Sex offender breaks condition of release
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MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
$50K consult on staffing, pay ERIC PLUMMER ALBERNI VALLEY TIMES
The number of managers working for the city and how much they get paid will come under the microscope this year with a vote from council to acquire a consultant to review senior staff positions. The $50,000 consultant review was voted in by council during a budget meeting on March 30 to be included in this year’s financial plans. If the 2015 budget is adopted later this month the city will follow the March 30 motion “to undertake a third party management structure and pay review.” “Council has directed me to find out the names of some likely consultants that could do the work,” said city manager Ken Watson. “The structure of the work will basically be a comparative analysis of the management structure that we have in Port Alberni compared to other similar sized communities, as well as the pay that we have for that management padre.” Including the fire chief and deputy fire chief, Port Alberni has 21 management positions, a number that has steadily declined since 30 managers were on the city’s payroll in 1997. According to the city’s most recent Statement of Financial Information from 2013, eight of these managers earn over $100,000 a year. A comparison to other B.C. municipalities with under 30,000 residents puts Port Alberni’s $11.38 million payroll near the top, surpassed only by Prince Rupert’s $12.19 million expenditure on city salaries in 2013. But the eight local city employees who earned six figures is in the middle of the pack among B.C.’s small cities; Courtenay, White Rock, Pitt Meadows, Nelson and Langley all had more $100,000-plus positions. Most municipal wages are bound by collective agreements with CUPE Local 118 and the firefighters’ union, but management salaries are tied to changes in the province’s Consumer Price Index. While composing last year’s budget, council considered pay cuts for management staff, leading to a report from administration on possible savings. An in camera discussion between elected representatives and management staff in March 2014 determined that the city’s senior salaries should not be changed.
» Environment
File photo of Ucluelet Aquarium curator Laura Griffith-Cochrane with a group of aquarium visitors in 2014. [ANDREW BAILEY, WESTERLY NEWS]
Radioactive traces from Fukushima in sample found by Ucluelet students JACKIE CARMICHAEL WESTERLY NEWS
F
our years after the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, small amounts of radioactivity from it have finally turned up on the shores of North America in a seawater sample collected by Ucluelet schoolchildren. The 20-litre sample was pulled at the Whiskey Dock in Ucluelet on Feb. 19, 2015 with the help of Bryan Grigg’s sixth grade oceanography class from Ucluelet Elementary School, which is mentored by Ucluelet Aquarium curator Laura Griffith-Cochrane. The news announced Monday by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) said the sample collected by the Ucluelet Aquarium contained trace amounts of cesium (Cs) -134 and -137, far below internationally established levels of concern to humans and marine life. Griffith-Cochrane was grateful for the help of a grant from Coastal Community Credit Union to bring the youngster on board for the important find, and for a private group’s help to fund the WHOI sample, which cost $600.
See CONSULTANT, Page 9
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“Radioactivity can be dangerous, and we should be carefully monitoring the oceans after what is certainly the largest accidental release of radioactive contaminants to the oceans in history.” Ken Buesseler, WHOI marine chemist
“The more we know about the ocean, the better,” she said. “When we can involve local groups in this, it’s such an awesome opportunity, so we’re really excited about this right now.” Ken Buesseler, a marine chemist at WHOI who has been measuring levels of radioactivity in seawater samples from across the Pacific since 2011, said the levels detected in Ucluelet are “extremely low.” “I’d be happy to swim and eat all the seafood I can when I get up to your neck of the woods,” the Maine-based scientist said. No cause for alarm does not mean stopping monitoring, Buesseler said.
“Radioactivity can be dangerous, and we should be carefully monitoring the oceans after what is certainly the largest accidental release of radioactive contaminants to the oceans in history,” he said. The WHOI scientists, with the help of citizen volunteers, have collected samples at more than 60 sites along the U.S. and Canadian West Coast and Hawaii over the past 15 months for traces of radioactive isotopes from Fukushima. Last November, the team reported their first sample containing detectable radioactivity from Fukushima 100 miles (150 km) off shore of Northern California. However, no radiation had yet been found along any of the beaches or shorelines where the public has been sampling since 2013. Scientists at WHOI are analyzing samples for two forms of radioactive cesium that can only come from human sources. Cesium-137, the “legacy” cesium that remains after atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, is found in all the world’s oceans because of its relatively long, 30-year half-life. See FUKUSHIMA, Page 9
City includes projects in long-term budget
Coulson’s win B consolation final
Financing a new aquatic centre, as well as other popular additions, has been put into the city’s long-term plans with $500,000 on the books for 2016.. » Alberni Region, A3
Coulson’s beat Urgel’s Auto Collision in a two-game sweep on the weekend. Coulson’s last won the Consolation Final series in 2011–2012. » Sports, 5
Inside today What’s On 2 Alberni Region 3
Opinion 4 Sports 5
ALBERNI VALLEY TIMES VOLUME 66, NUMBER 66
Helping Hands 6 Scoreboard 7
Comics 8 Classifieds 9
On the Island 9 Taste 10
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