The City of Grand Forks held its regularly scheduled council meeting on Feb. 14, discussing motions to be brought forward at the Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Governments (AKBLG) meetings in the spring and a letter from the Grand Forks Downtown Business Association asking for the implementation of items.
Councillor’s Reports
Councillor Julia Butler put forward the lone report at the meeting, noting a motion she had planned to bring forward at the AKBLG is currently being addressed and will not need to be brought as a resolution. Her resolution was regarding corporate involvement in the AKBLG.
When questioned by Councillor Christine Thompson, Butler also elaborated on the note in her report that several members of the Recreation Commission were resigning this year, having reached their three-term limit, and that the commission was actively looking for new members.
Resolutions at AKBLG
Council discussed at length the resolutions to be brought forward at the AKBLG next month. Two councillors, Thompson and Councillor Bev Tripp, are planning on bringing resolutions forward.
Thompson put forward a resolution stating that the AKBLG request that the Union of B.C. Municipalities petition the provincial government to “consult with the people of B.C. with a view to abolishing daylight savings time.”
Thompson outlined the evidence for switching to standard time, rather than daylight savings, because of the emotional and physical benefits. For instance, she highlighted the increase in traffic accidents immediately following daylight savings.
Confusion and discussion ensued on what exactly constituted standard time and the daylight hours resulting from both keeping and abolishing the practice.
Councillor Colleen Ross said she was in favour of supporting more daylight hours (via keeping daylight savings) to encourage healthy lifestyles, especially in younger generations who want more daylight hours outside.
Tripp also brought a resolution to the table from that morning’s Committee of the Whole meeting about cell towers and micro transmitters.
“Whereas public consultation on the placement of cell towers is mandated, and whereas new technology is moving from these large towers to micro transmitters, which do not require local government or public consultation, therefore be it resolved that the AKBLG request the UBCM to petition relevant provincial and federal governments to mandate similar public consultation requirements for the placement of micro transmitters, as per cell towers,” the resolution states.
After significant discussion over how to adopt the resolutions, individually or together, the resolutions were adopted individually and both passed.
“There does not seem to be major opposition to either one,” Grand Forks Mayor Frank Konrad said.
Downtown Business Association
Council discussed at length a letter from the Downtown Business Association regarding the implementation of some business-friendly initiatives for the downtown core. In particular, council debated the merits of lowering the speed limit in downtown to 30 kilometres per hour from 50 kilometres per hour.
Councillor Neil Krog said he would like to see evidence that the limit needed to be lowered before he would be prepared to support it; however, several councillors spoke out in response, urging the City to be proactive.
“I have talked to people who have witnessed near pedestrian misses, because coming down from that bridge there is nothing stopping from Industrial [Way] to Central [Avenue], people are coming doing 60 [kilometres per hour] or more,” said Councillor Chris Hammett. “Council can make the decision to lower the speed limit in the downtown core, a pedestrian zone. It is the business district, and there is nothing precluding us. Asking for empirical data, there is nothing stopping us from being proactive before waiting for someone to get hit or a tragedy to happen.”
In response, Krog clarified that his objections were around not including more of the city.
“My objection is with not doing more of it,” he said. “I like the idea of highlighting that it is pedestrian.”
Other requests in the report include the reinstatement of a two-hour parking limit downtown from 72nd Avenue to Central Avenue, Second Street to Fourth Street, and bringing back speakers on Market Avenue to be used during special events.
Butler then moved to bring back individual reports on each of the initiatives, detailing potential cost and staff time involved. Chief Administrative Officer Doug Allin agreed, suggesting council could use more information.
“Council could consider sending this back to staff to get a staff report on all of the implications of these recommendations, so council can understand costs, information from the RCMP, and present back information on these items,” Allin said.
“There is a lot of debate on each item, even here tonight, so it would be nice to see each item separately and pass them separately,” Butler said.
That motion was passed.
