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SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 Vol. 117, Issue 170
Birds of prey headed to Rossland
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PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF
SCHOOL DISTRICT 20
ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALM SALMO
Council ups fine for un-paid licences
SMOKIES SINGE CENTENNIALS
Facilities review rekindles big decisions
BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
As students file back into schools this week for another year of learning it will likely mark the back-to-school swan song for two School District 20 facilities slated for closure. Both Castlegar and Rossland are expected to be down one school after this year as the Kootenay Columbia’s board of trustees begins a facilities review this month that could trim two buildings—and possibly the administration’s own office—out of its 11-school inventory. During budget deliberations last spring the board passed a motion to undertake a facilities review in order to cover for yet another $600,000 budget funding shortfall. SD20 board chair Darrel Ganzert said the district does have a long list of cuts to look at that are not school closures before they get to that stage this fall, but the facilities review is inevitable. “We want to keep the school closures separate and do that, not for budgetary reasons, but for educational reasons to the extent we can,” he said during budget discussions. “It will be a lengthy process that we want public input on.” But dropping enrolments across the district have spelled the death of school buildings, and could claim two more. And with dropping enrolment comes a resultant drop in funding from the province, to the tune of $600,000 last year. As a small rural district the area needs more funding to deal with dropping enrolment after block funding was introduced five years ago, replacing per-student funding, said Trail trustee Mark Wilson. The board had written letters in the past to the Ministry of Education imploring them for the need for more money, he explained, to no avail. “But you know what? At the end of the day we have to manage our house. We have to tighten our house up. I don’t blame them for not giving us any more money,” Wilson said. He was adamant more should be done beyond the facilities review. He felt the board of nine should be cut to five trustees, and administration at the very top should be cut.
See SCHOOL, Page 3
GUY BERTRAND PHOTO
Trail Smoke Eaters forward Jake Lucchini fights off a Merritt Centennial during Saturday’s exhibition game at the Cominco Arena. The Smokies made their lone preseason appearance on home ice a successful one with an 8-3 victory. See story Page 11.
Council passed third reading of a bylaw to raise the business licence penalty for those merchants who have not paid for their business licence. Council voted to double the fine from $25 to $50 for the $90 annual business licence truancy. City corporate administrator Michelle McIsaac said the city can’t apply delinquent business licence fees against property taxes, nor can they shut a business down if they refuse to pay. Last month the city had sent letters to 13 Trail businesses who had not paid, asking them to do so or face the new fine. If that coercion is not effective, the city will take steps with a solicitor to determine a proper course of legal action. McIsaac noted that the business licence bylaw contained a whole section on revoking a licence, but if a business doesn’t have a valid licence to begin with municipal government cannot threaten to revoke a licence.
August deals up usual hot and dry weather BY BREANNE MASSEY Times Staff
After two months of record-breaking rainfalls, a warm and dry August enveloped the Greater Trail region for the final leg of summer. The average high temperature was markedly higher on each day than normal, typically ranging at an average of 2.7 degrees warmer, resulting with a mean of 21 C, according to figures recently released for the region by the Southeast
Fire Centre in Castlegar. It was hot and it got hotter, said the centre’s meteorologist Ron Lakeman, thanks to a high pressure system. “High pressure is fairly common in the month of August and it definitely dominated through this past month,” he explained. “But there are indications of an El Niño developing.” An El Niño is a phenomenon associated with warmer than normal sea surface tem-
peratures close to Central America and it commonly produces milder than normal temperatures during the winter months here locally, he explained. The warmest temperature in August was a whopping 36.8 C on the afternoon of Aug. 19, nearing the region’s record high of 40 C during 1967. And it was dry, the second driest August on record. The total rainfall was only five per
cent normal for the month, a repeat of 2011 where only 3.2 millimetres of precipitation was recorded during the entire month of August. Only 2mm of measurable rain fell in August, bested only by 1967’s record of a “trace” of precipitation. There were only two days in the last month that saw any moisture fall. Lakeman hinted that September should also remain on the warm and dry side due to the influence of the El Niño.
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