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The City of Revelstoke hosted the very successful 27th annual convention
of the Okanagan Mainline Municipal Association from May 3-5. This is the
annual meeting of locally elected government officials from throughout
the Okanagan Mainline region. The theme of the meeting was
“Leadership=Success” and featured speakers, Maude Barlow of the Council
of Canadians and Marc Kielberger of Free the Children. Both speakers
were very inspiring and reinforced the importance of local leaders
understanding and responding to challenges that go far beyond municipal
boundaries.
During the course of
events OMMA held its annual general meeting where a number of
resolutions were dealt with. These included resolutions on having a
formal process to solicit input and engage local communities when
dealing with school closures, requiring Canada Post to consult with
local government when considering closure of Canada Post facilities like
rural post offices, and one asking the Province of BC to set aside Bill
30 and return to working with Union of BC Municipalities to complete the
memorandum of understanding on Independent Power Projects.
The success of the
convention was a reflection of the hard work done by City of Revelstoke
staff, Teresa LeRose, Heather Duchman, Elaine Greenwood, and Alan Mason,
and I would like to thank them for their commitment and efforts.
The City of Revelstoke
has set up an Air Quality Committee. The goals of this committee include
improving the Revelstoke air quality, to work on this through a
collaborative approach, to ensure sustained municipal support for
improving air quality and work towards implementation of the City’s
Environment Strategy as it pertains to air quality. Arrangements are now
being made to hold the first meeting of this committee.
The City’s budget has now
been given final approval. Tax notices will be going out in the next
while. As a part of this, the City has initiated the Approval of
Electors process as it relates to borrowing of funds for three major
capital projects. These are the Eastern Access Bridge Rehabilitation
project, remedial works on Airport Way and works on Powerhouse Road. The
deadline for receiving elector responses is 12:00 noon, Monday June 26,
2006. There will be a legal advertisement in the paper about this or you
can go to City Hall for more information.
At last week’s Council
meeting there were presentations from two delegations. Abby Pond,
Revelstoke Bear Aware Coordinator gave the Revelstoke Bear Aware
Society’s 2005 annual report and outlined plans for the coming year.
These include working towards achieving Bear Smart status for the City
of Revelstoke.
Pam Beech then gave
Council a presentation on the Crystal Clear Meth Task Force. This task
force has been in existence for a year now and currently represents 3
Shuswap area communities. There is funding available for communities to
develop initiatives in dealing with this issue and Ms Beech encouraged
the City to put together a proposal. Councillor Richardson’s Culture and
Social Issues Committee will be considering this at its next meeting.
In closing let me remind
you that you can always get information about the City and its various
initiatives or give feedback at
www.cityofrevelstoke.com.
Respectfully
submitted,
Councillor Bill MacFarlane
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