WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2008 Established 1988.
SERVING NELSON & AREA
VOLUME 20, NUMBER 8
Trouble in Sandon
INSIDE
Family, RDCK dispute ghost town’s future
School evicted Vallican Whole School asked to leave Vallican Whole Community Centre. PAGE 3
CHRIS SHEPHERD
Ian Mason looks through a section of pipe taken from Holland Street. The deposits blocking the pipe have been building up since 1966, when the pipe were laid.
Water rates up Council gives final approval to rate increases, receive $1M from feds and province to replace aging water pipes
Stone aged Chris Morasky teaches ancient skills and new age thinking. PAGE 7
Fun for Kaspar The Sound of Music sing-a-long promises good fun for a good cause. PAGE 8 Editorial..............5 Street Talk............5 Crossword...........14 A&E....................8 Sports & Rec......4 Classifieds...........12
by Chris Shepherd Nelson’s aged water pipes are closer to being retired as council passed the new water rates and the provincial and federal governments announced a million-dollar grant. On Saturday, Jan. 19, the province of B.C. and federal government announced a $1.1 million grant for Nelson. Councillor Ian Mason received the grant for the City and says it will go to the aging water infrastructure. “Basically, it’s to replace the water pipes in the ground,” Mason said after council’s Monday, Jan. 21 meeting. “Our $17 million infrastructure deficit is now
down to $16 million.” That infrastructure deficit was also behind council’s decision to increase water rates. Coun. Gord McAdams was the only vote in opposition to the rate increases that will see single-family dwellings pay $365 a year for water, up from $240 in 2007. Overall, water users will see a 52 per cent increase in their tax rates in 2008, followed by smaller increases in subsequent years of eight per cent. Council didn’t debate the matter at the Jan. 21 meeting, but the previous week the discussion was more lively. Again, Coun. McAdams was the main opponent to the rate increases.
Coun. McAdams argued the increases would hurt businesses and low income residents alike. “This flies in the opposite direction of affordable housing,” McAdams said at the Monday, Jan. 14 meeting. His voice was in the minority. The remaining councillors and mayor felt that while the increase may be large, it’s needed to start replacing water pipes. Kevin Cormack, City manager, said the rate increase will ensure the City’s infrastructure deficit won’t grow. Mayor John Dooley agreed, noting grants like the one received the previous day will help the City improve the system for the future.
Nelson’s councillors were asked if they’d be interested in adding some major historical hardware to the city – including a steam train and 110-yearold power station – at their most recent meeting, but behind the offer is decades of disagreement between one family and the regional district. Hal Wright asked Nelson council to think about adding some of the massive artifacts at their Monday, Jan. 21 meeting. Council was sympathetic, but not willing to committ to anything at the meeting. Hal Wright says he was forced to look for another home for the artifacts because of a dispute with the Regional District of Central Kootenay. Hal Wright’s family history goes back over a hundred years, he says. His mother’s family arrived in the mining town 110 years ago. He says the family has been working on preserving Sandon’s historical sites for 30 years. The family has a collection of historical artifacts which include a steam locomotive and Sandon’s three-storey city hall. They also own and operate a power generating station that was built in 1897 and still provides power to the area and sells the surplus to B.C. Hydro. The family started the Sandon Historical Society in 1979 to further their efforts, but after what Hal Wright describes as a “hostile takeover” in 1998, his family hasn’t been part of the society. Since then, Hal Wright and his family have tried to create a historical destination that would be like “you’re stepping into the photograph” of the
community in the 1890s, the town’s heyday. Hal Wright’s family owns much of the land in and around Sandon and most of the historical buildings are on his property But Hal Wright says the regional district’s plans to make a regional park with Crown land around Sandon would prevent any of that from happening. Hal Wright’s land and the remaining Crown land form a checkerboard of property, he says. “They’re using this bogus park thing to stop us. It will be our doom.” Gary Wright is chair of the RDCK and mayor of New Denver. While the two men aren’t related there is a lot of history between them. Gary Wright has been a member of the Sandon Historical Society and moderated the meeting that saw Hal Wright expelled from the society. The mayor disagrees the planned park would stop Hal Wright’s plans. “The intent of the district is not to block anybody’s use of their private property. The object of making a public park, in this case, is to preserve a historic area for the benefit of all residents of the regional district.” But Hal Wright says if his family can’t buy the Crown land, they won’t be able to build the needed infrastructure to improve their existing buildings. Those buildings are needed to create recreation opportunities and hotels and hostels. Gary Wright says Hal Wright wouldn’t be stopped from building what he wants. “It’s just they wouldn’t be able to do stuff on their own.”