Poetry, your money, Nelson’s future, composting, Jumbo, life, death: Nelson City Council highlights from April 8, 2013
By Bill Metcalfe
Poets finally get access to the halls of power
Nelson is participating in the second Mayor’s Poetry Challenge, which follows the UNESCO declaration of March 21 as World Poetry Day. This project requires that poems be read at the start of either the March or April Council meeting. At the April 8 meeting, poets Jane Byers and Will Klatte read and performed for council.
Your money
Council adopted its Five Year Financial Plan 2013-2017 after many weeks of meetings and deliberations. This includes the budget for the current fiscal year. The budget will be the subject of an upcoming story in The Nelson Daily. To read an earlier Nelson Daily story about some of the issues leading up to the formation of the budget, click here.
Nelson in twenty years
Council adopted a revised Official Community Plan (OCP). The last revision was in 2008. Since then the city has been working on the Path to 2040 Sustainability Strategy (completed December 2010), the Sustainable Waterfront and Downtown Master Plan (July 2011), Corporate GHG Reduction Plan (May 2010), the Low Carbon Path to 2040: Community Energy & Emissions Action Plan (Oct.2011), the Active Transportation Plan (February 2010), Affordable Housing Strategy (July 2010), the Heritage Register (June 2011), the Water Master Plan (2007), and the Sewer Master Plan (2010). The new plan incorporates all of those.
The city will post the new OCP on the city website within the next few days.
To-do list
Council reviewed its ongoing to-do list of what is to be done, by when, by whom, and the status of each item. See this list attached at the bottom of this article.
Before I die
Council endorsed a recommendation of its Cultural Development Commission (CDC) that the Kalein Hospice Society be permitted to erect a public art project on the site of the new Kootenay Co-op building site. Nelson’s version of this global art project will consist of an 8- by 24-foot board with the words “Before I die…..” Colored chalk will be provided for community members and visitors to fill in the blanks. The CDC says the project “is about remembering what is important to you and creating public spaces for communities to reflect upon what matters individually and as a community.”
Jumbo
Councillor Candace Batycki brought forward a Notice of Motion asking Council to support a resolution the District of Invermere intends to take to the Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Governments (AKBLG).
The resolution will ask that the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) have a say in whether the B.C. Supreme Court will allow a municipality at Jumbo with no residents and a council appointed by the provincial government. This would involve the court recognizing the UBCM as an intervenor in two current judicial review applications by the West Kootenay Ecosociety and the Ktunaxa Nation.
Since the AKBLG meeting is next week, and Nelson council’s protocols would involve taking this to a Committee of the Whole meeting in Nelson before deciding on it, this Notice of Motion was tabled for the time being.
Composting
Council discussed a proposal brought forward by Councillor Donna Macdonald that a consultant be hired to do a study of composting options for the city, since composting is absent from current waste management plans and changes.
The matter was referred to staff for study because it would involve close coordination with the Regional District of Central Kootenay.
To read a recent story in The Nelson Daily about this issue, click here.
Smoke alarms
Council passed a resolution supporting a pending resolution of the Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Governments asking for changes to B.C.’s Insurance Act that would require smoke alarms in all homes.
Rezone for hospice
The property at 402 West Richards was re-zoned appropriately for the Kalein Hospice Society facility, after a public hearing opportunity attended by no one from the public.
