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Washington St. should be mostly complete before mid-October

Construction on Washington St. should be mostly complete by Oct. 10, according to Darrin Albo, Rossland’s manager of public works.
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Construction on Washington St. should be mostly complete by Oct. 10.

Construction on Washington St. should be mostly complete by Oct. 10, according to Darrin Albo, the City of Rossland’s manager of public works. “We’re hoping that substantial completion will be around the 10th of October, I’m gonna say, would be a reasonable date for that,” he said during a verbal update to council at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Asked why the paved parts of the street are currently closed to motorists, Albo explained that it’s easier to keep them closed until all the sub-contractors are finished. “We’re not allowing cars only because there are still a lot of sub-contractors in to do work, so it would be a matter of opening it up in the morning, and then closing it, and opening it, so it would confuse people.”

Council could introduce craft brewery to zoning bylaw

The Rossland Beer Company is looking to expand its brewing capacity and the seating in its tasting room. The craft brewery is hoping to find a new space in the Rossland downtown that will allow for not only a bigger brewing capacity, but an occupancy of 50-70 people. The additional space would come with additional parking requirements, eight to 12 spaces, which the brewery plans to provide on site.

Council received a request for a zoning amendment from Rossland Beer Company, asking council to increase the minimum floor space for a “Small Scale Food and Beverage Processing Establishment” from 200 m2 to 1000 m2, but staff instead recommended that council amend the Zoning Bylaw to introduce craft brewery as its own designation.

According to the proposed bylaw amendment, a craft brewery is “a building used for production of alcoholic beverages for retail and wholesale sales, with a maximum gross floor area of 1,000 m2. The facility may include retail sales, tours and tastings and food consumption. No more than two tractor-trailer type vehicles shall be allowed for pick-up or delivery to the facility within any 24 hour period.” The amendment would also add craft breweries to the list of acceptable commercial, downtown uses.

Council approved a first and second reading of the amendment.

New software at City Hall

The city is upgrading its recreation software to Max Galaxy, which will allow Rosslanders to pay online for program registration and book arena, Miners’ Hall, swimming pool and field rentals. Handling payments and bookings online will hopefully reduce city staff time while also offering Rossland residents more convenient service. The new software will also integrate with the new financial software the city is installing, which should make thinks simpler for city staff.

The Max Galaxy upgrade will cost $16,000 over two years, which will come from the city’s recreation and cultural services operation budget. The financial software upgrade will cost $18,000 over two years and will come from the city’s general government operation budget.

Residents are expected to have access to the new online system by Jan. 2, 2017.

Miners’ Hall scaffolding scheduled to come down

Work is wrapping up on the Miners’ Hall restoration project. Albo, the city’s manager of public works, says Trail Roofing is finishing off some bits and pieces, and should be done by Friday. The scaffolding is then expected to come down on Tuesday after DJM finishes up. The scaffolding will be coming down almost two weeks late, which will cost the city approximately $2800 extra.