Council update, May 10 2009
Hello everyone, and happy Mothers' Day to all you moms and grandmoms out there.
Here are a few highlights from what's coming to council tomorrow. You can see the entire council package at:
On-street parking on the west side of Bow Avenue
Council will be asked to make the west side of Bow Avenue part of the town's parking supply on a permanent basis -- you can see the report starting on page 39 of the council package. There are pros and cons to this, the pro being that it encourages some people to use the riverside trail and takes pressure off the downtown parking, the cons being that it creates a car-oriented atmosphere on Bow Avenue, something the town once hoped to avoid. I've heard from two people who are opposed to this parking proposal and one who is adamantly in favour. I'm still undecided, because I am anxious to prevent additional pressure for another parkade, but I like the idea of Bow Avenue being a more peaceful setting. I'm going to listen to the discussion tomorrow and then decide.
Recreation Centre update
As I explained in my last update, we've been in a bit of a tough spot because of unexpected changes in the province's MSI funding. However, we now have an indication that the funding will be 75% of what was expected. With this in mind, the staff has gone back through the capital budget (see below) and moved things around in order to make it possible to do the recreation centre work without having to pay back the debt from our Banff tax base.
If you go to the rec centre report on page 65 of the council package, you can see the drawings of the site and the building, plus renderings of how it will look in place.
Capital budget update
Starting on page 84 of the council package, you can see the report on how the capital program will change to accommodate the lower funding from the province. I think that the staff have come up with a very solid approach to this problem. Here are the changes:
- Because water conservation measures have slowed the rate of increase in water demand, we're not building an additional water well - we're acquiring a complete set of backup parts for the existing wells instead.
- Spray Avenue reconstruction has been delayed by two years.
- St Julien's new sidewalk and storm sewers will still be built on schedule, and the road will be resurfaced, but the deep work (water and sewer lines) has been pushed back by 10 years. When the water and sewer are redone in the future, the sidewalk and storm drainage will not be affected.
- The condition of the system that carries sewage under the river toward the waste water treatment plant has been thoroughly checked, and work on it can be delayed for 10 years.
- The order in which we replace existing large equipment such as the grader and the Zamboni has been changed to replace the highest-repair-cost items earlier.