Little libraries Neighbourhoods benefit
from community book exchange project. PAGE 17
www.nanaimobulletin.com
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2015
VOL. 27, NO. 35
City examines value of in-house parking BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM THE NEWS BULLETIN
Mental blocks
Orden Mack, left, Cole Schisler, Jennifer Lambie, Miranda Lum, and Heather Markow play a round of Copy Cat, a building-block game, at Rock the VIU 2015. The event, hosted at Vancouver Island University Thursday, is an orientation day for incoming students that features campus tours, games, food, music and other festivities. CHRIS BUSH/THE NEWS BULLETIN
Parents ready to fight school closure
I
PLAN CALLS for closing Rutherford Elementary. BY KARL YU THE NEWS BULLETIN
One group of parents is already fighting the potential closure of its school after Nanaimo school board trustees gave tentative approval to an updated facilities plan Wednesday. Trustees approved the plan in principle, which
calls for closure and consolidation of a number of schools. Nanaimo school district staff, who prepared the update to the plan, suggested either Woodbank Primary or North Cedar Intermediate could be shuttered in June of next year, with students amalgamated at the school that remains open. The plan recommends closing Woodlands Secondary School in June of 2016 and combining Learn at Home programs into one location.
The closure of Rutherford Elementary in June 2017, and an additional wing built at Frank J. Ney Elementary, were also recommendations. Tina Bray, co-chairwoman of the Rutherford Open and Thriving grassroots group, said she was hoping to hear more information at the meeting. The school district has pointed to declining enrolment as a reason for the possible closures, something that Bray disagrees with based on new developments in her area, such
as Linley Valley. She said she feels development will sustain the number of schools and if that isn’t accounted for, the district will end up with elementary schools that are over the recommended population for an elementary school. Bray said the Rutherford group will continue to advocate for the school. The group will hold an information session for parents at a parent advisory committee meeting on Sept. 17. See ‘CONSULTATION’ /4
Time has run out for the City of Nanaimo’s test run of a new in-house parking model. Nanaimo council will decide this month whether to make parking enforcement a permanent in-house service. The City of Nanaimo has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the transition to an inhouse model, which was on trial for the past three years as part of an agreement with the Canadian Union of Public Employees. The transition was meant to create an integrated service that combines enforcement and security, creates ambassadors and allows discretion when it comes to ticketing. The city has seen changes, including six full-time positions that include a new parking manager, an adjudication system for disputes, and altered parking rates. Parking service department wages and benefits alone cost the city $499,843 during the first full year of operations in 2014. The Robbins Parking contract, which included a commission, cost the city $359,848 in 2013. Another $68,000 has been spent on new licence plate-reader technology. Now councillors will decide if they should keep the service or contract it out to an external provider. The three-year trial expires at the end of the year. Mayor Bill McKay said when the service went in-house it was a novel concept and the city didn’t know if it was going to work out. He now believes customer satisfaction is way up and said while ticketing revenues are down, so are unpaid parking tickets – a change he attributes to the new adjudication system. “It looks to me as though it will be positive to stay with this new model,” McKay said. Coun. Gord Fuller is waiting for a staff report but would like to keep parking in-house. If it’s in the red, that’s a different story, he said. A report on parking services is expected to go to council at the end of the month. An early presentation showed there would be a net estimated savings of more than $60,000 if the city went to an external contractor. news@nanaimobulletin.com,
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