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MCA pushes forward with plans to buy Cherry Creek mineral tenure
The Meadowbrook Community Association (MCA) is proceeding with plans to purchase a 400+ acre mineral tenure adjacent to Cherry Creek Falls for $51,000. The purchase will prevent approval of a quarry at Cherry Creek Falls and enable the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) to create a day-use regional park.
Residents and other recreational users have been fighting to prevent the quarry since September 2011. In September 2012, the RDEK held a public meeting to explain that a park could be created if the community was prepared to purchase the tenure. The more than 50 attendees were unanimous that the MCA should try to purchase the tenure.
The MCA board made the decision to purchase the tenure providing that the province would designate the tenure as a no staking reserve. The board believed that such a designation was necessary to prevent future mining activity on the 400+acres and to create a buffer zone around the proposed park for continued recreational use.
In December, Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett, who is also Minister for Community, Sport and Cultural Development, and Doug Clovechok, BC Liberal candidate for Columbia River – Revelstoke met with the MCA president and vice president to indicate that if the purchase proceeds, officials in Mines and Forestry are prepared to designate the entire tenure as a no staking reserve and for the use recreation and enjoyment of the public.
To date more than $23,000 in pledges and grants and an offer to provide free legal services have been obtained. Arrangements have also been made with the Kimberley & District Community Foundation to establish a Cherry Creek Falls Park Fund so that tax receipts can be issued for individual donations of $25 or more.
If the purchase proceeds as planned, tax receipts will be issued. If for some reason it does not, the donations will be returned.
Anyone wishing to donate can send a cheque payable to the Kimberley & District Community Foundation and designated for the Cherry Creek Falls Park Fund to John Lyon, MCA Treasurer, 454-8th Avenue, Kimberley, BC V1A 2X7, or make a cash donation by calling John at 250-427-2421 or e-mailing him at [email protected].
Submitted
Above photo by: Jim Webster
