Monday night, Rossland city council discussed how to disperse the $10,000 it set aside for help with Trail Recreation Program (TRP) fees on Dec. 12.
The decision to revive the TRP assistance program in order to provide assistance for children’s sports teams meant council needed to amend Rossland’s Financial Assistance for Use of Facilities, Pools and Parks Policy. The amendment agreed upon by council specifies only children up to 18 years old are eligible for TRP assistance, and reimbursement will be granted to teams, not to individuals.
The amendment also specifies that the $10,000 will be divided in two for both a spring and fall intake, and that reimbursements will be up to a maximum of 25 per cent of the fee. Council hopes both of those stipulations will allow a larger number of children to benefit from the limited funding.
Council approves multi-year contracts for community organizations
Council approved multi-year Community Grant-in-Aid contracts for the following organizations:
• Kootenay Columbia Trails Society — $20,000 for three years;
• Tourism Rossland — $20,500 for three years;
• Rossland Heritage Commission — $4,844 for one year;
• Rossland Sustainability Commission — $12,250 for three years;
• Rossland Historical Museum & Archives Association — $47,000 for three years;
• Rossland Public Library Association — $125,417 for three years;
• Rossland Council for Arts and Culture — $4,000 for three years;
• British Columbia Conservation Foundation (i.e. Bear Aware) — $3,000 for three years;
• Rossland Tennis Society — $3,000 for three years.
The reason for offering the organizations multi-year contracts was to help reduce staff time spent dealing with renewing the funding agreements each year. The groups will still be required to present annual reports and budgets to council and will still have the opportunity to ask for increased funding.
Councillor Lloyd McLellan also asked about the city facilities — the museum, library and tennis courts — and why they are funded through Community Grant-in-Aid contracts, instead of being included as part of the City of Rossland’s annual operations and maintenance budget. Bryan Teasdale, CAO and CO for the City of Rossland, agreed city assets should be included in the budget.
Council further voted to have staff investigate the implications of including the museum, library and tennis courts under the city’s annual operations and maintenance budget in the future.
Washington St. project under budget by over $700,000
The Washington Street Infrastructure Improvement Project came in $706,376.01 under budget. The city didn’t end up spending any of the $60,000 budgeted as a rock removal contingency — thanks to the blasting that was done ahead of time to look for bedrock — and the general contract contingency was over $430,000 under budget.
RCAC to install new sculpture in spring
The Rossland Council for Arts and Culture (RCAC) received approval to install a new sculpture called Girls Can Do Anything — a sculpture of a girl riding a pig — on the northwest bumpout at Columbia Ave. and Washington St. The sculpture will be installed sometime in late spring.