People working to build a multi-purpose community facility in Nakusp went to council looking for support Monday night.
The Green Door Revitalization Project would see a $3.4 million building housing a pool, youth centre, aquaponics garden and bio-fuel heating system built near the village schools.
With a business plan to prove the project’s economics now underway, proponents say a letter of support from the council is crucial to attracting funding.
While council was impressed by the size and scope of the project (“Fabulous,” said Councillor Bill Tobey after the presentation), council demurred on providing written support for the project for now.
“Let’s see the business plan, then we’ll consider it,” said Mayor Karen Hamling.
The project also needs a zoning amendment, as the pool/bowling alley/youth centre/green energy plant doesn’t fit the current C2 or commercial zoning description.
Garbage truck in, garbage truck out
A garbage truck has a hard and short life — starting and stopping, city driving, hauling heavy loads. And if it breaks down, it’s not like there’s a lot of private contractors around who can do the job. That’s left village workers having to haul garbage from commercial areas by hand as the old truck started failing.
But no longer. The village’s just purchased a shiny new International garbage truck, for $220,000. The old truck’s for sale, and available for viewing this week if you’re thinking of getting into the business.
Village sidewalks
crumbling
The village’s sidewalks are wearing out quickly.
A survey done by the village found problems with cracks, bumps, chipped and peeling surfaces, among many other problems in nearly 70 spots in the village’s downtown.
And it’s getting harder to do something about it.
“We’re really struggling with Broadway,” Director of Operations Warren Leigh told council. “There are lots of issues. We’re out of bricks, for one.”
This year village staff tackled a half-dozen of the worst bad patches, mostly down by the beach, he said. But large projects like Broadway have been set aside while the town plans its overall downtown revitalization project, which would see a wholesale rebuilding of the sidewalks.
The village has spent about $15,000 on sidewalk repair this year- but that’s just a drop in the bucket of what’s needed.
Council is looking at possibly using a portion of the money it receives from the gas tax to fund more repairs next summer.
Your tax dollars really
at work
The director of operations wasn’t all doom and gloom. Warren Leigh also may have saved the village a couple of hundred thousand dollars on upgrades to its water system.
Earlier this year the village began replacing about a kilometre of substandard galvanized water mains, using about $500,000 it received from the province and federal governments.
Though good planning, using local contractors, good bidding and maybe a small bit of luck, the village only spent about 55 per cent of that money.
Thing is, the province doesn’t want its money back — they said the village could use what’s leftover to do even more water line replacements and repair.
Leigh said he already knows the two projects he’d like to spend it on — older water mains that have been causing his department nothing but headaches. And better yet, they’re projects the village would have had to find new money to pay for next year.
“This will allow us to start planning proactively, instead of scrambling to deal with issues reactively,” said Leigh.
Council gladly approved re-allocating the leftover money to complete the much-needed repairs next year.
