On January 24, Tumbler Ridge Council got together to discuss the upcoming budget.
This is the first budget meeting of the year, and already, the District is behind, “due to circumstances beyond staff’s control and delay in responses for cost estimates.”
This delay is estimated to put budget discussions about a month behind schedule.
According to policy, staff is supposed to provide capital items being proposed for the following year’s financial plan no later than the fourth Monday of January.
However, according to CAO Jennifer Thompson, she expects that the capital and special projects budget won’t be finalized until the end of February, and is expecting to be able to discuss these things at a meeting on February 28.
“The effects of the pandemic are felt throughout the organization,” says Thompson. “Year end processes are competing with capital budget preparation as well.”
Council was expected to discuss the operations budget that day, but is not expecting to get through it all in one day.
If not, they will discuss it during the next regular meeting of council, on March 7.
So at the first Budgeting meeting, Council instead discussed items that are of priority for Capital and Special Projects.
These items include things like completion of the perimeter trail, lighting of existing trails, expanding the gym, developing a community fishing hole, seeing if it is possible to get a co-generation plant in the Tumbler Ridge area, the mountain bike jump trail off Mesa Place and attracting jobs to Tumbler Ridge.
Councillor Miedzinski says he’d love to see the current trail extend at least to the Monkman RV Park. “Even if that’s all we do. I know there were some concerns about the trail route on the south side of town, but this would go past the ball diamonds, which is a great place to walk your dog and throw a ball. I think there’s a lot of benefits.”
Tied into extending the trail is the idea of lighting the current trails. “This is something that is still on our radar,” says Mayor Bertrand.
Unfortunately, while BC Hydro has supported the District in the past, adding in lights off their existing standards, this is something that they are no longer doing.
Recently, Chetwynd ran lighting on some of their trails. Thompson says she talked to staff there, and discovered that the cost of lighting their trails was far less than what had been quoted for Tumbler Ridge. “It is definitely something to look into and it gives us a better idea of what the costs will be.”
Councillor Miedzinski says that if council is looking at lighting trails, they should also look at lighting the bear walks, too, especially as there are plans to repair some of them in the future. “If we want to have those up to par, we should probably dig into the ground to install power lines for the lighting before we pave the bear walks.”
Council is still looking at expanding the District’s gym facilities if the child care is successful in a grant to move out of it’s current location into a purpose build facility. However, council is also entertaining the idea of getting out of the gym business.
“Is there any flavour around council to put out an Expression of Interest to see if anyone wants to purchase all the equipment that’s in the gym,” asks councillor Howe? “Let someone take it as a private business. Then you’ve got your space already created for the daycare? Get out of the gym business all together. We’ve been trying this childcare thing for three years and haven’t got the money for it.”
Howe says the gym is one of the things that makes money for the recreation centre, but he is also worried that it is standing in the way of someone opening a private gym in Tumbler Ridge. “Maybe there’s someone out there who wants to take a run at it in conjunction with something else they want to do. Or maybe not. Maybe nobody wants to do anything with it all.”
Most of Council is in favour of entertaining the idea. Mayor Bertrand says it is hard for someone to come into town to open a new gym, when there is already one being operated by the district. “Having the gym in the rec centre does deter someone from deciding to open one.”
“There’s private gyms all over the place,” says Councillor Howe. “Dawson Creek has half a dozen. It seems to be the way of the future. There are ones that cater just to women. Just a thought. Maybe it’s something we get out of. We thought about selling the golf course years ago. Nobody bid on it, so we still run it.”
Councillor Miedzinski is also intrigued by the idea. “I think it would be really worthwhile doing. The gym is very limited as to what you can do. You can’t do any Crossfit, and that’s huge now. There’s no open space in there. The basement below Teck would be a perfect place to put something like that.”
However Councillor Norbury is not convinced. “Having the gym does not stop anyone from opening a [Crossfit] gym…if there is money to be made. If we’re not successful in our daycare grant application, we should explore it then. But if we get a new daycare facility, we could expand the gym.”
And while the plan appears to be to seek an expression of interest, that does not necessarily mean the end of the Rock Pit gym.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
