Email update, 24 January 2010
Hello everyone!
20TH ANNUAL JON WHYTE SPELLING BEE -- SHAMELESS PROMOTION
Tuesday night at 7 pm, I'll be helping host this spelling and trivia extravaganza. Last I heard, there was still room for two six-person teams. If you're keen to join in, call Bob Pearson at the Whyte Museum to enter. It's free, it's fun, and it's fiendishly challenging!
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN THE REC CENTRE DISCUSSION?
I wouldn't blame you if you found the newspaper account a little baffling. Basically, we explored two ideas for potentially cutting the cost of the Recreation Centre project.
Stavros Karlos focused in on the $2 million addition -- the extra office and upgraded locker space that was added to the project by Council at the request of the Banff Hockey Academy (see my May 22 2009 blog entry at www.lataylor.com/blog ). Work is too far along to cancel this addition, but Stav made a motion to ask administration how much money could be saved for now if we just built the outer shell of the addition, and waited until later to finish the interior. The motion to ask for this information was defeated. I voted for it, because I thought it would be a good idea to at least find out whether we could save some money this way.
I made a motion to find out how much money we could save by LEED-shadowing, rather than going for LEED certification (see my Jan 10 2010 blog entry). Council supported this motion, and the information came back to the next meeting. We found out that we could save $144,ooo by not getting the certification, but we needed to pursue certification in order to apply for a program that could bring us around $200,000 in grant money. But here's the good news -- just because we were considering backing away from LEED, some of our contractors offered to discount the fees they were charging us for the LEED certification work. Just by asking the question, we ended up saving around $70,000 on the certification. This is great support from the people involved in the project. We'll get our LEED and it won't cost as much as I feared -- and I hope we'll get that grant money, too.
WHERE ARE WE AT WITH THE BUDGET DISCUSSIONS?
Council has discussed both the draft operating budget and the draft capital budget.
At present, the operating budget calls for approximately a 3.1% tax increase. The budget is back with administration as they look at final figures for Alberta CPI and similar indicators. Council will see the operating budget for further consideration in February.
The capital budget has been severely affected by the decrease in commitments from the provincial government, and several projects have been delayed to future years as a result. The budget is back with administration and will come back to council in February.
WHAT'S COMING TO COUNCIL TOMORROW?
You can see the main council agenda package at this link:
Highlights include:
Valleyview recycling bin
The Valleyview condo association is will be expressing their concerns about the Town's approach to recycling bin installation in their community. You can read their letter starting on page 11 of the package.
Third reading of Land Use Bylaw Phase 1
Work is underway on Phase 2, and you will have lots more opportunities for input. The whole bylaw remains open for changes until we do the final round of reviews and send it off for the approval of the Minister -- sometime in 2011.
Adding the sidewalk cafe policy to the Streets Bylaw
Council discussed the results of the pilot program at the last meeting, and now planning is bringing the bylaw to Council. You can see the report and information starting on page 33 of the agenda package.
Affordable Housing Grant
The town is eligible for up to $231,000 from the provincial government to support affordable housing initiatives. The proposed plan assigns this money to help with the future Cave Avenue housing development. You can see the report starting on page 104 of the package (link above).
Other items
Money for blue historic plaques, more work on the Bow Valley Transportation Authority, and an application for Green Municipal Fund money for the rec centre project.
THE FINE PRINT
As always, the opinions expressed in this post are mine alone, and do not purport to be those of the Town of Banff or Banff Town Council. I welcome your comments!