The Chilliwack
Progress Thursday
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Shrinking district reserve causes alarm Katie Bartel The Progress What happened to $823,000 of the school district’s unrestricted reserves? That was the question posed to Chilliwack board of education at Tuesday’s public meeting. Don Davis, treasurer of the District Parents’ Advisory Council, and a member of the school district’s finance committee, questioned the loss of more than $823,000 from the school district’s unrestricted reserves since June. We’re not talking about a year here, he told The Progress after the meeting, we’re talking a couple of months. At the last finance committee meeting held in June, the school district’s preliminary estimates showed approximately $1.3 million in unrestricted reserves, $500,000 of which would be going to the final implementation of the districtwide technology upgrade. However, in the final audit released last week, that reserve fund had depleted to $532,768. “We asked how close those numbers [preliminary estimate] were and were told they were pretty close, but the reality wasn’t the case,” said Davis. “I am extremely concerned.” Secretary treasurer Gerry Slykhuis couldn’t detail exactly where those monies were allotted, as he wasn’t working for the board at the time, and the school district’s director of finance James Richards has been off on medical leave. However, he noted that $800,000 is not a huge amount in the grand scheme of the $125 million budget. “It’s a half per cent,” he said. “I’m not saying $800,000 is not a significant amount, but when you have so many schools,1,800 staff… if your sick time goes up one per cent in a year, there goes $800,000 and change very quickly. “There’s a lot of factors that can swing $800,000 in your overall final results.” Still, with the school district’s current financial pressures, including $700,000 for the CUPE contract, and $50,000 for the byelection, Davis is concerned with how fast the “rainy day” fund is depleting, and fears the cuts that may come. “Something has to give,” he said.
This military reviewing stand, which was once part of the parade square at the former CFB lands, has recently been renovated and turned into a memorial. There will be a ceremony at the memorial, located on Caen Avenue, this Saturday at 1 p.m. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Sappers preserve piece of city’s military history The bark of the drill sergeant and sound of marching boots has long since faded from the parade square at CFB Chilliwack. But the memories will linger a while longer. This Saturday retired military engineers will mark nearly six decades of history in Chilliwack with the official unveiling of a refurbished reviewing stand at the former CFB Chilliwack. The elevated stand, once part of the expansive parade ground, had fallen into neglect when the engineers were moved and the base closed in the mid 1990s. As part of the construction of the Canada Education Park,
Caen Avenue was extended to skirt the north end of the parade square, which now serves as a parking lot for the University of the Fraser Valley. The starkwhite concrete viewing stand remained – but an orphan of the large asphalt parade square it once commanded. Now, through the efforts of local volunteers and the support of veterans and military personnel from around the world, the stand has been brought back to its former glory and put into historical context. This Saturday those efforts will be celebrated. Members of the Retired Sappers Association have pains-
takingly preserved the viewing stand, from which officers would watch their troops assemble. It’s been repainted and interpretive markers posted. Their work continues an effort by Canada Lands Corporation and a cadre of volunteers to preserve the military history of Chilliwack, and particularly the former Canada Forces Base Chilliwack. It’s a history that stretches back at least 57 years to when the A6-Canadian Engineers Training Centre was producing combat engineers for the field. Today, that history competes with the residential and institutional development that is trans-
forming the old army base. But it can be found in more than the memories of those who once served there. It can be seen in the legacy makers and monuments that punctuate Garrison Crossing and Canada Education Park, which sprang from recommendations made by a focus group gathered by Canada Lands to find ways to preserve CFB Chilliwack’s rich history. That group, composed of civilian workers, ex-military and their dependents and presided over by Ron Denman, former director of Chilliwack Museum, recommended the reviewing
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