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This past week has been busier than usual with Council meetings, committee
meetings, public meetings, budget, indoor pool, and visitors form Ono
Cho, Japan. Of course Mt. Mackenzie Development is always lurking in the
forefront. We are currently looking for ways to fund our studies on the
master plan and how it will be implemented and making sure it meets the
current and future needs of our community.
The Indoor Aquatic Centre
saw one of it's potentially most volatile contracts for steel being let
at $481,000.00 slightly under it's budget of $500,000.00. The next
tender we are anxiously waiting to come in will be for mechanical and
electrical. The Federal Government’s announcement of municipalities not
paying GST has saved the community approximately $120,000.00 on this
project. We met with Task Management on Tuesday to review budgets,
timelines, and next steps. The bottom line from this visit is the
project is on time, on budget and has all of it's $400,000.00
contingency intact. Special thanks to Kai Boggild and Kevin Chernenkoff
from Columbia Basin Youth and Jim Cook from Community Futures for their
donations towards the indoor pool.
The public process for
traffic patterns and parking at the pool and community centre has
started and there was a good turnout for both meetings with a couple of
new ideas being presented that will require further study and analysis.
Council has met again to
discuss budgets and with a combination of heavy snow removal costs,
inflation, and indoor pool, the increases I talked about earlier of a
minimum of 8½% will not be achievable as it looks like it will be
higher.
The Community Energy
Project will be having a public open house on March 22nd at the
Community Centre. This 5.4 million dollar project will see wood waste
from Downie burned in an efficient burner that produces hot water for
heating the Downie kilns, high school and indoor pool as well as other
key buildings in town. This will produce revenue that will pay for this
project and eventually see a return to the community. There will be
representatives present from our consultants FVB Energy Ltd. as well as
project chair Dr. Battersby and Council. This project will be financed
by a combination of grants, low interest and conventional loans and
equity from Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation and proceeds from
the Electrical Utility Reserve Fund.
The Chamber of Commerce I
see is just as busy as Council with a slate of meetings coming up.
Today, March 17th there is a lunch meeting at the Regent Hotel with
Rocky Mountain Railtours and MP Jim Abbott who are on a fact-finding
mission as to the feasibility of a ski train from Calgary to Revelstoke.
This will be a great service for Revelstoke and one that I hope gets
huge support from the community. March 24th is a seminar on "So what do
we do now". A business owners opportunity to evaluate their business
plan in the event of a loss due to fire, water, theft, or vandalism.
April 7th will see our MLA Wendy McMahon as a guest speaker at the
Chamber lunch held at the Best Western. April 27th there will be a
special breakfast meeting and presentation from the Hon. Sandi Santori,
Minister of State for Resort Development.
These are exciting but
critical times for our community, and the decisions we make today can,
and will, have implications on our future. We rely on you the public to
be as informed as possible and help Council make the decisions that will
shape our community in the years to come.
Thank you.
Mark McKee
Mayor
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