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Mark Creek Flume Project officially completed
Kimberley City Council Report
By Nowell Berg
City of Kimberley council met at its bi-monthly meeting (August 8) where several reports were filed, presentations made and city business conducted. Here is a summary of that meeting.
Mayor Don McCormick was away on vacation. Coun. Albert Hoglund was unanimously voted as acting-mayor for this meeting. Coun. Bev Middlebrook was absent from the meeting.
Mark Creek Flume Project officially completed
Council received a letter from Mike Fox, Manager of Operations and Environment, City of Kimberley, reporting that the city has fulfilled all of its contractual obligations on the Mark Creek Flume Project.
Building permits down year over year
The Building Permit Monthly Report for July was submitted to council.
July saw 20 building permits issued by the city compared to 25 in 2015; a 24% drop. In July 2015, the dollar value of building permits was $1.8 million. This year, the July figure dropped to $684,000, a 62.5% decline in permit values.
So far this year, January to July, 98 building permits have been issued by the city compared to 114 in 2015. While the number of permits is down year over year, the total project value of the 2016 permits is greater than 2015, $7.7 million (2016) compared to $6.3 million in 2015.
A big reason the dollar value is higher in 2016 is due to an increase in the number of new single family dwelling permits, said Troy Pollock, Manager, Planning Services, City of Kimberley. In 2015, only 16 new homes were built by the end of July. So far this year the City as issued 22 new home construction permits.
2016 Revenue Sharing Grants
The city received notice from Peter Fassbender, BC Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, that Kimberley will receive a Small Community Grant of $492,966 for local government services. As well, a Traffic Fine Revenue Sharing Grant of $55,068 will go toward defraying the cost of local police enforcement.
The money keeps rolling in. The Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) informed the city it would receive a grant of $166,556 from the Community Works Fund (CWF). CWF money comes from the Federal Gas Tax Fund.
City not supporting KIJHL Travel Reserve Fund
The Mayor of 100 Mile House sent a letter to Mayor McCormick proposing the establishment of an ‘Out of Province Travel’ Reserve Fund to assist with travel costs when a Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) team participates in the Keystone Cup. The letter was intended to see if there was “sufficient interest” among KIJHL communities in establishing such a fund and contributing $500 toward it.
Councilor Oakley voiced opposition to taxpayer’s money going to such a fund. Council voted to not support this initiative and will inform 100 Mile House with a suggestion that the hockey clubs should be the ones to provide the money for the fund.
The city will support the Kimberley Dynamiters by signing a five-year occupancy license for the Civic Centre (August 2016 to July 2021). Council unanimously voted to sign the occupancy license as well as a Liquor License for the hockey club.
City buys new pickup truck
Council authorized $37,825.76 (includes all applicable taxes) for the purchase of the F350 Regular Cab 4×4 pickup from Melody Motors Ltd.
During debate on the motion to purchase, Coun. Daryl Oakley voiced concern over the lack of consideration into buying a “used truck. All I see is new vehicles being purchased,” he said. Acting-mayor Hoglund noted there had only been $35,000 budgeted for the purchase, set in November 2015 during budget deliberations. The additional $2,325.76 was approved by council and the motion to purchase passed three votes “for” and one vote “against”. Coun. Oakley was the lone dissenter.
Kimberley Cemetery gets new columbaria
A motion was presented to council to “purchase a new columbaria for the Kimberley Cemetery from Nelson Granite (NG) for the total cost of $29,675, excluding GST, and by-pass the tender process.”
The motion moved by Coun. Kent Goodwin and seconded by Coun. Nigel Kitto. Debate arose regarding two issues. First, skipping the tender process and second the lack of stonework in the Nelson Granite price.
Dave Clarke, Manager of Parks, Recreation & Facilities, City of Kimberley, sought “direction from council to move ahead with approving the purchase of a columbaria for the Kimberley Cemetery from Nelson Granite” because they had the lowest bid, but no rock work similar to the existing columbaria. The NG proposal would have the same structure and colour of the existing columbaria.
Several councilors were against this option. They wanted the new columbaria to maintain design continuity.
Coun. Kitto suggested looking at the second option in Clarke’s report. This quote was from Kootenay Monument Installations (KMI) for a total cost of $37,182, excluding GST.
Coun. Oakley spoke in support of the tender process where exact construction specifications, including the number of niches and surface materials for the columbaria, would be presented to all bidders. For Coun. Oakley the tender process is there for a reason and “should be used according to policy.” As it was, NG proposed 78 niches with no rockwork while the other three proposals were for 74 niches and rockwork included.
The original motion in favour of the NG proposal was defeated. A second motion to select Response Option 2 from Clarke’s report passed three votes “for” and one vote “against”. Coun. Oakley voted against the motion. KMI will receive the contract to build the new columbaria.
All new building construction subject to updated snow load elevations
Troy Pollock, Manager, Planning Services, City of Kimberley, presented a motion for council to adopt “updated climatic information and revised snow load elevations to be implemented effective immediately for design of all new buildings” in Kimberley.
According to Pollock, “Regular updates to climatic design data can help to improve the long-term resiliency of buildings to the uncertainties of a changing climate such as heavy wet snowfalls, more frequent freeze-thaw cycles and rain-on-snow events. The climatic information for building design has not been updated in over 20 years.”
Acting-mayor Hoglund asked Pollock how this new data would affect old structures. Pollock said they “would only be affected if the whole roof structure was replaced.” If a building owner only replaces the roof covering, there would be no impact from the new design code.
There will be three new snow load elevations:
1) Elevation between 1,150 and 1,350 metres includes the Ski hill and resort area, Deer Run Drive, Dogwood Drive, Stemwinder Drive, Kodiak Crescent, Trickle Ridge Place, Alpine Crescent and Townsite neigbourhoods.
2) Elevation between 1,000 and 1,150 metres includes Downtown Kimberley, Swan Avenue, Blarchmont, Chapman Camp and Forest Crowne neighbourhoods.
3) Elevation at or below 1,000 metres includes Marysville, Sunflower Drive, Riverbend Lane and River Ridge Way neighbourhoods.
As the elevation increases roof structures will be required to withstand greater stress loads. These snow load elevations and roof stress factors take effect immediately.
Full details on snow load stress factors from the city can be found here.
The regular council meeting adjourned at 7:45 p.m. moving in-camera to discuss city labour matters.
Kimberley city council meets twice monthly, all meetings are open to the public. Check the city’s website for meeting dates, times and agendas. It’s your city, get involved.
– Nowell Berg is a writer, photographer and TV producer who lives at Wasa.
