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Message from the Mayor – January
By Ute Juras,
Village of Canal Flats Mayor
Happy New Year, Canal Flats! I hope everyone had a good start to 2015.
Council had a busy first meeting of the year on January 12. We enjoyed a presentation by Mark Halwa of the Greenways Trail Alliance telling us about an exciting new project they are taking on. It is the Westside Legacy Trail, which will go down Westside Road from Invermere to Fairmont Hot Springs.
So far, all except one of the landowners have agreed to give up part of their land for the trail. This will also bring the trail closer to Canal Flats. The end goal has always been to connect the Columbia Valley from Canal Flats to Golden.
Mark also presented to the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) Board at the January meeting and asked that the RDEK take over the maintenance and liability of the trail once it is finished. The board asked staff to bring back numbers and options on where the money would come from. Two of the option could be to fund this through the Columbia Valley Recreation Budget or the Regional Parks Service. I will keep you posted on that one.
Council appointed Glenn Stiller to the Greenways Trail Alliance. Thank you, Glenn, for stepping forward and accepting this appointment. We appreciate you willing to spend the time representing the Village of Canal Flats and look forward to your reports.
In the next couple of months, council will be getting very busy diving into the annual budget process. This has been delayed due to the election last November and it will be somewhat of a learning curve for those new on council. Our first meeting is scheduled for Saturday, February 7 at 8:30 a.m. until afternoon. This is a public meeting and everyone is welcome to attend.
The weekend prior to that we have scheduled our Strategic Planning Session, which will help council determine which projects are priorities and where the taxes will be best spent. I am especially excited about this year’s session as it will give us the opportunity to spend some time together in a less formal setting and get to know each other better. It is a very interesting process since you have five different personalities who each ran very different campaigns, but in the end we will come to a consensus on how to best serve the taxpayer.
Looking forward, we will be presented with a plan on the branding. Council has hired Tracy Connery and Karen Nickurak of Upended Creative & Amica Consulting from Fairmont for this project. Stay tuned to the Newsletter for updates and public consultation opportunities.
We will also be given a report from our planner in the very near future regarding recommendations on the OCP and Zoning Bylaws, downtown revitalization, the Golf Course, etc. Look for more information and public consultation coming on that.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy every bit of sunshine during this mostly grey season.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions/concerns (Phone: 250-489-9070, E-mail: [email protected]).
