I N S I D E : Satisfaction is the result of invention. Page 5
Journal ASHCROFT t CACHE CREEK
Volume 121 No 2 PM # 400121123
The
Thursday, January 14, 2016
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Expenses getting tight in Cache Creek
The puck stops here Ashcroft Atoms goalie Josh Adamson (blue helmet) makes another save against Chase on Sunday with the help of teammate Waylon Hoggard. More Atoms news on p. 9.
Blackbirds and crows disappearing, chukars hiding by Wendy Coomber The question is, where do all the chukars go during the Christmas Bird Count? And why can’t the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Bird Count ever get more than 39 species? “Yep, 39 species again for the fifth time,” said team leader Karl Ricker. “Forty is still eluding us. If we could only run into the chukars, we would have had our 40 species!” The chukars have since been spotted in the area, but too late for the official count. “Nonetheless,” he said, “we can’t argue with the new species added to
our count – an overdue Great Gray Owl and Pine Grosbeaks, both seen at the Logan Lake and Savona-Walhachin counts. “The surprise,” said Ricker, “was the redressed Cache Creek Landfill, which left little space for the usual droves of Rock pigeons, ravens and crows. Only the starling count was about normal there.” Ricker said the other surprise was the “grand disappearance” of the blackbirds, Redwing and Brewers, “which is the case at many other Christmas counts.” Eight people went out on the annual Ashcroft-Cache Creek Christmas Bird
Count on Dec. 23, including Maria Russell Martin, Sonja Matthews and Wendy Coomber from the local area, as well as Bert Parke, Ray Towne and Lookie van der pol from Logan Lake. The group counts everything within a certain radius and compares it to past years. There were new high counts on Fox Sparrows (14) and Pine Siskins, “but the latter at 183 is rather low compared to elsewhere,” said Ricker. The group received a tip that a rare species of cardinal had been spotted on the Mesa, but it was not confirmed by the group. The annual Count will be held again this December.
by Wendy Coomber Cache Creek Council is pinching their pennies this year and preparing this year’s budget isn’t the calm process it has appeared to be before last year’s flood. Municpalities are being encouraged to develop asset management plans to assist them in “delivering sustainable services by extending and deepening asset management practices within their organizations.” It’s meant to assist local governments in managing their capital assets better. The Village received a $10,000 provincial grant for staff to train in the National Asset Managgement Strategy. A matching $10,000 from the Village was required. Coun. Wyatt McMurray asked if it was necessary for them to develop an asset management plan. “It will be,” said Chief Financial Officer Sheila McCutcheon. She added that it would take time to put an asset management in place so it was preferable to start now rather than later. They would also be restricted in what infrastructure grants they could access until they had their plan. She said Cache Creek staff hoped to host the NAMS course and hopefully recover some of the costs back through registrations by other municipalities attending the course. She said the $10,000 from the Village could also be in kind work. Staff also presented an application for three infrastructure planning grants to start the process. “We know it’s coming,” said CAO Melany de Weerdt. “If we can access some funding it will forward this in a more efficient manner.” Coun. McMurray suggested forward the application to a budget workshop. “We just spent $10,000,” he said. “This is another $22,000. We already can’t balance the budget.” “It’s highly unlikely we’ll get all three grants approved this time around,” said McCutcheon. “It could be a year before we access them all.” “The money had got to come from some place,” he said. “I’m fine with applying for the grants,” he relented. “We can decide whether to use them once we’re approved.” “What we need is an Operating Certificate for the Landfill so we can market an opportunity while it still exists,” said Mayor John Ranta.
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