CITY WANTS TO STOP SEEING ELECTRONICS END UP IN LANDFILL
City council is planning on putting a little more pressure on Encorp Pacific to get an “End-of-Life Electronics” program in the city.
“We’ve had ongoing discussions,” Coun. Kevin Chernoff said. “We’ve been told that things were going to change and they haven’t changed.”
Currently, the program is available in Nelson and Trail.
“Right now [Castlegar’s electronics are] going to the landfill,” Mayor Lawrence Chernoff said.
In a letter to the mayor dated May 19, Neil Hastie, president and CEO of Encorp Pacific wrote the “team has struggled with the challenges of a small business ownership in the current downturn of the economy.”
“They’re just not paying somebody enough to do it,” Kevin said. “For somebody to take that on they have to be generating enough funds to pay for rent and heat.”
“We have approached a variety of businesses in the vicinity of the Castlegar core to no avail,” Hastie continued.
Lawrence said it’s important to have a program like this in the city as it’s also a stewardship issue, so they’ll continue pushing Encorp Pacific for a commitment.
NELSON ACCEPTS AIRPORT INVITE
Nelson’s city council has accepted the invitation to sit on the West Kootenay Regional Airport Committee.
Mayor John Dooley will sit on the committee, with Coun. Robin Cherbo as the alternate member.
Castlegar Mayor Lawrence Chernoff said he’s pleased that Nelson is on board.
“It’s the external that we’re looking for,” he said. “It’s a good cross-section of people.”
The purpose of the committee will be to discuss how to improve the airport.
Chernoff anticipates the first meeting will be in July. When completely struck, the committee will be made up of Chernoff (who will also serve as chair), one city councillor, one member of the community-at-large appointed by the city, one member nominated by the RDCK, one member of Nelson city council, one member nominated by the Castlegar and District Chamber of Commerce and two representatives from the airport users nominated by Castlegar city council.
DOZENS OFFER INPUT ON CITY PLAN
Castlegar’s Official Community Plan (OCP) open house last week drew residents with all sorts of concerns and ideas, Coun. Kevin Chernoff said.
“We had somewhere around 40 to 50 people come,” he said.
The main issues brought up, he said, were the maintenance and promotion of bike trails and the hopes that council reconsider their ban on backyard chickens.
“All that stuff gets rolled into the OCP,” he said.
With public consultation taken into account, city council is hoping to have the first couple readings by the end of July.