Cranbrook's School Christmas Concerts

The last two weeks of school seem packed with various concerts from all the schools and if you haven't attended any yet you still have Mt Baker's production of A Christmas Carol,The Musical which starts next week and runs for several nights.  Many Thanks to all the teachers who put in many extra hours at this time of year preparing for these very special events.  These concerts are an important part of the Christmas Season, showcasing our younger citizens and making our season bright.  We appreciate you all.

Parkland Choir at the Key City Theatre

Parkland Grade 7 Band

How far they have come in such a short time - Well done



Parkland Grade 8 and 9 Band





Elementary School Mass Choir College of the Rockies

This concert was started in the seventies by the late Roy Barnett and is a favourite every year. Roy's wife Elsie still attends the annual event and looks after the collection of food and cash at the door.  This collection goes to the Salvation Army.  Every elementary school, many teachers and several hundred students are involved and the sound of so many childrens' voices is impressive as well as beautiful, especially when they come together with only one mass rehearsal.

What’s Happening

Friday December 10th and Saturday December 11th
It’s a Wonderful Life
Studio Stage Door
Tickets $15
Highly recommended – if tickets are still available


Friday and Saturday December 10th and 11th
Artist Demonstrations
Fisher Peak Art and Gift Gallery


Friday December 10th
George Canyon
Key City Theatre
7:30pm
Ticket Information Key City Box Office
250-426-7006


Friday December 9th and Sunday December 11th
Polar Express
7:00pm Saturday
2:00pm Sunday
Fort Steele Wild Horse Theatre
Tickets$7 at SaveOn Gas Bar and Safeway


Saturday December 11th
Cranbrook and District Arts Council
Christmas Crafts Workshop
With Colleen Routley
For children
$25
Artrageous Gallery
250-426-4223


Twice Loved Art Auction
Cranbrook and District Arts Council
Closing date for bids is Saturday December 11th at 2:00pm
Artrageous Gallery


Saturday December 11th
White Christmas at Fort Steele
Dinner, Sleigh Ride and the movie
Tickets $30 for all
250-417-6000
Film only $7

Sunday December 12th
Sleigh Rides at Fort Steele
11:00am – 3:00pm
$2.25

Sunday December 12th
Photo with Father Christmas at Fort Steele
Lambi House
11:00am – 3:00pm

Highland Dancers at Fort Steele
Sunday December 12
Wild Horse Theatre
6:00pm 250-427-8757
Admission by donation
Proceeds to Diabetes Research


Get your tickets NOW for

Wednesday thro’ Sunday December 15th to 19th
A Christmas Carol, The Musical
Mount Baker School Production
Key City Theatre
Adults $15, Children and seniors, $12
Tickets at Key City Box Office

Banff Mountain Film Festival
Saturday January 8th
Tickets at Lotus Books $20

Kootenay Ice vs Prostate Cancer. Check.

Some of Us Lit a Candle for Kyoto - you can too!

http://www.canadians.org/action/2010/hopeforkyoto.html

http://www.flickr.com/groups/hopeforkyoto/

Cranbrook Connected and the CLC

On Tuesday night nearly 30 members of the Citizens for a Livable Cranbrook took part in a Cranbrook Connected workshop at the Laurie Middle School Library. Laurie Cordell and Chris Ayling of Cranbrook Connected (Integrated Sustainability Plan) led us in this visioning process for Cranbrook.  Cranbrook Connected goal is to develop an Integrated Sustainability Plan which will provide the city with a long term strategic plan that will give the city council a "shared vision of our future to work towards." We all shared our hopes for Cranbrook's  future and many people expressed their love of living in this city and the area around it.
Some of the issues mentioned included;
-the arts

-prevent sprawl
-natural beauty
-better city planning
-let Cranbrook be a leader, not a follower
-sustainability needs to be more than a talking point
-adhere to a solid plan
-increase diversity

Cranbrook Connected has been given considerable autonomy by the City Council and it is encouraged by the participation of so many of Cranbrooks residents. We look forward to the ongoing efforts of the Cranbrook Connected committee and it will remain interesting to see how successfully its' recommendations are implemented by the city.
To learn more about Cranbrook Connected go to: http://www.cranbrookconnected.ca/

City Council Meeting Notes

Norm Walters - At last night's city council meeting we heard of the sudden death of Norm Walters, Area E Director from the Regional District of East Kootenay. We were all shocked to hear the news and we extend our deepest sympathy to his family. Norm loved representing  Area E and was always available for a bit of straight shooting advice on a particular issue.

Memorial Arena -While every attempt will still be made to open the Memorial Arena on time (Dec 18) there may be a delay as there is a problem with some of the poured concrete. While the contractor feels it will be fine the city is asking for absolute assurances that we will not face any issues in the future. Considering the amount of monies being spent we certainly support the cities approach on this issue.

Correspondence - Mayor Manjak addressed Mr. David Humphrey's concerns by stating  that he would be investigating further and would report back in January.

Downtown Gas Leak -The council discussed the gas leak which effected many residences and businesses on Saturday. City crews and Terasen worked around the clock to resolve the problem safely. The leak occurred when contractors for our high speed broadband system hit the gas line which was supposed to be inactive.

Slaterville- discussion occurred around the correspondence received by the citizens of Slaterville. The city will be holding a community neighbourhood meeting on April 30, 2011. Many of the councillors expressed their support for the area and how it was a unique historical area in Cranbrook.

911 Call Forwarding -An interesting revenue stream for the City of Cranbrook is our ongoing contracts with various communities in BC including Castelgar and the Regional District of East Kootenay to supply them with a 911 call forwarding service and fire services which produce a revenue of $700,000 a year. This is a significant amount of monies added to our budget and it is something which many citizens of Cranbrook are not aware of.

