Since 1923
Arrow Lakes News PAGE 8
50 0 1 6
PAGE 6
78195
COLLECT A SMALL GALLERY
7
HELPING HAITI
1
Vol. 90 Issue 12 • Wednesday, March 20, 2013 • www.arrowlakesnews.com • 250-265-3823 • $1.25 •
PM40036531
Trade show valuable experience CLAIRE PARADIS Arrow Lakes News
Seven students from Nakusp Secondary School made the trek to the BC Boat and Sportsmen Show in Abbotsford, wowing exhibitors and visitors alike with their professionalism. Bailey Henschke, Whitney Shkuratoff, Emma Cunningham, Dylan Baiko, Jacob Henschke, Abby Bostwell and Cody Desjarlais not only sold fishing flashers, they planned and organized the trip, set up the booth and worked the crowd. “It was crazy, honestly,” said Bailey Henschke. “It was great. I learned a lot of people skills, like how to carry on a conversation.” Henschke and Cunningham honed their new skills in part by videotaping a series of short interviews with vendors from nearby booths. During their stint at the show, the students talked with folks visiting their booth about Nakusp and their fishing flasher fundraiser for Outdoor Ed, and learned the fine art of selling. “You could tell if they were interested in the product or not,” said Henschke, who identified the target market for the flashers at the trade show as middle aged men with a fair amount of money. “It was awesome,” said Dylan Baiko, who
was so excited, he woke up at five a.m. the first morning of the show. Baiko learned what it was like to sell something you had invested a lot of time and energy making. “I spent a lot of time building flashers. I definitely wanted to tell everyone,” he said, wanting to turn all that time and effort into something good. “This is our little baby.” Although the reception was generally positive, there were some mixed reactions to the flashers. The students had to contend with some skepticism about their effectiveness, but were professional and kept their cool. “Some people would flat out tell you it doesn’t work,” said Henschke, “but you have to be nice.” Some people didn’t even believe the students went out fishing, which they all do. Operators of nearby booths were encouraging, giving the teens good advice about how to talk to people and sell, especially once they learned that it was a group of students that had arranged, set up and were running the booth. The students got more than just advice, they also were given free hats and T-shirts. The vendors were really impressed by the students’ professionalism, which seemed to grow right before their eyes, NSS Outdoor
See Trade Show page 2
Sixteen books, three teams and a raft of questions made up this year’s Battle of the Books at Nakusp Elementary. At the end of the rapid fire questions, answers written on chalkboards by the three teams, the Mind Readers came out on top with 40 points. The Nerdasuaruses (sic) came in second with 31, and the Smart Cookies took third with 30 points. This year’s books were chosen by Christine Grout from the list of children’s books that had won Governor General’s Awards. Claire Paradis/Arrow Lakes News
RDCK budget reveals lower rates for Area K and Nakusp CLAIRE PARADIS Arrow Lakes News
With only eight more days left on the job, Grant Roeland is a very busy man. The Regional District of Central Kootenay Chief Financial Officer has been touring the area giving presentations of the budget in centres through the district. Roeland and new RDCK CAO Brian Carruthers were both on hand at the presentation of the 2013 budget and five year financial plan for Area K and the Village of Nakusp last Thursday, March 14. The 2013 RDCK budget will see an increase, unlike many at this point in economic history. The RDCK is bucking the trend and increasing the budget when many
others are trying to reduce costs, said CAO Carruthers. He said the increase is necessary now because enough changes had not been made in the last decade. “This organization has grown significantly in the last ten years and yet not kept up with the growth and not maintained our capacity internally to deal with the challenges,” said Carruthers. In 2012, the RDCK commissioned an independent review of its governance and services, which resulted in a list of recommendations for improvements. Within the first two months of Carruthers coming on as CAO, detailed departmental reviews were made which corroborated the findings of the independent review. community champs
Gaps, challenges and risks were identified and so the decision was made to spend the money to bring service levels up. For example, volumes have increased in financial work significantly, with accounts payable increasing 20 per cent each year since 2009. The RDCK has purchased and is implementing a new business system that CAO Carruthers believes will increase efficiency for financial management and reporting, reducing costs into the future. Carruthers said he understands the difficulty politicians face in selling an increase in spending that won’t result in a noticeable change in service levels for most residents. Because the spending is on internal RDCK departments, the reason
You could win
$2000!
for the increase might be lost on the average taxpayer. To soften the blow, the $500,000 increase needed to cover what are for the most part one-time costs will be covered by surplus funds, accrued from wages not paid out due to positions left unfilled for at least part of a budget year. Two senior positions are also being vacated, the Deputy Corporate Officer and the Chief Financial Officer are both leaving this year, which will mean reduced spending on wages and will also mean a restructuring of staff. For Nakusp and Area K residents, the change in 2013 assessments means a decrease in RDCK taxes this year. Nakuspians will see a reduction just above three per
cent, and Area K residents will pay around one per cent less, even with requests for increases in some local services. Area K director Paul Peterson and Karen Hamling did ask for a $1,200 increase for Arrow Lakes Search and Rescue so they would be able to cover the necessary expense of phone bills. The cemetery will also see an increase to its budget this year of $2,000 for issues like maintenance, fence repair and signage. The library will also be receiving an additional $3,000 for maintenance, heating and money to buy more books. “We didn’t ask for huge amounts for anything,” said Hamling. “We didn’t want to raise rates.”
Graduating and post-secondary students: We know there are unsung heroes in our schools. We want to reward them. Tell us about the work you do to make our world a better place and you could WIN $2000 towards your education. Apply online or at your school today!
deadline
may 15, 2013
kscu.com