Keremeos Village Council held a special meeting of council on Mar. 27 at noon to deal with a couple of outstanding issues.
Similkameen Country has recently been advised by the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation of an increase to its Visitor Centre funding. As a result, each visitor centre in B.C. is eligible for a one time payment of $7,500.
The funding is being provided to cover purchases made between Jan. 1 and Mar.31 of this year.
Similkameen Country identified several items to be covered by the funding. These include re-finishing the cement floor, completing a bathroom vanity, and installing a heater on the electronic reader board. Sim Country would also like to use the funds to purchase an upgraded computer system, desktop publishing and a colour laser printer for “in house” specialized brochures.
The current lease on the Info Centre expires on Sept. 30. Included in the lease is the operation of the reader board, which the village would like to take over control of, an item that was identified in the village’s strategic planning session.
Council was also asked to approve the Strategic Community Investment Funds agreement.
The SCIF is made up of two components, the Traffic Fine Revenue Sharing grant which is funded from traffic and court induced fines that are distributed to municipalities under 5,000 in population that pay for police services directly. The second part is the Small Community Grant, which Keremeos receives.The grant amount is based on a formula established by the province. Keremeos would benefit by a grant of approximately $370,504 per year.
Council approved the agreement.
The third item on the agenda was to deal with the awarding of the construction contract for the village’s road reconstruction projects. Because of late arriving information, the matter had to be tabled until the regular meeting of council on April 2.