Bear Aware
At Castlegar City Council meeting on June 4, Castlegar Fire Chief Gerry Rempel introduced Jenny Wallace as the city's new Bear Aware Community Co-ordinator.
Wallace gave a short presentation about the Bear Aware program and what her duties will be.
"Bear Aware's mission is to reduce human/bear conflict through education, innovation, and cooperation," she said. "The idea behind this is the best solution to bear/human conflict is prevention which can be attained through education. I want to get out in the community and educate people about solutions for dealing with attractants such as garbage, poorly managed composts, bird feeders, smelly barbecues, the whole deal. If we pro-actively address the problem of attractants in our community, we will decrease the number of bears destroyed in our community, increase public safety, and as an added bonus, will increase the cleanliness of our city."
Wallace is living in Castlegar now after living in Ontario for many years. She graduated from Selkirk College's Fish and Wildlife program. She also has a degree in Psychology with a focus on animal behaviour from the University of Guelph.
Wallace will be getting the Bear Aware message out by canvassing door to door and appearing at public events such as Sunfest. She will also be going out at night to check to see if people have left their garbage out over night.
"I will leave them an embarrassingly bright, yellow ticket," she warned. "I will record those houses and go back for education."
Invasive plants
At Monday's council meeting Crystal Klym, executive director -Central Kootenay Invasive Plant Committee, gave a presentation to council on invasive plants in the area. She showed councillors a sample of a knot weed plant and also handed out tool kits for invasive plant management.
Radon gas
There was a recommendation brought forward at the council meeting from the Planning and Development committee to wait until the provincial government comes out with their new building bylaws before putting in stronger standards for Radon gas reduction for new builds.
Phil Markin, director of Development Services, reminded council that any standards that could be dealt with by the Provincial Building Regulations cannot be adopted without ministerial approval.
"I wanted to know why we couldn't put our own in - something that suits us because we have such a high concentration of (Radon)," said councillor Deb MacIntosh. "We shouldn't wait for the province, we should let them adopt our standard. I know putting these safe guards in place prevents Radon from coming into the house. Radon is a cancer causing agent - so why wouldn't we do that?"
It's also much cheaper, she said, "If you put it in at the beginning it's way less expensive than it is after the fact."
Cobra Climb stairs
A motion to make improvements on the Cobra Climb stairs (by 10th Avenue) and install lights was voted down by council. The cost of installing lights would have been $12,000. However, a letter of concern from a resident referred to potential problems that could have been created by the installation of lights. A subsequent public meeting was held and further concerns, regarding the condition of the roof over the stairs, were submitted. Cost of improvements to the roof and the parking area are estimated to be $6,000.
"The original motion was to put lights on the Cobra Climb and fix up the parking area," said MacIntosh, who voted for the lights. "The lights on the Cobra Climb were defeated, so we go back to committee (Transportation and Civic Works) to see what we can do about the other part of it. You know what? - it's democracy. And democracy means not always getting what you want. I'm happy to work with the committee on developing another plan and bringing it forward. Back to the drawing board."
North Sanitary main awarded to Maglio
Maglio Installations Ltd. of Castlegar has been awarded the contract for Phase 3 of the North Sanitary Trunk Main project. Maglio had the lowest qualified bid at $105,912.05.
Phase 3 of the project will construct a 450mm sewer main from the Benjamin Moore Paint store to the 6th Street intersection.
Advanced Meter (Smart Meter)
A motion to allow residents to opt out of FortisBC's upcoming Advanced Metering (Smart Meter) Infrastructure program was tabled by a vote of 4-2.
"Some councillors wanted more information," said McIntosh, who brought forward the proposal. "I don't know what more information there is out there. I just feel that if utilities is going to bring something in and people are scared for their health than why not allow people to have that opt out policy? But it's been tabled, so we'll have to go back to the drawing board and see where we go from there."
Before installing any smart meters, FortisBC must receive approval from the B.C. Utilities Commission, which they have not done yet.