EAGLE VALLEY
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Students keen to learn proper fire response Page 5
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Wednesday, October 23, 2013 PM40008236
Vol. 57 No. 43 Sicamous, B.C., • 1.25 (GST included) • www.eaglevalleynews.com
Committee to tackle public transit study By Lachlan Labere Eagle Valley News
Sicamous council will be forming a committee to weigh the costs and benefits of public transit options offered in a BC Transit feasibility study. The study, discussed at the recent district committee of the whole meeting, was conducted through the Columbia Shuswap Regional District and looks at the provision of transit options connecting Salmon Arm with Sicamous, Malakwa and Swansea Point. It offers five options which include contracting the service through a third party based in Sicamous or Salmon Arm, as well as the provision of a midday service, one day a week between Sicamous and Salmon Arm. An option for a weekday service is What we’re dealalso included. ing with here is… A supplementary one of the highest option would tie Mal- unemployment areas akwa into the one- in the province with day-a-week option. the lowest wage in It is estimated this the province. would cost local taxRhona Martin payers $31,200, with CSRD the province picking up $34,600 of the total cost. The one-day service between Sicamous and Salmon Arm would cost Sicamous taxpayers $29,200. The weekday service, providing two one-way trips Monday through Friday, would cost $106,000, $47,000 of which would be funded through local taxation. Coun. Fred Busch said council discussed the provision of public transit 10 to 15 years ago, but turned it down as taxpayers didn’t want to pay, arguing a transit system should be self-sufficient. He noted the feasibility study revolves around a system that will require taxation for Sicamous and possibly Electoral Area E (Rural Sicamous-Malakwa). “I hope that we don’t just table it and say let’s forget it because I think this is something that the whole community is involved in to a large exSee Rysz suggests on page 3
Pearly whites: Curren O’Reilly and Bridget Wiebe show off their clean teeth to tooth fairy Esther Pearson Friday at the Sicamous and Malakwa Early Years Fair at the rec centre. Pearson is a dental assistant with Interior Health and oversees the Lift the Lip program in the community. Photo by Lachlan Labere
District eyes 2015 opening for water plant By Lachlan Labere Eagle Valley News
Sicamous residents and businesses will likely be waiting until 2015 before they have a clean, reliable source of municipal water. At the Oct. 9 district committee of the whole meeting, council heard from Timothy Phelan, senior project manager with Opus DaytonKnight Consultants Ltd., regarding the recently completed Mara Lake water treatment plant feasibility study. Following Phelan’s report, Coun. Fred Busch asked the question he is frequently asked by residents: when will the new $4.5 million water
treatment facility be up and running. “I guess my question that really concerns me is, are we on schedule, not that there ever really was a schedule, but are we on some sort of schedule that we’re going to be able to delivers this plant in the middle of the summer 2014 – at the latest fall 2014?” asked Busch. District operations manager Randy Hand explained there have been several delays getting started, and that the district is doing its best to get on track. “And we’re approaching it at this time with just baby steps,” said Hand. “We’ve also had some funding limitations,
in large around the parameters for funding… we’re just getting that information now. “This feasibility study was the next step we wanted to take in order to get some of the costs on some of these items.” Hand said he wouldn’t expect the plant to be up and running until 2015, adding staff do not want it starting up during peak season (summer), so as to allow time to work out issues around training, staffing, etc. “I guess if that’s the way it has to be, but that’s not what we were told initially, that it would be (ready in) 2014,” replied Busch. According to as summary of findings and conclusions
from the study, the membrane filtration system that’s being tested by the district will meet Interior Health Authority treatment requirements. Based on 2.7 per cent population growth – the highest rate projected in the district’s official community plan – for a 20year period, the plant would be designed to provide eight megalitres a day, yet be expandable to 10. The report touches on treatment of waste from the filtration process. It recommends against discharge into Mara Lake. It does note, however, that the facility site would have space for a solids storage pond. “(We) looked at that and See Cost proposals on page 3