By Nowell Berg

Kimberley City Council Report

On September 9, City of Kimberley council held its regular bi-monthly meeting.

Councilors Sue Cairns, Kevin Dunnebacke, Woody Maguire, Jason McBain and Sandra Roberts were present along with Mayor Don McCormick.

An archive of the meeting can be found on the City of Kimberley YouTube channel. Watch it here.

Proposed Changes to Community Grants

Pam Walsh, Manager Community Development and Communication, presented council with proposed amendments to the Community Grants program.

Major changes in the new policy:

1 – reduce allocation from two per cent to one per cent of annual property tax levy, which means the total dollars available would drop by 50%.

2 – organizations limited to one application per year with a maximum $8,000 grant.

3 – changes to eligible expenses, no capital expenses allowed.

4 – committee to review applications (three Councilors and two staff).

5 – Standing Grants renamed to Long-term grants, current grants stable until Dec. 31, 2026. Going forward long-term grants will only be for four-years.

Coun. Maguire spoke against the significant reduction in “project/event” funding, which would drop from a current total of $142,692 to $12,659. “I’m not comfortable with that, personally. Generally, I support keeping that money available to our non-profits, they give a lot of value out of that.”

Coun. Roberts said, “I’m in favour of reducing the two per cent to one per cent because we need that extra $100,000 for some of the stuff [infrastructure needs] that is nipping at our heels.”

While agreeing with the administrative changes, Coun. McBain felt the funding drop was a lot to make in just one year. He suggest “incremental change over two to three years so that is not a sudden shock to the system [for non-profits].”

Citing concern over the impact to local societies, Coun. Dunnebacke said, “To reduce [the total dollars] doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Taking away money is not conducive to longevity [for non-profits].”

“We do need a more disciplined approach,” said Coun. Cairns. “I agree with all of what is proposed here, but I do not agree with cutting the amount.”

Noting “financial challenges the city is facing from an infrastructure perspective,“ CAO Jim Hendricks said, “We [city staff] just want to make sure we have a sustainable budget going forward.”

Saying the city is “struggling to keep it [future tax increases] well under” last years 5.33%, Mayor McCormick said, “The goal is nothing more than figuring out what is prudent.” He agreed with other councilors who suggested additional discussion would be appropriate.

Council deferred a decision and will discuss these grant changes at a Committee-of-the-Whole meeting on Oct 7. Council will then reconsider these policy changes at the regular council meeting on October 14.

Transit Expansion Plan

Troy Pollock, Manager Planning and Sustainability, presented to council a request to expand the Kimberley-Cranbrook (KC) commuter bus service. Pollock told council the expansion would “support growing demand and improve schedule frequency.”

Current service between the two cities is four trips per day, two morning and two afternoon. Expansion would see two more trips added, one morning and one afternoon, which would add 850 hours of service and require three more buses.

Mayor McCormick said, “This is a really big deal.” He reported to council that a traffic counter installed at Wycliff recorded “an average daily number of trips at 6,800” from January to the end of March, seven days a week “back and forth between here and Cranbrook.”

The Mayor noted that this expansion would “take a lot of those cars off the road. Long term this is a really, really important program.”

Councilors unanimously supported the expansion, which could begin in January of 2026.

Kimberley city council assembles twice monthly starting at 7 p.m. The next regular council meeting: September 23.

e-KNOW file photo

e-KNOW

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