FESTIVAL ROCKS CARIBOO A15
$1.30 ST
August 13, 2015
Includes G
Roadside weeds a noxious problem
Two Sections, 36 pages
100milefreepress.net
MMM, YUMMY CORN
Carole Rooney Free Press
WRANGLERS SEASON FAST APPROACHING A19
FOSSUM GIVEN COUNCIL LEAVE OF ABSENCE A7
INSIDE
opinion A8 letters A9 entertainment A18 sports A19 community B1 classifieds B5
The voice of the South Cariboo since 1960 How to reach us: Ph: 250-395-2219 Fax: 250-395-3939 www.100milefreepress.net mail@100milefreepress.net
A Tatton Road rancher says she and other residents are unhappy about the roadside invasive plant control in the 105 Mile and 108 Mile Ranch areas. “A lot of landowners and ranchers are concerned about it,” says Cheryl Monical. Their main problem is the volume of invasive weeds evidenced along Highway 97; knapweed plants in particular, which are now going to seed. The Ministry of Agriculture website notes knapweed infestations are “causing major environmental deterioration and loss of beef production” in the southern Interior of British Columbia. “If left unchecked, the loss to ranchers and recreational users could be disastrous,” it states. As an executive member of the Cariboo Chilcotin Invasive Plant Committee (CCIPC), the Cariboo Regional District (CRD) works with CCIPC to carry out the roadside weed spraying contract for the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI). Monical says when she called the CRD last year, she was told the budget covers annual noxious weed control for highways alternating with side roads every second year. “This year, I drive up and down the highway and I keep looking at all this knapweed, Canada Continued on A4
Chris Nickless photo
Chilliwack residents Aiden Robertson and his sister, Lily Robertson, enjoyed a feast of Chilliwack corn during the Redneck Olympics at Legion Park in Forest Grove on Aug. 8. The event was popular with residents and visitors alike.
School policy precludes users
School District #27 (SD27) has now relaxed its Community Use of Schools policy, but the Bridge Lake Community School Society states it won’t help revive its after-school or adult sports programs. While the society is continuing to provide hot lunches for students, as it has for years, all its other programming ceased last year after SD27 increased fees and enforced policies. Until its recent revisions, these included $30-an-hour custodial fees with a four-hour minimum rental and mandatory liability insurance. Society president Maria Hamilton says the policy restricts after-school programs to those under school staff or administrator supervision, or licensed child-care providers. “We can’t even pay to do that; it is not allowed, period. They
are not budging on that.” ety collects won’t cover the The society was disappoint- gym, the $5 games net rental, ed last year to hear it would plus $1,000 in annual liability need to discontinue its pro- insurance, she explains. gramming that offered Grades “They’ve come down considK-7 students someerably, and I appreciate thing constructive to all the work that [SD27 do after school, she has] done, but we’d have explains. to do a huge amount Hamilton notes that of fundraising in order while custodial fees to supplement the have now been waived amount....” for small groups (less The Bridge Lake MARIA than 20 people) with Elementary School 25 per cent added to HAMILTON offered to supplement hourly rates (except for the society’s costs for full school year bookings) that another year, if enough intersignificantly reduces costs to est was there, but this would about $15 an hour, this fee is still leave users paying $5 to still too high for the user group drop in and play a game – to cover, particularly when which isn’t likely to happen, folks were formerly paying a $2 she explains. flat drop-in fee. Hamilton notes the group With a typical user group of regularly applies for funding to about eight people on a “good support its hot-lunch program, turnout” day, the $16 the soci- but believes this isn’t the best
source for adult sports, and the society doesn’t have the matching funds those grants usually require. She says after-school activities and indoor adult sports will not be reinstated by the society. Meanwhile, SD27 chair Tanya Guenther says there is a way for groups to gain permission to hold after-school activities that are for the primary benefit of students in its facilities – but they must be a parent advisory council (PAC). The society at Bridge Lake is not parent-led, but a private community group, she notes. Guenther explains the mandate of school districts is to provide education to students, and that is where SD27 funds need to be directed. The policy and rates are online at www.sd27.bc.ca/ community-use-of-schools.