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Gymnastic Centre reconstruction moves forward
Kimberley City Council Report
By Nowell Berg
On January 23, City of Kimberley City held its regular bi-monthly meeting.
Councillors Sue Cairns, Kevin Dunnebacke, Jason McBain, Sandra Roberts and Steven Royer were present along with Mayor Don McCormick.
Coun. Woody Maguire participated remotely.
A video archive of the meeting can be found on the City of Kimberley YouTube channel. Watch it here.
Kimberley Food Hub Group
Council received a delegation from the Kimberley Food Hub Group, made up of 10 regional groups all concerned with food security.
Presenting to council were Chad Kealy – Wildsight Kimberley Cranbrook, Tom Tart – Kimberley Helping Hands Food Bank, Ingrid Liepa – Kimberley Edible Gardens and Greenhouse Society and Shannon Duncan – Healthy Kimberley Food Recovery Depot.
The purpose of the Food Hub is to work with local governments to “strengthen local food security and develop local food security action plans,” said Kealy.
Over the course of last year, the various Hub groups had a combined 525 people volunteer throughout the community.
The Food Bank distributes almost 5,000 pounds of food and 108 hampers per month to local residents in need. The Recovery Depot handles 10,000 pounds of food per month, and since 2018 has collected 315,000 pounds of food.
Wildsight manages the farmers market, apple capture, community garden and backyard farmer programs, each contributing food to local programs. The Edible Garden program at McDougal Park generated over 2,700 pounds of fresh produce last year.
In one telling statistic, Ingrid Liepa said, “95% of food in Kimberley comes from somewhere else.”
In her portion of the presentation, Shannon Duncan said, “One of the things that was really notable across B.C. towns during the pandemic, local and regional sourced foods and small supply chains were the most resilient.”
Tom Tart pointed out that in the first half 20th Century, “Kimberley used to be quite self-sufficient with food.” He added, “Reliance on outside sources of food for a small town at the end of the supply chain seems rather fragile.”
The Food Hub Group asked council to begin a conversation about developing a food security action plan that could be incorporated into the OCP and Bylaws to support the group’s goals.
Coun. Roberts thanked the presenters for “helping us to understand the over-all scope of this issue.”
2023 Community Grants approved
Council voted to approve the allocation of $130,475 in grants to local non-profits. This total included $113,476 in cash and $16,999 in in-kind allocations.
According to the city’s policy, the “Community Grant Program recognizes organizations that support the well-being and vibrancy of our community.”
This year, those groups receiving the largest grants were:
Kimberley Health Centre Society – $13,000
Kimberley Nordic Club – $12,172
East Kootenay Search and Rescue (Kimberley SAR) – $11,732
Spark Society for Youth – $8,988
Healthy Kimberley Food Recovery Depot – $8,583
Kimberley & District Chamber of Commerce – $8,000
The Grants Policy also stipulates several standing grants that are dispensed each year, and are separate from the grants noted above.
Kimberley Heritage Museum Society – $26,824
Kimberley Arts Council Centre 64 – $28,584
Kimberley Trails Society – $25,703
Kimberley and District Chamber of Commerce – $10,489
Gymnastic Centre reconstruction moves forward
Council voted unanimously to approve a development permit to rebuild the gymnastics centre destroyed by arson in December 2021.
The new centre will be slightly larger than the previous building. The old gable style roof will be replaced with what is called a “mono-pitched roof” that has one side higher than the other. The one large wall will be painted with a mountain landscape mural.
Tyee undertook the design for the new facility.
Coun. McBain noted the re-placement of the building “was a long time coming.”
Kimberley city council meets twice monthly starting at 7 p.m. The next regular council meeting: February 13.
Lead image: Plan of the new gymnastics centre. Taken from Kimberley council agenda
e-KNOW file photos
