and it was suggested that PHSS vice-principal Malcolm Fleeton be contacted to assist.
A motion was passed to accept the offer and contact PHSS to aid in selection.
Computer Use Policy
As part of housekeeping, an updated Computer Use Policy was presented to council from Jeff Long, attending his first meeting as staff since replacing recently retired Director of Corporate Services, Gloria LeGal.
Long said the vastly-expanded policy was a case of staff, “Trying to evolve and keep up with the current technology.”
After some consideration the council referred the document back to staff, with councillor Jessie Hemphill pointing out some broad language in the policy that required tightening and Mayor Parnham questioning “Who’s the cop going to be on this?”
The council returned the policy for clarification.
Sidewalk inspections
Trevor Kushner, Director of Operational Services asked council to adopt Policy CP10.9 which governs the inspection and maintenance of sidewalks.
Kushner explained the rationale as two-fold: firstly a shift to a council policy gives more weight to the ordinance, and, secondly, the current system of inspecting all sidewalks in a single year was “pretty onerous.”
Under the new policy the sidewalks in the District are divided into two zones, inspected on alternate years.
The council agreed to adopt the policy.
