Thursday, March 17, 2011

Local News - Thursday, March 17th edition

In your Williams Lake Tribune today:

* WL City Councillor Natalie Hebert to resign her seat by June or July - see here

Editor's Note - when the Rush ran this story earlier this week, she indicated June 1st however June or July doesn't really matter because WL Council will likely let the seat remain vacant until the muncipal general election in November as it would costs thousands of dollars to run a by-election for someone to sit as a Councillor for just a few months until the muncipal general elections (Mayor/Councillor) are held

* Committee of the Whole on Tuesday recommended WL Council apply to Ottawa for 75% of the Woodland Drive Water/Sewer Project, estimated at $3.5 million to complete - see here

Editor's Notes:

1) Recommendation(s) from the Commmittee of the Whole are rarely if ever refused by WL Council
2) Costs per property owner on Woodland Drive/City Resident is as follows (Note - information comes from City Staff report on this subject found here

These numbers are my rough math for this project and they don't come from the City

Total Project Cost: $3,500,000
Grant to be applied for: $2,625,000 (75% of total project costs)
Cost remaining to be funded locally: $875,000

Cost to 49 Woodland Drive residents: $1,220.73 (roughly)
Additional Cost to all other City residents (Water/Sewer utility fees): $16.17 (roughly)

But expect a public meeting in the short term on local costs if grant approval is confirmed with the general public being asked to vote for formal approval to borrow funds in November, in conjunction with the general local gov't election.  Also, costs above do not include cost to hook up from each home to the Water/Sewer system as each individual homeowner is personally liable for that cost

* Coverage of Monday's NDP Leadership Candidates' debate - see here
* Letter writer Gideon Schuetze calls Mayor Cook's comments from the March 8th WL Council meeting of "political games" arising from the Candie Laporte allegations on financial wrongdoing at WL City Hall as "comical" - see here
* Also, letter writer Alan Trenzek says Prosperity Mine is good for Williams Lake - see here

Meanwhile - over at Welcome to Williams Lake:

City of WL celebrates its' 82nd Birthday at the local Museum - see here

Editor's Note - I arrived at 1:00pm on Tuesday for the event following my City Advisory Planning Commission meeting and heard some comments that members of WL City Council did not stay for very long and I find that curious given Mayor Cook and Council agreed to establish, in 2009, a Council Master Schedule so there would be ample coverage for Mayor/Councillors to be at various community events.  I'm aware Mayor Cook was on official business outside the City and Acting Mayor Natalie Hebert acted in Mayor Cook's place for cutting of the birthday cake at this event and there is a picture of this in today's WL Tribune on Page A4

* WL Indian Band signs a protocol agreement with Spanish Mountain Gold (SMG), with regard to SMG's gold project near Likely - see here

* Cariboo-North MLA Bob Simpson reviews how Christy Clark got to be Premier without being an MLA - see here

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Schuetze said it perfectly when commenting on Mayor Cooks comments regarding the current personnel issue at City Hall being the "worst of political games". It is what it is and that is A PERSONNEL ISSUE.
I have no affiliation to anyone involved but objectively this is what I felt about the last week or so as it relates to the CAO and former Director of Finance.
I find it somewhat disheartening that the Tribune ran at least three articles where the City, Mayor and CAO were allowed to state their case. Yet the only time the alleged agrieved party was mentioned in the Tribune was as a reference point in the above mentioned articles. In fact I didn't even know what was going on until those articles were run and then heard that the CAO spoke of it as a delegate at a Council meeting. Seems a little David vs Goliath.
Employees who are released against their will do irrational things.It is important to stay out of that arena and remain the voice of reason and decorum. If a person is confident they did no wrong then let that stand alone. By drawing attention to yourself it tends to back fire.

This was a bit of a black eye on how internal business should be handled. To drag the whole community through this salatious event was awkward. To openly threaten anyone with a lawsuit if they speak against one was a bit harsh. The Mayor and the CAO are in positions of high level. With that you have to have thick skin. If you are going to react emotionally then you might want to reconsider whether it is worth it in the end. Emotions lead to stress and stress is not good for anyone.
I guess I should finish with a bit of a 'shame on the Tribune' for what I feel was unbalanced journalism. If it was unbalanced was it because you were afraid of being sued?

These are just my opinions for what they are worth. But I bet I am not the only person in WL who was made uncomfortable by the whole event.