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District crunches numbers for school year PACs formally invited to budget briefings Jessica Peters The Progress
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A longer spring outdoor burning season, until May 16, will be followed by a shorter season come fall. PROGRESS FILE PHOTO
No extra burning allowed to remove windfall Season extended in spring, shortened in fall Jennifer Feinberg The Progress Chilliwack farmers and agricultural contractors will not be getting any additional outdoor burning days for 2016. Council considered the request at Tuesday’s meeting, in the wake of a wicked windstorm that brought down 75 trees across Chilliwack last fall. The severe storm that hit Chilliwack last November brought down trees and left many rural and agricultural property owners, particularly
in Ryder Lake, scrambling to deal with fallen trees, unearthed rootballs, and branch debris. What they’ll be getting instead of additional burn days, is a longer spring outdoor burning season, until May 16, followed by a shorter season come fall. Ultimately it will be the same number of days, said Mayor Sharon Gaetz. They’ll revert back to normal in 2017. “Council has made it clear we wish to see burning reduced in our community,” said Gaetz at the council meeting.
The mayor receives “numerous” complaints about it, when fire smoke is visible on local hillsides, given the sensitive air shed issue. The decision to extend the spring season made sense, acknowledged councillors Sam Waddington and Chris Kloot in council chambers. An extra month added to the spring season was supportable, said Coun. Waddington. But he’s also looking forward to alternative solutions, like chipping rather than burning, and “more prohibitive” fines for outdoor burning, under Mayor Gaetz’s leadership. Minimum fines for burning
bylaw violations start at $250/ day for each violation and a maximum of $10,000 depending on the severity and frequency of the violations. Ag operators under the current rules, are given only four months per year to burn windfall debris and brush, to remove fire fuel from their properties. But there is no outdoor burning permitted on urban residential land, commercial or industrial. “From the information we get from Fraser Health, people in the Fraser Valley have increased Continued: BURNING/ p10
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The 2015-2016 school board budget is just about wrapped up, and ready for public presentation. The total budget for operating all of Chilliwack’s public schools is $137,448,721. It was a financially tricky year, with strike action, changes to curriculum and provincial cutbacks to school boards. Secretary-teasurer Gerry Slykhuis presented the amended budget to the board on Tuesday night, giving a brief overview of some of the changes since his last presentation. And he’ll be doing the same for the public in an upcoming meeting that the board is hoping will draw out members of the public. The board has been increasingly vocal about the need for parents, and particularly those involved in school PAC executives, to come out to budget meetings and fully understand the financial situation of the school district. When PAC executives understand the constraints, how reserves work, and what cutbacks may be in the future, they can then communicate that information out to the parent body at their schools. So, in addition to opening the budget meeting to the public, the board has also decided to formally invite PAC executives in writing. “This is something we should have been doing all along,” trustee Paul McManus said, in addition to each liaison trustee informing PACs of upcoming budget meetings. As always, there are a few interesting line items in the budget. The district returned to collecting bus fees this year, in hopes of filling a budget gap. Staff is still working on collecting