Rossland is not interested in paying the City of Trail for the use of the Trail Aquatic Centre. That’s the message that the plebiscite vote, completed at the beginning of the July, gets across.
The vote was: “As a Rossland resident and taxpayer I support council to make financial contributions through my property taxation for the use of the Trail Aquatic Centre.”
The vote was close, with 198 people saying they do support it and 225 saying no.
The plebiscite also tried to determine the support from Rossland for the use of the pool.
Of those, 215 said they intend to use the Trail Aquatic Centre, and 256 said they don’t intend to.
At the moment, Rossland residents pay more to use the facility than residents from any other place.
That’s because Rossland and Trail can’t come to an agreement on the issue of how much Rossland should pay to subsidize the pool.
Rossland declined Trails offer and there have been no negotiations since.
Coun. Jill Spearn said it’s interesting looking at the numbers and the way to interpret them.
She noted that if the town had come out in full force, the vote would have been 50/50.
“It’s a little nebulous,” Spearn said. “The problem is we can’t have that conversation (with Trail) unless we pay what we’re going to pay.”
Coun. Kathy Moore said she is happy to receive the vote, though she noted that there were people around town saying they would boycott the vote. Moore said she couldn’t understand why they would do that, as then they aren’t counted at all.
Fisher was also happy to receive the plebiscite.
“A vote is a vote,” he said. “Enough is enough. For us to be singled out... at the end of the day it’s about protecting turf.”
Fisher said he choses not to use the facility because of what Trail has done.
“i think it’s childish,” he said.
Mayor Greg granstrom said the plebiscite is democracy in action, and the vote is on the ballots.