Mayor's Blog

Welcome to the Mayor’s blog

In an effort to enhanced communications on council activities and city happenings I now have started this blog. I will post the outcomes of council meetings and other city related information.

First of all the Downtown College Campus committee developed a comprehensive plan for a new downtown Okanagan College campus. This plan was presented to the Okanagan College Board of Governors and endorsed by them at their September meeting.  This means the Okanagan College Board of Governors will now take the lead on this project and the Downtown College Campus committee will take a support role. Although, it may take a couple years I look forward to the day we have a ground-breaking ceremony for this new facility and to the day it opens for classes!

The appeal ruled in favour City of Salmon Arm and Smart Centres. My understanding is Smart Centres has gone to tender with a closing date of October 18th. Further to that I understand some work will be done at the site this fall.

To summarize, the appeal found in favour the City of Salmon Arm and Smart Centres, the Downtown College Campus was endorsed by the OC Board of Governors, and Smart Centres has gone to tender. My husband, an avid hockey fan, would call this a hat-trick.

October 9 Council Meeting
Presentation by BC Transit
This was a lengthy presentation with statistics on revenue and ridership with recommendations for change. The presenter also stated Salmon Arm will be getting much needed new buses in 2013. He also made recommendations for possible changes to routes as needed. It became apparent that running a shuttle bus to the current Canadian Tire store for the Christmas season would be too costly. We respect that in our community BC Transit pays more than 50% of the cost of running the buses.

Presentation by Economic Development Society
The Economic Development Society, the Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Salmon Arm have partnered to create a new “Product of the Shuswap” logo which can be used by local business to promote their products. This trio have also surveyed 43 businesses for the purpose of reporting to the public on businesses now carrying products formerly carried by Zellers and Fields. Watch for ads in the local papers for this information.  I appreciate the efforts made by our local businesses to supply our needs and hope everyone will take the time to read the ads and support those who so often support our community.

Tax Multiplies
Our Chief Financial Officer brought forward the issue of tax multiplies. This was a lengthy report and Council found in all categories we were basically in line with other communities except the major industry category. Council approved a small shift in taxes from major industry to other tax categories.

Memorial Walkway
The McGuire Lake Memorial Walkway is one step closer to reality as council gave their support and approval for this plan and the partnership between the City and the Shuswap Community Foundation. Interested individuals will be able to purchase and personalize a paving stone to remember a loved one or honour an achievement.  Contact the Shuswap Community Foundation for further details.

SASCU Recreation Centre
Our community recreation centre has served us well for the past 25 years. To those of you who remember our old swimming pool previously located in one corner of Fetcher Park and who waited eagerly for the new community centre and swimming pool to be built. Yes, it really has been 25 years.  A number of upgrades have been identified with cost estimates totallying $499,000 plus HST. To fund these much needed repairs council authorised staff to apply for a grant to the Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund for the amount of $249,500 with the remainder of the funds coming from capital maintenance and climate action reserves.

Building Statistics
The building statistics for September showed we are still higher than the previous year. We are not close to the busy years of 2006 – 2008 but we are slowly climbing.
Council approved

• a new church building to be at 5590 Canoe Beach Drive NE
• two buildings at 511 Hudson Avenue NE close to Mc Guire Lake
• two lots at 4731 and 4761 75 Avenue NE to be sub-divided into 3 lots

Letter to Mayor
I received many letters and emails daily but one that came across my desk this morning from a young person asking council to look at placing more recycle bins downtown caught my interest.  My response to her is “Good idea”. I will ask Council and staff to look what we can do about this.

Nancy