Post Notes for the Council Meeting of January 24th 2011

· Katherine Hough’s presentation on the Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy and their work in the community was most informative. She featured a short video from Surrey that demonstrated how important it is to make literacy a focus in all areas of municipal work.


· Letters concerning the Spray Irrigation System became the focus of Correspondence. Denise Palleson, Mayor Manjak and Liz Schatschneider made reference to the letters from the Ministry of the Environment. They felt reassured about their working relationship with the Ministry and the ongoing upgrade work. Mayor Manjak talked at length about the personnel dealing with the upgrades and gave assurance to one member of the gallery that his questions not answered tonight would be answered soon.


· Mr Jamie Hodge gave a lengthy slide presentation demonstrating the engineering systems which have gone into the Spray Irrigation Upgrades. The slides and the financial breakdown were most informative and interesting especially for those residents who may not have had the opportunity to see some of these locations or work in action for themselves. Mr Hodge’s presentation was limited to the current upgrades.

We did learn that Cranbrook should be meeting standards by the end of 2011.

Some of the questions we posed on January 12th on this blog were given an answer.  Some were not.

· Will The 15 million dollars designated to this project be sufficient to complete the improvements already contracted? Apparantly not. Cost now estimated at $19 million.

· Which of the original planned upgrades are not going to take place due to lack of funds? No clear answer given although we were assured basic standards will be met by the end of 2011.

· If more work is required to complete the basic upgrades, what will be the estimated shortfall? Estimated at $4 million

· What procedures are in place to reassure the residents surrounding the spray site and leaking ponds numbers one and two that well water in the area is safe? No answer although it was admitted there is a leakage problem.

· It was proven in the test results for 2009 that runoff provided in one pond to the cattle for drinking water exceeded contamination guidelines by a substantial amount. Have cattle as yet been provided with a clean, fresh drinking water source? Not addressed

· Does ultimate responsibility for management of the spray site not rest with the City Farm? If so why are cattle as of August 2010 still permitted to graze when active spraying is taking place? This contravenes government regulations. Mr Hodge said a few weeks ago in a previous meeting that this was a mistake.  By deduction - by the end of 2011 this will not happen


· What has been the total cost to taxpayers for ten years worth of legal dispute with CPR culminating in an extensive and likely very expensive Environmental Hearing? No information given.

We are ever hopeful and must assume at some point the missing information will be revealed.  It is interesting to note that one part of the bid process for the upgrades stipulated that a personel relations appointment be made to answer the public's questions.  To date we do not know of any one person holding this position.  Several council members stated in this meeting that there have been non-compliance issues in the past.  This is the same council who in the past and for a very long time denied there were any issues with waste water management.  The result of this has been the skeptism, concern, research and care shown by residents although not all may have the confidence to publicly question the authorities especially when they have run the risk of public put downs.

We have made several posts on this subject over the last few months.  You may be interested in reading:
http://livablecranbrook.blogspot.com/2011/01/vernons-waste-water-management-program.html
http://livablecranbrook.blogspot.com/2011/01/cranbrooks-spray-irrigation-upgrades.html
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5780805355096014669&postID=2874539017412472644



· Erosion and Sediment Control Bylaw was given third reading with amendments. All of the amendments were not discussed although a soft introduction to this bylaw was not accepted. Some change was given to wheel cleaning methods. It is good to see Cranbrook taking this issue seriously by introducing this bylaw.