LOCAL NEWS: HELP FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ▼ A3
Times
Thursday, May 5, 2016 ▼ Volume 52 No. 18 ▼ www.clearwatertimes.com ▼ $1.35 Includes GST
THE
NORTH THOMPSON
MOMMA MIA!:
2014
CCNA BLUE RIBBON
Abra Cadabra performs. See A13 inside.
First Place Best All Round Newspaper & Best Editorial Page Second Place Best Front Page All of Canada <1,250 circulation 2014 First Place General Excellence B.C. and Yukon <2,000 circulation 2014
Fish for Dutch Lake Children from Clearwater Pre-School plus their parents watch as a truck from Clearwater Hatchery dumps 5,000 kokanee and 1,500 Dragon Lake rainbow trout into Dutch Lake on April 26. Photo by Keith McNeill
Splash park fundraiser Members of the MacDonald family, (l-r) Tyler, Scott, Kirstin and Hannah, check out some of the items for sale in a silent auction held as part of a fundraiser for a planned splash park. About $12,000 was raised during the event, which was held Friday evening and Saturday at the North Thompson Sportsplex. Construction of the splash park has begun in Weyerhaeuser Park (behind Buy-Low). Photo by Keith McNeill
Upper Clearwater Community Hall grant goes to a vote Adam Williams – Kamloops This Week A public-assent process to determine the future of funding for the Upper Clearwater Community Hall will begin on Monday. The ThompsonNicola Regional District’s (TNRD) board of directors voted Thursday to authorize a public-assent process by petition in the area, which will determine if the hall’s grant-in-aid service will be eliminated. At issue in Upper Clearwater is a grant-inaid derived from property taxes — and paid to the Upper Clearwater Farmers’ Institute, the owners of the hall, annually by the TNRD.
One of several No Trespassing signs guards access to the Upper Clearwater Hall for several weeks last spring. The question of whether a grant-in-aid to support the hall will continue is now going to a mail-in public assent process. Times file photo
The grant-in-aid amounts to roughly $5,000 annually and has been collected since 2005.
The petitions for the public-assent process will be distributed on Monday. Each resident in Upper
Clearwater will receive one petition for each property they own. Those who wish to eliminate the grant-inaid must return completed petitions to the TNRD by noon on June 14. In order for the grantin-aid to be repealed, 50 per cent of the petitions totalling 50 per cent of the property value in the area must be returned to the TNRD — 58 petitions valued at $9,879,225. Thursday’s board of directors vote to distribute the petitions was the final step in a process that began in January, aimed at determining if residents wished to continue providing funding to the hall. The issue was brought to the TNRD’s attention
Highway 5 Little Fort, BC 250-677-4441
by delegations representing both the Upper Clearwater Farmers’ Institute and a number of residents of Upper Clearwater. Though both sides presented differing opinions on the hall and its tenure in Upper Clearwater, they agreed the relationship between the two sides has become increasingly acrimonious. A flawed process behind the original establishment of the grant-in-aid was detailed and the ensuing rift in the community led some board members to refer to the groups as the Hatfields and McCoys — two families involved in an infamous feud in the United States. Following the delegations, the board decided to
Highway 5 Clearwater, BC 250-674-3148
Located on Highway 5
issue a non-binding survey to residents of the area, to determine if a publicassent process was warranted. The results of the survey, released on April 15, revealed a majority of respondents wished to do away with the tax, setting the table for the board to begin the petition process. Roughly $92,000 in gas-tax revenue has been invested in renovations to the community hall during the past few years. The $5,000 grant-inaid equates to a tax of about $40 per year for the average-assessed property in the Upper Clearwater community. Without the yearly infusion of capital, the Farmers’ Institute has said the hall may close.