Photo Credit: Donovan Cavers (from facebook)
Want to thank all those who votes in November's civic election and to also thank all those who supported me! I am truly humbled and am also very excited to serve Kamloops during the next 4 years.
Today, was the first real council meeting of the term. We had an inaugural meeting last night, which consisted of a swearing in, a couple of speeches, and a reception. Very good time but no reports, motions, and voting. That started today.
We talked a bit about water today. Tony Brumell had the first public inquiry of this term with a question about water meter billing. Mayor Milobar talked about the reasoning behind block rates as opposed to "from the first drop". Happy to elaborate further to anyone interested. We also talked about the energency water intake for the community, sited on the North Thompson River in Westsyde. This is a approximately 9 millon dollar project for an intake that will only be activated in an emergency. But, if we have water contamination in our main water intake through something like a derailment of tanker cars, I feel the community expectation is that we will have backup water.
We also are planning two major road projects that will overlap somewhat next year - the Overlanders bridge resurfacing and the Columbia St improvements which will feature more left hand turn lanes into the downtown core. This is a project we have been working on for some time. Going forward, I'd like to examine such project more carefully for implications for greenhouse gas emissions and for community support.
If you travel along the bridge or along Columbia Street by the hospital on a regular basis, let me put in a plug for carpooling or taking transit, especially if you think these options might work for you but you haven't tried them yet. The construction disruption will be less with less vehicles navigating the impacted areas.
I'm also thankful to my colleagues for electing me to the board of the Thompson Nicola Regional District. I am looking forward to my first full year as a board director and learning about and contributing to our greater region.
