RDCK solidifies Nelson Search and Rescue's role in region
By Nelson Daily Editor
By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily
Consistent funding has been secured for Nelson Search and Rescue (NSR) as the society has officially become a regional district service, the board of directors decided Thursday.
The Regional District of Central Kootenay directors voted in favour of creating bylaw for Nelson, Salmo and electoral areas E, F and G for the search and rescue financial contribution service establishment.
The maximum taxation collected for the service will be $35,000, which will begin in 2011. It will be a contribution service for search and rescue and other services will be added as the need arises.
The money will support the fourth busiest search and rescue service in the province and give the NSR society a home. The NSR Society can now enter into a lease for a building, freeing up money for more training, lessening the need for the group to have to keep scrambling to provide core funding.
All of the equipment for the Society is currently stored at members’ homes, scattered from Nelson to Crescent Valley.
NSR has targeted the North Shore Hall as the base of their operations, and a community meeting on Tuesday was expected to give them the final answer in their question on that site.
The bylaw would likely support NSR, but RDCK chief financial officer, Grant Roeland, said it could support any search and rescue organization in the area, if they apply.
“The bylaw establishes the right to tax for the service,” he said. “It does not name the recipients.”
A budget would be itemized as to who the recipients of the taxation revenue are, he said.
Last year NSR fielded over 40 calls. They are in demand from Creston to Nakusp because of their specialty training in all forms of rescue.
An alternative approval process took place Nov. 12 in Nelson, Salmo and electoral areas E, F, and G to determine if the 15,407 people in the voting area would want to contribute financially to the service.
Area H will likely be brought into the service at a later date. There are three search and rescue groups currently providing service to geographic portions of Area H. The proposed contribution service models will provide funding flexibility to address the anomaly.
