The Bulkley Valley Christian School is eligible for a local area service, which would cover a portion of the costs required to install a sidewalk along their 14th Avenue location.
The request from the Christian School Society of Smithers and Telkwa followed their recent decision to amalgamate their elementary and secondary school premises to the one location. Purchasing the old forestry building from Northwest Community College, they relocated it in front of their secondary school campus.
But this move has also raised the concern of having no sidewalk along 14th Avenue; a concern for the younger students, and so the society applied for a local area service permit that would share development costs with the Town of Smithers.
“As a result of the amalgamation, vehicular and food traffic will increase,” Dr. Barry Lester, Chairman with the society wrote to council. “Safety of the children enrolled in our school children is of high priority to us. If that can be improved by working with the tow on making this section of 14th Avenue safer, we feel it is a good investment.”
There have been other scenarios, however, where developers have been responsible for their own sidewalks, Councillor Charlie Northrup said. Others, such as NWCC or Coast Mountain, were at the developer’s cost, not the town’s, Northrup said, who was concerned about setting a precedent with this case.
“The concern is setting standards that are fair to everybody,” Mayor Cress Farrow said.
Council did come to the decision that in this instance the school was applicable for the local area service, which would fund a portion of the project 10 per cent, another 50 per cent, and 100 per cent for the portion of the sidewalk this is on town property.
That said, it may still not be approved, Farrow said. The application was approved to move to budget consultations, from there it will be determined whether or not the town can afford the project or not. The school estimates the project to cost $43,000 to them, $52,000 to the town, however council did state that to ensure the project meets with their standards that they take over the project, with the school paying them the proportionate amount.
“It just has to come to budget because we don’t have those funds sitting conveniently in a reserve,” Farrow said.
