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One of British Columbia's first recipients of the BC Community Achievement
Award is our very own Dr. Geoff Battersby. Revelstoke has been fortunate
to have Geoff working all these years as our champion, our advocate and
our ambassador. This city is a far better place to live thanks to the
efforts of Dr. Battersby and on behalf of the community I offer thanks
and congratulations to both Geoff and Gwynne.
This week will have seen
meetings taking place in Revelstoke between First Nations
Representatives as well as Mt. Mackenzie Resort Ltd. We are waiting for
the next step in the mountain development which will be Government
approval of the master Plan. We had a two day visit from the Honourable
Sandi Santori the Minister for Resort Development and our MLA Wendy
McMahon. This was a visit by the minister to see first hand all of the
impacts that winter tourism has on our community. I know they were very
impressed with not just Mt. Mackenzie but the Heli-Ski Industry, Sno-Cat
Skiing, and of course Back-Country and Snowmobiling. It did not take
them long to realize what we have known all along that we have it all
and we are well positioned to capitalize on what we have to offer. The
comment I heard from the Premiers visit was the camouflage is off the
Kootenays. Trust me we are being discovered by a lot of people. In the
meantime we know we have a chairlift in need of repairs to provide local
skiing and we are working to ensure we are up and running for the coming
ski season.
The Indoor Pool to date
has seen savings in just about every tender to the tune of approximately
$175,000. If you add the $400,000 we have put aside in contingency and
community donations of $300,000, this gives us approximately $875,000 to
guarantee this project comes in within budget. One of the main reasons
we wanted to start this project as early as possible was to get the best
prices for labour and materials. This has proven to be the case up until
the tenders for electrical and mechanical which have come in
substantially over budget but well within the $875,000 mentioned above.
Our construction managers, contractors and consultants are working to
reduce the overage but Council gave clear direction that it not
sacrifice the overall quality of the end product. As this gets closer to
a final figure we will keep the community informed. With escalating
costs of materials and qualified tradespeople getting harder to find, I
feel the decision to start as early as possible has paid dividends to
the City on this project.
We have challenged the
City of Trail in the ICBC Community Crash Reduction Challenge - the
loser of the challenge will fly the winner’s flag at their next Council
meeting. The Challenge takes place over a 23-day period May 5th – 27th,
2004. There are five categories based on population size and the
community in each prize category that shows the greatest reduction in
crashes in the 23 day period can win a road safety grant. Revelstoke
could win an $18,000 grant. Council is asking Revelstoke residents to “Please
Drive Safely” to win this
challenge. For more information on the Challenge visit ICBC’s website at
www.icbc.com.
Thank you.
Mark McKee
Mayor
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