The District of Squamish is giving the West Coast Railway Heritage Park a break on Adventure Centre advertisement rates totalling $5,000, despite some hesitation among council members.
The park requested funding for $5,179.95 for June to December 2010 advertising fees at the Adventure Centre. If the money is not granted, association representatives said advertising currently in place will be removed.
During a District of Squamish council meeting Tuesday (Sept. 7), a staff recommendation supporting the community enhancement grant for the West Coast Rail Association from unallocated economic development funds outside the established policy was initially met with "We can't."
"It is our policy that we only look at these requests during the grant and aid process," said Coun. Paul Lalli. "I cannot support this because it is being done outside the process and therefore it's an unfair advantage."
Coun. Patricia Heintzman agreed, calling this year's creation of an unallocated economic development fund a "slush fund."
"We only gave funding to a very few organizations and there were several organizations out there asking for money so no, I don't think we should fund the West Coast Railway Heritage Park's advertising," she said.
Coun. Bryan Raiser also agreed.
"Grant and aid was so difficult because we did say no to so many groups."
Coun. Corinne Lonsdale, who suggested not giving any community enhancement grants at all during the process on March 23 due to lack of a community enhancement budget, said she would support the grant.
"They are one of Squamish's largest tourist attractions and at this point in time, because the economic development fund is there and not spent, I feel comfortable putting forward this motion," she said.
Mayor Greg Gardner seconded the motion, saying that West Coast Railway Association had invested in Squamish and the municipality had given them almost nothing in the way of funding.
"There's also the fact that this money is actually going to the Squamish Sustainability Corporation [who runs the Adventure Centre]," said Gardner.
"So really, it's money that goes out one pocket and into the other."
The district waives park property taxes and guaranteed a $500,000 park loan last January.
Coun. Rob Kirkham said if they didn't provide the grant, SSC would be short that money.
Lalli said his main concern was calling the funding a community enhancement grant.
"I need to know I'm being fair, so I want to remove the community enhancement part from the request," said Lalli.
The motion was amended to meet Lalli's request.
Heintzman expressed concern that the decision would set a precedent.
"I think we are setting ourselves up for consideration from other groups and we'll have to treat everyone equally," said Heintzman. "I wasn't a fan of creating an unallocated economic development fund anyways, and it seems to have been used as a slush fund."
She mentioned that two other major economic drivers, the Britannia Mining Museum and the Squamish Oceanfront Development Corporation, paid for their own advertising.
The motion was carried with Heintzman and Raiser opposed.
Santa Parade gets early start
After Shanda Dosanjh's five-week scramble to save the Santa Claus Parade last year, she's making sure to be well ahead of the game for the coming holiday season.
At the council meeting on Tuesday (Sept. 7), Dosanjh declared the Santa parade would be held Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. She said the children's Elf Play Area would start at 6 p.m.
Backed by the Chamber of Commerce, she is hoping this year will be bigger and better than ever, and there will definitely be a float competition.
"I'm hoping it will be bigger and better than last year but last year's parade would be pretty hard to beat - it was amazing."
She is looking for volunteers, participants and sponsors for the parade and the Elf Play Area. Anyone interested can contact Dosanjh at [email protected] or by phone at 604-849-0876.
Council criticized dredging inaction
The Squamish Harbour Authority sent a letter to mayor and council expressing their dismay that the district has yet to deal with the dredging issue in the Mamquam Blind Channel.
"The issue of dredging the Blind Channel seems to have been put in the closet and ignored again," stated the letter.
It kept cruise boats from entering the channel, stated the letter, and subsequently Squamish lost substantial amounts of tourist traffic this past summer.
"The federal government has advised us repeatedly that they are no longer funding dredging projects," said Gardner.
He said there had been several community meetings with council, community members and MP John Weston.
"I'm a little disappointed this letter came forward from the harbour authority without any suggestions or solutions," said Gardner.
"I suppose one of the solutions would be to raise property taxes and dredge it, however I have a little trouble with that personally. I don't know why our residents in Brackendale should pay for dredging to assist boat owners down there."
He said the district needed to come up with an equitable way to fund the dredging and said, contrary to the harbour authority's letter, council had not "put it in a closet."
Lonsdale suggested creating a local improvement area, which is an option when a council is looking at a project that would be of greater benefit to a specific area in a municipality.
Race was concerned the burden would fall on the users to pay for the entire project, a project that chief administrative officer Kevin Ramsay said would cost more than $1 million because the process hasn't been done in so many years.
"It would basically double harbour fees," he said.
Council referred the letter to staff for review and suggestions.
Traffic calming gets the go-ahead
Buckley Avenue, lined by residential houses, a university and the only high school, sees its fair share of traffic.
Acting on numerous resident complaints of speeding vehicles, the district hired Bunt and Associates to complete a traffic calming study.
At Tuesday's (Sept. 7) council meeting, infrastructure engineer Jenni Chancey highlighted some proposed solutions. Staff recommended Option A, which includes improved bicycle lane markings, three textured sidewalks, one median island, narrowed intersections, and additional school zone and pavement markings.
It also involves re-striping to provide narrower drive lanes and delineators to separate bike lanes from the travelled roadway, when possible.
The traffic calming budget was $100,000 for 2010 and aside from the $14,000 spent on the consultant, the rest is available to make the traffic calming improvements before the year's end.
The motion was carried unanimously.