Increased fees for water and sewer -Due to the ongoing improvements to our Spray Irrigation site and a shortfall in funds rates for sewer and water will be increasing. This will enable the city to not borrow further monies for this ongoing project.

The next city council meeting will be January 11, 2011. See you there!

Rockyview OCP For the record:

In reference to the article by Gerry Warner in yesterday’s Townsman
Wilks defends fellow RDEK director over hearing handling

Mr. Wilks was not present at the hearing to which he refers. Citizens for a Livable Cranbrook are very well aware of public hearing protocol.

The comments that Mr Wilks strangely characterised as 'an attack' were made by Mr Cross as a member of the Cranbrook Community Forest Society and in response to a very late change requested by the City of Cranbrook. Not only was the change made late in the Rockyview OCP process but no consultation with Cranbrook Community Forest Society occurred with regard to this change. CCF is the holder of the Community Forest Management Agreement and is therefore a major stakeholder. We appreciate Mr Gay’s candid comment “that he wished he’d handled the presence of former Mayor Priest differently” His honesty is refreshing. It is our opinion that it was unfortunate more questions about the hearing were not asked by RDEK directors before the Rockyview OCP was adopted.

The Cranbrook Guardian's original accounting of these events can be read on the posts of October 27th 2010 'Priest and others Speak Out'
http://livablecranbrook.blogspot.com/2010/10/priest-and-others-speak-out.htmland 
and November 6th 2010, 'RDEK Ignores Public Concerns'
http://livablecranbrook.blogspot.com/2010/11/rdek-ignores-public-concerns.html

Advance City Council Meeting Notes

City Council Meeting tonight at 6pm at city hall. You can also watch on the local Shaw Channel
Here are some of the hi-lites from tonight's Council Agenda/Package

Administration Updates for December 6th, 2010

- Municipal Fibre-optic Broadband Network
This $2.25 million project is moving ahead with Prestige Telecom Inc. in association with Consulting Gateway Corp. The fibre optic network is being built entirely underground using directional drilling technology. Construction commenced the week of Nov 15 with scheduled completion date of March 31, 2011.
- Memorial Arena should re-open Saturday Dec 18, 2010. While all the upgrades are not  complete the ice will be available to the public. Remaining items include exterior work, painting, mechanical room upgrades and fire control upgrades
-Library Services. During the month of December people can pay off their fines by donating a non-perishable food item.  All food to be donated to the Cranbrook Food Bank 


Correspondence

There were 6 letters submitted to the City including;
-Correspondence from the Regional District of East Kootenay stating its November highlights
-Correspondence from the from Minister of Health Services Kevin Falcon regarding a new health promotion initiative
- Correspondence from the Mayor of Trail re: Excise Tax Act Amendment
- Correspondence from Gerald Jolliffe regarding the donation of the pedestrian bridge over Joseph Creek to the city.

-The 2 most significant pieces of correspondence included a letter from David Humphrey regarding the Spray Irrigation Site and the ability of cattle on that site to drink run off containing effluent. The contents of pond G1 tests above government guidelines for cattle watering.  While the city has repeated that there are no problems at the site, Mr. Humphrey's diligent investigative work has discovered just the opposite. Is it not about time that the City respond in an adequate way to the obvious issues of non-compliance.

The second letter comes to us from the community of Slaterville and some of the ongoing issues it faces regarding lack of public transportation, no curbs, no gutters, no storm sewers, no side walks among many other issues. Now is the time for Slaterville to get some of the attention it deserves and ensure its ongoing success as a neighbourhood here in Cranbrook. The city has arranged to have a community meeting on April 30, 2011

New Business

- Rails to Trails Maintenance. That the council commit to $10,000 for future maintenance of the Rails to Trails as per an operating agreement between the City of Kimberley and the City of Cranbrook in anticipation of a Society being formed over the next 2 years
- recommendation re: Audio/Visual System replacement  If you have been watching on Shaw you know there are ongoing issues with the sound quality making it very difficult to listen to the meetings.
- From Corporate Services comes a recommendation to take the St Mary River Crown land out of the Agricultural Land Reserve to create a city park adjacent to the Shadow Mountain Development.  Concerns have been raised over public access to this park and we will continue to follow this story with great interest.

By-Law

By-law 3710 and 3715 are increases to the rates for the water and sewer billing. Water rates would increase by $1.00 per month while sewer billing would increase by $2.00 per month.

By-law 3716 would support a "wood first" policy when it comes to building.  The city would encourage the use of wood in  all building projects and that the procurement procedures would reflect this new requirement.

To read the entire package please go here http://cranbrook.ihostez.com/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=1214

Cranbrook Community Forest Announce New Website

http://www.cranbrookcommunityforest.com/
How about a Cranbrook Community Forest membership for a Christmas gift? Membership money supports ongoing efforts to preserve and maintain one of our most valued assets.  Information is on the website.




 


Snowshoers head off out of the parking lot



Happy Dog Walks

A True Winter Wonderland



Well Marked Trails



Santa’s Workshop at The Green Home

In Waste Reduction Week we posted this picture of a nifty plastic bag dryer. Paul Knipe a Mount Baker teacher saw the potential for an ideal project between his students and the residents of the Green Home. As a result, with donated offcuts of wood and enthusiastic participants a hundred plastic bag dryers have been made and presold. Community, sustainability, integration of all ages .... some fun and satisfaction – what a great project!

Mr. Paul Knipe demonstrates how the gadget will go together and work

David Bernier showing the finished kit