A regular Council meeting for the District of Barriere took place last Monday. District of Barriere CAO Colleen Hannigan presented the following report regarding overall water improvements.
“Mountain Reservoir Site: The contractor has poured the concrete slab for the reservoir floor, and is installing vertical wall forms for the concrete walls. North Reservoir Site: The contractor is waiting for off-site construction of the precast concrete valve chamber before moving forward with foundation construction. Barriere Water System Improvements: The contractor has completed milling of Bradford Road, and required sections of Barriere Town Road, and the milling have been spread and packed on the Fire Hall and Solar Aquatics parking lot. The contractor has also completed the Barriere Lakes Road service crossings and associated paving. The new hydrant has been installed at the corner of Summers Road and Barriere Lakes Road. Pipe installation is expected to begin once all required fittings are delivered to site.
“SAWRC Update: Staff are continuing to attempt to seal the leaks in the corrugated Dynaglas wall and roof system. This has presented a unique challenge as the amount of expansion and contraction experienced over the course of 24 hours is having an unexpected and perplexing effect. No amount of sealing attempts with a number of products appear to be providing an effective solution. The SAWRC team continues to monitor and experiment with different plant varieties in the SAWRC. The hot peppers love the heat and there has been a good crop of tomatoes. Other more unique plants are not doing as well. The avocado trees have been removed to one of the team member’s private homes to see if we can save them and to figure out why they are not surviving. A letter is being sent to all the bus tour companies who currently travel the North Thompson corridor regarding tour opportunities for next season.”
The new Barriere RCMP Detachment head, Cpl. Robert Welsman was introduced.
Thierry Carriou, of BC Groundwater presented an update on the Bradford Park Wells. The report stated, “This report is for the purpose of updating council on the progress of the Bradford Park Wells project. “BC Groundwater and TRUE Consulting met with District staff on Aug. 8 to consider options around the successful completion and testing of PW3 and to determine the best way to obtain the data required for environmental and health licensing.
“It was decided to proceed with a shorter pump test on PW3 that would satisfy BC Groundwater with respect to the we|l’s successful redevelopment after the sand pack had broken down during the original pump test. The temporary pump from PW1 has now been placed in PW3 in order to proceed with this initial test and work on this part of the project is restarting this week. If successful, the pitless adapters will then be installed on both wells under True Construction’s contract. The longer pump test to determine Maximum Daily Demand (MDD) figures will be scheduled for some point in the future in order to allow True Construction to go ahead and complete their site work at the wells. The precast concrete pump house structure has now been erected on site.
“BC Groundwater will be closely monitoring this testing process and will report back to council once complete.”
An evacuee and wildfire update in regards to the community was presented to council by the finance department. “Seven District of Barriere Volunteer Fire Department members, and the Rat Truck and Water Tender were sent to aid in the wildfires near Little Fort and Clearwater. The members and vehicles were at Little Fort from July 7 to 12, and were at Clearwater from July 15 to the 19. Our Fire Department members spent a total of 610 man hours fighting the fires.
“The ESS facility was opened July 10 and remained opened seven days per week until July 31, and is now opened for a few hours one day per week.
“The ESS Center processed 500 registrations and 500 registration renewals totaling 1,000 visits. They logged a total of 918 volunteer hours up to and including Aug. 8.
“The North Thompson Volunteer Information Centre collected many donations for the evacuees. They were opened 7 days per week for 3 weeks as well. They estimate that they had in excess of 500 volunteer hours and approximately 350 families come through the Center for meals/ food stuffs, supplies, information and sometimes just a kind word.
“The North Thompson Fall Fair and Rodeo Association had and still has a great deal of activity on their grounds. They have registered and boarded close to 500 animals and at the peak times they were housing 378 animals, 150 campers and RVs and numerous folks traveling by car stopping to rest for the night. All of the campers and visitors were using the facilities on the grounds. The Fall Fair Association had many donations of items for the animals and many, many volunteer hours donated to attend to the needs of the animals. Today they still have 125 animals on the grounds and still have a few folks coming by for showers even if they are not staying on the grounds.
“Unfortunately we do not have any data for the number of evacuees that have been staying in private homes in the area but we know that number is also high.” Finance also presented a report regarding water usage during the past month in regards to many additional people staying in the community due to the evacuations around the province as a result of the wild fire situation.
“Staff have had a number of inquiries from residents regarding the possible extra water usage at their homes because they have or have had a number of evacuees staying with them for many days. We have also had an inquiry from the North Thompson Fall Fair and Rodeo Association about their water usage. They have been housing and watering many animals on their grounds and, as well, many campers and folks staying in vehicles have been using their shower and washroom facilities.
“In discussion with the Mayor, staff are recommending that those who have hosted evacuees on their property, and as a result have exceeded their normal summer water usage, should be eligible to have those excess water fees waived.
“Upon request by the individual property owners, the Finance Officer or CAO will make a determination of what that excess fee would amount to in relation to their normal seasonal usage. Any disagreement would in turn be settled by council. “Recommendation: THAT Council authorize the CFO or CAO to amend water billings for property owners who have had evacuees staying with them where their water usage is in excess of their normal seasonal usage.”
District staffer Tasha Buchanan, DCO reported to council that Recycle BC (previously known as MMBC) will be requiring separation of plastic film, including plastic bags (grocery bags etc.) from general recycling, much like glass is currently. While plastic film is still recyclable, it can no longer be mixed within the rest of the accepted materials. The Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD) has announced an implementation date for this change of Sept. 5, 2017. An information sheet was previously released by the TNRD that further explains this required change.
Buchanan’s report norted, “The restriction includes all plastic film/ bags. This poses a challenge for our blue bag curbside collection program as the manner in which it is collected requires the material to be secured inside a plastic, blue bag. While some other communities collect their recycling via sorted, blue bin containers, such a collection method would likely be impossible with our current collection trucks that are not designed to carry loose material as it will blow and scatter during the collection process. Inclement weather would also further complicate such collection. In addition, specialized blue bins would need to be purchased either by the municipality (which, could be partially covered via Recycle BC payment when the District successfully signs into the program) or by residents.
“In response, and with the TNRD’s assistance, staff have been exploring another solution that appears to offer the least financial impact to the municipality and its residents. A test run on a high volume recycling collection day proved that District Solid Waste staff can rip and empty all collected blue bags on site in the Eco Depot recycling bay. This experiment was timed and the full load was un-bagged in 15 minutes. High volume days (approximately two per week) usually see two loads in the day equaling approximately one hour of bag tearing a week. This additional task would be performed by our current solid waste staff. This added cost will be monitored and any recommended Fee Bylaw amendments would be brought forward to council once the appropriate rate increase to cover this cost is determined.
”The TNRD has provided the District with resident information literature that will supplement the education component of the change, outlining the new requirement for no plastic film/bag recycling within our curbside collection program. This literature will also be included in the next District billing mail-out.
“Plastic film/bags are still recyclable however, and residents are enthusiastically encouraged to help keep these items out of our landfills for the sake of the environment. In order to provide a convenient manner in which to recycle these bags and plastic film, staff are in the process of researching a containment bin.