DIAMOND VALE TOPS PROVINCIAL 60MKC /PAGE 10
TAX RATE, FINANCIAL PLAN BYLAWS PROCEEDING TO ADOPTION /PAGE 3
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MERRITT HERALD TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
Design plans the city has for revitalizing Nicola Avenue’s medians. Submitted/ City of Merritt
SD58 passes budget with $1.35M deficit Keith Lacey ABERDEEN PUBLISHING
Beautifying Nicola Avenue to cost nearly $1 million Michael Potestio THE MERRITT HERALD
The City of Merritt is budgeting nearly $1 million to renovate the centre medians along Nicola Avenue through Merritt this year. On Tuesday (April 26), council gave first three readings to its 2016-2020 financial plan bylaw, which contains $980,000 budgeted to spruce up the six islands that separate the road’s east and westbound lanes. The project involves replacing the old asphalt medians with concrete and adding trees and other shrubbery to them. City of Merritt chief administrative officer Shawn Boven compared this project to the medians that line DeWolf Way in
Merritt’s Gasoline Alley section of town located just off Highway 5. “It would basically take that look, and put it down the centre of Nicola [Avenue] where it’s all asphalt right now,” Boven said. “It’ll make for some greenspace, it’s better for the environment from a storm water management perspective — it gives the rainwater some area where it doesn’t have to just runoff. It can fall in the landscaped areas and get absorbed back into the earth,” he said. The medians will contain bunchgrasses and possibly columnar or aspen trees, and a sprinkler system to water the vegetation, he
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said. “The lighting will remain the same,” Boven said. This project stands to be one of the priciest the city has undertaken since the infamous Central Park Improvement Project, which initially had a budget of $728,000, but ended up costing approximately $1.1 million after substantial cost overruns. The project falls under the public works department, and Boven said staff will be instructed to exercise due diligence and to manage the project vigorously. Boven said detailed design plans are currently being developed, and if the tendered bids come in high, the city will look at making
some cuts to the project, or ask council what is essential to be kept in. The project is being conducted in conjunction with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure’s repaving of Nicola Avenue this summer. The province will tear out the old asphalt of the medians as part of their paving project, which will save the city some money, Boven told the Herald. He said the ministry’s repaving project is expected to take place starting in July and finish by the end of the summer. The city’s work to the medians will likely be completed by the spring of 2017.
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All schools will remain open and no job losses are projected in any of the 13 schools in School District 58 (Nicola Similkameen) after the board of trustees passed a budget approving a $1.35 million deficit last week. “The entire deficit will be covered through the use of reserves,” said board chair Gordon Comeau. “We will be passing a balanced budget as we’ve been fortunate enough in this school district to have accumulated a significant amount of reserves through the years.” This year’s deficit is slightly less than the $1.58 million deficit that was approved by trustee for the current school year, said Comeau. The board will officially adopt the 2016-17 school year budget at the next School District 58 board meeting in Merritt — the evening of Wednesday, May 11, said Comeau. “We’ve gone through everything that needs to be discussed and we’re ready to adopt this budget,” he said. The $1.35 million deficit comes out of a total annual school district budget in the range of $25 million, said Comeau. Because the board will be presenting a balanced
budget, he doesn’t foresee any scenario where anyone will lose their jobs within the school district, said Comeau. Unless the Ministry of Education increases its funding to School District 58 very soon, this school district will soon be facing very difficult decisions about closing schools and/ or reducing teaching staff and support staff, said Comeau. “We have enough funds in our reserves to continue running deficits for another two or three years, but at some point the well is going to run dry,” he said. “We are better off than many other school districts because we have managed to put away some significant reserves, but those are starting to run dry.” Trustees with School District 58 have joined thousands of others across the province calling out to the provincial Liberal government to increase funding for public education, but those cries continue to fall on deaf ears in Victoria, said Comeau. “The reality is the government has to start putting increased funding into public education,” he said. “And they have to stop downloading additional costs onto school districts without providing the extra funding that is need-
See ‘Reserves’ Page 5