Saturday, February 28, 2015

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Lake Country derails rail


by | Story: 133678 -  

Residents of Lake Country have said no.


Castanet News has learned voters in Lake Country have said no to a bylaw allowing the municipality to borrow up to $2.6 million to purchase half its share of the defunct CN Rail line.

The bylaw was voted down following a six week Alternative Approval Process.

Taxpayers in Lake Country were being 
asked to approve the purchase, thus adding an additional $27 to the average tax bill.

Official numbers were released shortly after noon.

A total of 960 valid signed petitions were received by the noon deadline Monday.
In order to quash the borrowing bylaw only 10 per cent of the approximately 9,315 eligible voters (931) were required to sign the petition.

The campaign got nasty last week when opponents of the purchase spearheaded a door-to-door and mail out campaign, one which Mayor James Baker said was full of misinformation.
In a counterstrike, Baker sent a letter to local media extolling the virtues of the "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

"Some people may ask if we can afford the cost, but the real question to me is: can we afford not to?" stated Baker in his letter.

While the municipality does have options, including a full referendum on the borrowing bylaw, Baker stated the municipality does not have a Plan B.

"If local governments are not successful in purchasing the corridor, it could be sold off in parcels to private interests," added Baker in his plea.

"This could mean losing control of over 16 kilometres of prime, linear real estate in our community, much of it beautiful waterfront that our residents or visitors cannot access now, and most likely never would if sold privately."

Baker has not yet officially commented on the outcome of the AAP.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Selected Morning Star Newsclips - In case you missed them

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Saturday, February 21, 2015

Thursday, February 19, 2015

News Release - Greater Vernon Water


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Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Water Rates Highest in Okanagan

Posted on 2/5/2015 by Betty Selin

A group of Greater Vernon residents is concerned about higher water rates.

The Group, "Citizens for Change to the Master Water Plan" is concerned that the budget debate at GVAC will proceed to set water rates, before they have an opportunity to present their proposed new direction for the Master Water Plan

The group, which includes several former politicians, says they have joined together to assess the staff driven requests for higher water rates to fund the long term capital programs and to increase the reserves for future needs.

The group says they want to ensure that the results of the No vote in the November 15 referendum, is upheld. They are in the process of preparing a presentation for the GVAC which will provide recommendations for needed changes to the Master Water plan.

At the January 22nd meeting of the GVAC, there was no action taken on the request for a moratorium. The group is concerned politicians are prepared to consider "back-door" funding that will move RDNO pre-referendum programs forward by raising water rates to cover the costs of the expenditures, under the cover of 'reserves', and to date without public input.

They're also worried the budget debate scheduled for Thursday morning will set water rates, before they have an opportunity to present the proposed new direction for the Master Water Plan

Water rates for the same amount of drinking water in 2014 show that Greater Vernon domestic water users pay $899.70, more than twice the Penticton rate of $427.62, and triple the $291.98 for the same amount of water from Kelowna bills. From 2010 to 2014 the cost of a cu. meter of drinking water has doubled for Greater Vernon water users. Changes to the billing structure mean that less of the water bill is from metered usage and more is coming from arbitrary fixed front end charges.

Our citizen's group which includes, Janet Green, Wayne McGrath, Klaus Tribes and Maria Besso, is asking that all budget approvals supporting water rate increases be suspended until March 5th, or that a special meeting of the GVAC be held to allow elected representatives to be informed of the proposed new direction to the Master Water Plan from this community group.

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Monday, February 16, 2015

Mission Hill water source turned off because of turbidity

Greater Vernon residents are united when they turn on their taps.

On Monday, the Regional District of North Okanagan switched off the Kalamalka Lake source because of turbidity and about 55 (thousand) people are now using the Duteau Creek source.

“There is a lot of dirty water coming from Coldstream Creek and the Okanagan Basin Water Board is doing milfoil control on Kalamalka Lake too,” said Renee Clark, water quality manager, of potential sources of the turbidity.

“There are also a number of storm water intakes that go into the lake.”

Clark says it was decided to switch over to Duteau Creek treatment facility to avoid a boil water notice for Kal Lake customers.

The Mission Hill treatment plant, which treats water from Kalamalka Lake, does not have filtration.

“Filtration will cost about the same as Duteau Creek (about $20 million),” said Clark when asked why there isn’t filtration at the Mission Hill plant.

There are generally about 35,000 people served by the Mission Hill treatment plant and 20,000 by the Duteau system.

It’s not known how long the Kal Lake source will be turned off because runoff through Coldstream Creek is unpredictable.

Discussions will also be held with OBWB about milfoil control.

“We hope to get that work done in a couple of weeks,” said Clark, who says there is sufficient flow within the Duteau system to handle all customers.

Customers not generally on the Duteau Creek source may notice that the water is softer and has a low alkalinity and pH.

“This may be of interest to those customers who have in-home water treatment systems or aquariums,” said Clark.

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In the past there was no closing of the Mission Hill system just because of milfoil harvesting. It has only happened last year and this year. Why? Duteau needs support?

If Kalamalka Lake is so sensitive perhaps it would be prudent to investigate Okanagan Lake as a substitute now. Today's NTU reading in Kelowna was 0.170 in Kelowna. There is no filtration there and the water is good. The current plan of spending about $60 million on two filtration plants and using most of the expensive Duteau product on agricultural irrigation does not make economic sense.

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Sunday, February 15, 2015

Coldstream Finance Committee and Committee of the Whole Meetings

http://coldstream.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=20560http://coldstream.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=20349

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Selected Morning Star Newsclips - In case you missed them

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For information on 2015 budget items please visit here.

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Friday, February 13, 2015

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Sientific Research at UBC.

New energy sources are the subject of some UBC researchers. Check out these articles here.

A place in the Sun

UBC microbiologist J. Thomas Beatty, bioengineer John Madden and chemist Curtis Berlinguette are working across disciplines to develop a new generation of solar cells. Their inspiration? Mother nature.

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Coldstream Ratepayers News! All Coldstream residents are ratepayers!

The opinions expressed by "Coldstreamer" are strictly his own and do not represent the opinions of Coldstream Council!

Because I value your thoughtful opinions, I encourage you to add a comment to this discussion. Don't be offended if I edit your comments for clarity or to keep out questionable matters, however, and I may even delete off-topic comments.

Gyula Kiss
coldstreamer@shaw.ca;

***Coldstreamernews***

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We must protect our rights and freedom! (Photo courtesy of D. Gibson) Click on eagle to watch EAGLECAMS

About Me

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I have been a resident of Coldstream since 1976. I have had 15 years of experience on Council, 3 years as Mayor. As a current Councillor I am working to achieve fair water and sewer rates and to ensure that taxpayers get fair treatment. The current direction regarding water supply is unsustainable and I am doing all I can to get the most cost effective water supply possible.