MONDAY OCTOBER 20, 2014
MLA REPORT
LIFE SENTENCE OF POVERTY
Inadequate payments. See LOCAL NEWS page 3
SANCTUARY FOR ORPHANS
GRIZZLY CUBS SENT TO NORTHERN LIGHTS SOCIETY See REGIONAL NEWS page 5
THE BULLETIN PROUDLY SERVING KIMBERLEY AND AREA SINCE 1932 | Vol. 82, Issue 201 | www.dailybulletin.ca
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CAROLYN GRANT PHOTO
It was Credit Union Day last Thursday and Dawn Marchi and the staff at the Kootenay Savings Credit Union celebrated by donating the proceeds of their Care Wear fund ($1500) to Kimberley Rotary for the Spray Park Fund. Accepting for Rotary are Graham Mann and Grant Sharam,.
IH training staff for “unlikely” Ebola cases Problems with the pipes CITY INFRASTRUCTURE
Training will target emergency department and ICU staff C AROLYN GR ANT BULLETIN EDITOR
The Ebola outbreak has claimed nearly 4500 lives according to the World Health Organization. While ground zero for the outbreak is West Africa, it can spread further when an unknowingly infected person gets on an airplane. Last week Health Minister Terry Lake assured British Columbians that his government was prepared in the unlikely event that a case of Ebola appeared in this province. “The risk remains very low,” Minister Lake said. “But British Columbians can be assured that hospitals, health authorities and the Ministry of Health are doing everything possible to be prepared to respond to a case of Ebola in B.C.” In the Interior Health region and at
East Kootenay Regional Hospital, training is underway to prepare health care workers, says Karl Hardt, communications officer for the East Interior Health region. “It is important to emphasize that the risk of an Ebola case remains very low; there are no confirmed cases of Ebola in Canada,” Hardt said. “But we are taking this seriously and have been preparing for a while. We know that health care workers are not feeling comfortable and we are taking action to provide the information, training and resources they need. “Interior Health is part of a provincial task force led by the Provincial Health Officer that will collaborate on common areas of concern, review protocols and coordinate best practices across the health authorities. Interior Health has also established a working group to ensure that our staff are well-prepared to respond to any potential cases and to ensure the safety of healthcare workers, patients and the public.” See IHA, page 4
About 12 km of Kimberley’s water pipes are 59 to 74 years old; cost to replace $500,000 annually for 15 years C AROLYN GR ANT Bulletin Editor
Last week, Kimberley City Council received a report, prepared by Kerr Wood Leidal on a Water Loss Management Plan. The report outlines where Kimberley’s water losses are occurring, just how much water is lost through leaks and
breakages annually and costs to implement a Management Plan. Funding for the plan was available through the Columbia Basin Trust and Mayor Ron McRae says Kimberley opted to take part in it. “It gives us some really, really important information,” McRae said. “And it also backs up what we already knew. It will help us significantly with our plans for infrastructure renewal.” Kimberley is not alone in terms of aging infrastructure in the ground. Most Canadian cities face the same problems. However, Kimberley is nearly double the national, and international, average in terms of leakage. The report converts ac-
tual leakage to an infrastructure leakage index. Kimberley’s is 9.6, roughly double the average. The report recommends that Kimberley should aim to reduce that average to an index of 6. That reduction would save $140,000 per year in costs. Kimberley’s average pipe age is 39 years, which is close to the national and international average. However, Kimberley has some older cast iron and galvanized iron pipes, aged 59 and 74 years respectively. These pipes have three to four times as many breaks as the average. The Lois Creek and Downtown areas contain roughly 70 per cent of the system’s leakage, equating to 60
per cent of all main break repairs completed annually. The report says that if debt financed, replacing all 12 km (nearly 10 per cent) of Kimberley’s water mains that are in the worst condition is estimated to require approximately $500,000 annually for 15 years. “We don’t have the resources to do that,” McRae said. “But the report does give us a really good planning document. It gives us an opportunity to go through the report with the public.” It’s important to understand, McRae says, that this a common problem with many municipalities, and that this document will help staff decide which pipes to fix first.