email update, February 9, 2008

It's COLD out there!  Is anyone else hoping, as I am, that this weather is killing a few pine bark beetles?

SCHOOL BOARD FUTURES PLANNING EXERCISE

I went to the Futures Planning workshop at the Elementary School on Wednesday.  For any of you who haven't been part of this process yet, I really recommend that you join in on the next one, which will be in March sometime.  Sometimes it's hard to drag yourself out in the evening after a long day, but this process is so important, and it's always fun once you get there. The questions are interesting, the format is engaging, and the discussion is lively!   

Here's a quick rundown of the items coming to Council on Monday.  As always, any opinions I express about these items are mine alone, and do not claim to represent the official position of Council or the Town of Banff:

DOWNTOWN PARKING ALTERNATIVES:

As you know, by the tightest of margins, Council chose not to pursue a new parkade in the 200 block of Beaver Street.  At that time, staff said they would flesh out some alternatives and bring the ideas back to Council for consideration.  Here's what's being explored:

1. allow parking of cars (no RVs) on the river side of Bow Avenue
2. build a new surface lot between the Bow View Lodge and the hospital
3. make the Cascade Plaza parkade more easily accessible through better signage (last year it was only at 50% occupancy), and redirect all 12-hour parking there.
4. make the Bear Street parkade for 1-hour and 3-hour parking only
5. lease the high school parking lot in the summer
6. consider attempting to acquire the residence beside the existing parking lot in the 200 block of Beaver and adding that lot to the parking lot
7. promote car pooling
8. take another look at pay parking
9. consider building a parkade in another location -- eg the 200 block of Bear Street

You can read the full report with all of the comments from Administration by clicking on

http://www.banff.ca/AssetFactory.aspx?did=1332

and scrolling through to page 12.   There is a great chart that will show you how many stalls would be gained by using each idea.

The two ideas that I do not support are (2) the surface lot by the hospital (too many trees lost, too much impact on a scenic area) and (9)  a parkade in the 200 block of Bear (spending too much money, and creating a narrow, shaded canyon on what is becoming a very pleasant street).  Pursuing ideas 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 above would give us a projected 160 stalls during the busy summer months (present shortfall is 125), and leave us time to improve our transit system, consider pay parking, and take similar steps to reduce parking demand.

SNOW CLEARING

You can see an excellent report about the Town's snow and ice clearing procedures, and new ideas that are being considered, by going to:

http://www.banff.ca/AssetFactory.aspx?did=1332

and scrolling down to page 19.

You'll see a map with the town's priorities for clearing, and you can read about the present procedures and some of the challenges.  In order to improve the level of service, Council is being asked to think about:

Good news - the Catholic Church is being proposed for heritage designation on Monday.

RE-USE-IT CENTRE

Many communities have places where people can take their lightly used household items that are no longer wanted by them but too good to throw out.  More good news! -- Community Services is looking at establishing a place like this here.  You can read about it at

http://www.banff.ca/AssetFactory.aspx?did=1332  page 45

This will be a better alternative than leaning that old sofa against the bearproof bin!

TWO PROCEDURE CHANGES

I'm proposing two procedure changes to Council on Monday:

1.  Re-establishing a Finance Committee:  You may be surprised to hear that Council doesn't have one!  I think it would be useful to have a joint council-staff committee to go over financial policies and procedures, and review variances from budget (among other things).  I know that staff works very hard on the town's financial management, but I believe that most Banffites expect councillors to be pretty involved in the Town's finances, and that you want us to be keeping a close eye on your behalf.

2.  Having a systematic approach to bylaw review, so that every bylaw comes back in front of council every 3 - 4 years.  It's all too easy for bylaws to sit on the books and not be reviewed until an issue comes up.  I think it would be useful for two bylaws to come to each meeting of council, so that councillors, staff, and the general public are regularly reminded of what is in the town's bylaws, and have a chance to flag things that are no longer needed or should be updated.