Have you made music downtown? Serving the Creston Valley since 1948
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Volume 66, No. 34
VCSS may not get tax exmption
$1.10 (includes GST)
BY LORNE ECKERSLEY Advance Staff
The newly named Valley Community Services Society (formerly the Creston and District Community Resource Centre Society) now owns a premises that houses administrative and some program functions. But it won’t get a permissive tax exemption from the town of Creston until 2017, if at all. That was the message delivered to executive director Serena Naeve and finance and administration manager Justine Keirn at the Aug. 12 regular town council meeting. Naeve and Keirn appeared as a delegation to outline the non-profit society’s many community services to people of all ages. A request to be exempt from paying the municipal portion of its property taxes was not considered by council, although similar agencies do have exempt status. Mayor Ron Toyota explained that council had adopted a policy to limit permissive tax exemption requests to a once-in-three-years window. He also cautioned that unless a future council increases the existing cap (1.75 per cent of total municipal taxes), full exemptions might not be available to non-profits. See TOWN, page 2
Brian Lawrence
MAKING MUSIC — Monte Anderson demonstrates the Canyon Street Walkthrough’s piano, painted by Brandy Hunt and unveiled along
with a show of her art at Sounds of the Valley, an Aug. 12 event sponsored by the Town of Creston, the Creston Rotary Club and the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce. (Story on page 3; more photos at www.crestonvalleyadvance.ca/ourtown.)
Cycling tour visiting valley farms BY BRIAN LAWRENCE Advance Editor The Sept. 7 Creston Valley Tour de Farm, led by Kootenay Young Agrarians (YA), will show just how easy it is to enjoy a balanced diet of local food.
TODAY'S WEATHER
This week's weather artist:
Charges laid against four from Bountiful Page 3
Austin Carbert, Erickson Elementary School
DISCOVERY REAL ESTATE
On bicycles, participants will propel themselves from the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce to Lister to Erickson, visiting Kootenay Meadows, Full Circle Farm, Mo and Mikey Farms, JRD Farm and Root and Vine Acres (as well as, possibly, a winery) — covering
dairy, grain, meat and veggies, all within a 26-kilometre loop. “It means we have the 100-mile diet beat by eight times,” said Laura Hannant, who co-ordinates the YA program with Nigel Francis. See CYCLING, page 5
• RCMP seize over 1,000 pot plants /4 • Cinderella adult roles up for grabs /11 FIND US ONLINE AT
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