WEDNESDAY JANUARY 27, 2016
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THE BULLETIN PROUDLY SERVING KIMBERLEY AND AREA SINCE 1932 | Vol. 84, Issue 18 | www.dailybulletin.ca
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Taxing time
Council directs staff to prepare a budget with a maximum property tax increase of 3.4% C AROLYN GR ANT Bulletin Editor
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
The students in the grade seven classes at McKim Middle School are busy selling raffle tickets for their 4th annual raffle to fundraise money for extracurricular activities. Once again awesome prizes donated by generous community people including: condo stays at Northstar Mountain Resort and Mountain Spirit Resort, dinner at Pedal and Tap, ski and golf passes from RCR, and two premium tickets to a March 26 Calgary Flames game versus the Chicago Blackhawks. Tickets are only two dollars and are available from McKim students in grade six and seven. Our raffle has been a sell out every year so act fast. Draw date is February 18, 2016. In photo: Eli Ambrosio, Emery Hoko, and Zoe Callwood.
The flume rehab is finished
It’s been a long, bumpy ride, but water is flowing through Mark Creek again C AROLYN GR ANT Bulletin Editor
The flume is finished. At City Council on Monday evening, Mayor Don McCormick said that the last large rock was placed last Thursday and water is flowing through Mark Creek again rather than the bypass.
There will be landscaping and clean up work to be done in the spring, but for all intents and purposes the project — cause of considerable angst for two different mayors and councils — is wrapped up. With the first phase of the flume going vastly over its estimated budget, Council kept a much closer eye on phase II. In December of 2015 it was announced that the second phase was $163,689 over budget, a figure Mayor McCormick said he could live with given the scope of the project. There is also an additional cost since
the project ran well over the expected finish date. Who will pay those costs — city or contractor — will be decided through arbitration. McCormck says there will be a full report on the entire project submitted to Council, however, it is unlikely that it will be written until the dispute with the contractor is settled. “However that turns out will affect the final financials. Shortly after that is settled, we’d like to see the report. I’d like it to include lessons learned and it will cover the
entire project. A lot of the difficulties with Phase II were caused by Phase I, so we want to look at all of it.” McCormick says that overall feedback is positive on phase Ii although there have been some complaints about the new concrete flume put in by BJ’s Restaurant. “People are complaining that it is not really very artistic. We will be doing a few things to enhance that area.” The City will plan an event in the spring to celebrate the completion of the project.
Kimberley City Council and staff are deep in budget preparation at the moment, finalizing a financial plan that will be released in early May. Draft budgets have been prepared but at their regular meeting on Monday evening, Kimberley City Council passed a resolution directing staff to prepare the 2016 Financial Plan with a projected tax increase of no more than 3.46 per cent. That would include a two percent general tax increase and 1.46 per cent for financing the flume project. “We have had preliminary budget discussions,” said Mayor Don McCormick. “Staff have been directed to go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan that works within the resolution.” McCormick says that most Kimberley residents already know about the 1.46 per cent to finance the flume project. “That’s not a variable, most people are aware of that. However the two per cent is a variable. That basically represents our rate of municipal inflation. Two per cent is the maximum we are prepared to authorize this year. There may be additiona savings found there. We are still working very hard to keep the increase as low as possible, and it will be no more than 3.46 per cent.”
Dashcam evidence leads to charge Video of dangerous driving given to police BULLETIN STAFF
Kimberley RCMP report that dashcam evidence turned over to them led to charges of Undue Care and Attention under the Motor Vehicle Act. Cpl Chris Newel says that the complainant supplied the video after observing a vehicle pass four vehicles on Highway 95 near Wycliffe Park Road on January 21.
See VIDEO , Page 4