KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK THURSDAY
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30 CENTS AT NEWSSTANDS
CHARITY SPOTLIGHT AND YOUR DONATIONS PAGE A3
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DECEMBER 3, 2015 | Volume 28 No. 145
WEATHER Flurries High 2 C Low 1 C
SUN PEAKS SNOW REPORT Mid-mountain: 58 cm Alpine: 76 cm Snow phone: 250-578-7232
CITY PAYS FOR FLAGGERS
RENEWING THE RIVALRY Portland and Kamloops meet tomorrow night at Sandman Centre
$10,000 and counting
A17
A7
Residents face tax, utility fee hikes ANDREA KLASSEN
STAFF REPORTER
andrea@kamloopsthisweek.com
DAVE EAGLES/KTW
LUNCHING WITH CARL
Karen Logan chats with her feathered-friend Carl during her lunch break at Kamloops Airport yesterday. Logan and the wild European starling have been close friends for the past three years, sharing meals of granola and a drink of water outside the BG Urban Grill where Logan earns a living. She says the starling is a bit of an attraction at the airport, residing on her shoulder whenever she heads outside for a smoke break. “He’s always happy to see me.” Logan says. The bird’s name comes from an Edmonton girl who wanted to take him home. — and Logan told her she could name him. That’s how the talk of the airport became known as Carl.
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A Kamloops city councillor is sounding the alarm that a two per cent tax increase for 2016 may be more than the public will tolerate. The average Kamloops homeowner will pay about $20 more in utility fees in 2016 and could see another $38 added to their property taxes, according to a preliminary budget passed by city council on Tuesday. Finance director Kathy Humphrey told council the $38 tax increase for the average-assessed home, just slightly above a two per cent increase, would give the city enough cash to keep its service levels the same as they were in 2015 and allow it to continue maintaining roads, pipes and other infrastructure. The additional cash would cover increased wages for city staff, firefighters and RCMP, as well as higher costs for electricity, transit and natural gas. The increase doesn’t include supplemental items, which are additional monetary requests by city staff or the community. Surplus funds from 2015, as well as a finalized amount of new taxation from growth, could also change the final tax hike for the coming year. Coun. Ken Christian urged his colleagues to be “very cautious” with supplemental costs as the budget is shaped over the next several months. “I’m very worried about our spring meetings, where we’re entertaining supplementary budget items, because we are clearly at the maximum the public can tolerate, if not exceeding that
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level,” he said, noting a two per cent tax increase is above the rate of inflation. Of the utility rates set Tuesday, recycling services will see the largest jump, with the average-assessed property charged an extra $17, about $50 in total compared to about $33 paid in 2015. For multi-family developments, recycling costs will go up about $5 per unit of housing. The increase is due to a much more expensive contract for recycling processing services approved by council in the same meeting. Emterra Environmental will charge the city 84 per cent more to process and sell its recycling — $845,000 for the year, compared to the current $460,000. Questioned about what Coun. Donovan Cavers called a “massive cost increase,” public works director Jen Fretz said she believes the increase stems from the very low market value for most recycled materials. “It’s not really for us to be questioning all the different things that make up that cost,” she said. “One of the risks for us if we go back to Emterra and start re-negotiating that cost is that the entire RFP could be off the table and they could come back with a completely different price.” In a response to a query from KTW, Emterra said: “Emterra’s bid reflects the true cost of local operations and the international demand and pricing of recycled material.” The city had one other bid for the work from Cascades Recovery Inc. Fretz said the proposal was more expensive than Emterra and offered fewer services. See CAVERS A10
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