MONDAY
S I N C E
1 8 9 5
MAY 7, 2012
Trail club kicks it up a notch
Vol. 117, Issue 88
110
$
Page 9
INCLUDING H.S.T.
PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF
ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALM SALMO
ROCKY AND RIDER ON A TREC
SILVER CITY DAYS
Festival’s funds restored BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
You would expect a roller coaster ride during Silver City Days, but not leading up to it. Last week Trail city council restored the annual festival’s allotment of municipal money, approving a $35,000 operating budget including money for the fireworks and the parade, as well as an extra $1,000 for “cost overruns.” For weeks leading up to the meeting council had decreed funding for the popular annual event, now entering its 49th year beginning Tuesday, would be cut by one third to $22,500. The reduction forced the Trail Festival Society (TFS), which organizes the fair, to trim the fireworks display and the parade off the event’s list in order to work within the reduced budget. But during committee reports last Monday night during the regular council meeting, councillor Sean Mackinlay — the city’s liaison on the TFS board — said the society’s full funding had been restored. “As of this evening, I am happy to announce the city is more than willing to go ahead and fund the parade for the costs that are required for it,” he told council. “This is believed to be the best use of funds within the city for having such a large civic event.” It was Mackinlay that ignited a spark of uncertainty over the fate of the Silver City Days last month when he relayed a council directive to TFS to withhold one third of the society’s funding until they could see documentation over how the money was spent for the fireworks display. Mackinlay provided council with the first recommendation last month to fund only $22,500, with documentation to follow, and council approved. Once council received the documentation from the fire department, another motion was approved for the total cost of the festival. Councillor Robert Cacchioni said the move was necessary to keep tabs on how the money was spent. The city hands out over $210,000 in grants to city groups and events each year, but requires every organization to account for the money they receive. “(We) were trying to get an actual handle on expenditures in comparison to what was reported,” Cacchioni said. “Basically council is one hundred per cent behind this, there is no doubt about it. It was just a question of how it was funded, and in what kind of stages it was funded, that’s all.” Heading in to a society meeting April 18, TFS president Ian McLeod said Silver City Days was close to being cancelled as a result of council withholding funds, with a lot of the Silver City directors ready to throw in their papers and quit.
See VOLUNTEERS, Page 2
GUY BERTRAND PHOTO
Salmo’s Sue Buerge was aboard Rocky during a Trec competition under the watchful eye of judge Jocelyn Templemann at the Trail Horsemen Grounds on Sunday. With its origins in France, Trec is based on a program used to train guides and horses for trail and back country riding. The three key elements of Trec are control of pace, where horse and rider must navigate a timed course will maintaining a consistent pace; obstacle course, where horse and rider must successfully complete a series of obstacle tests; and orienteering, where horse and rider must follow a course using a map and compass.
SCHOOL DISTRICT 20
Balanced budget quietly passes BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
With little fanfare the new school district budget officially passed late last week into legislation. The $41.9-million budget bylaw was adopted with no discussion — nor with anyone in attendance from the public — by the School District No. 20 (Kootenay Columbia) board of trustees at Trail Middle School in a brief meeting Friday evening.
It was a balanced budget, as mandated by the province, but it came at the expense of district staff, with expectation nearly 14 people from the district’s teaching and support staff will be cut. However, that terminal prophecy could alter when the school year begins this September, said board chair Darrel Ganzert on Sunday. What passed into law Friday night might not necessarily transpire when the chalk hits
the board in the fall. Instead, what was delivered in the budget was acknowledgement the school district will work within the reduced means the Ministry of Education has allotted it, but it is not what will automatically happen, said Ganzert. “The actual amount of money that you gain or lose by the decisions you’ve made is quite variable in a budget,” he said. “Only the future will tell how this works. All this
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budget does is signal to the public our intentions, if truth be told.” Meaning there will be some adjustment, some finetuning. A budget is the direction the district’s secretary treasurer will pursue until the board decrees the course must be changed. That adjustment takes place on a monthly basis during the school year as issues — such as the teachers’ sick day cost overrun — arise.
See CUTS, Page 3
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