Thank-you to everyone who showed up at the public information meeting to view the plans for the new emergency services building. The alternate site, around the entrance of the campground is being looked at. The exact placement of the emergency services building will be determined after a review by council. The placement will also have to take into consideration the needs of the campground and school. Council will hold a charette where the architect, project manager, council and the emergency services users and staff will spend two days reviewing needs and producing a final plan which will be available to the public for review.

The Nakusp Hot Springs has new winter hours – 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Council has decided to stay open this winter, on a trial basis, and see how things progress. We encourage you to get up to the Nakusp Hot Springs and make use of this wonderful facility so that we can remain open in the future winter months. Winter Wednesdays are back with a $5 rate.

The Community Services Bus will not be able to accommodate Wednesday rides to the Hot Springs but will do a run on Mondays at 12:50 p.m. with the return at 3 p.m. The Hot Springs will allow the Monday bus riders the Winter Wednesday rate. Council passed a resolution to investigate options for the possibility of selling the Hot Springs. This deicision follows the recommendation from the referendum last November. There has been no resolution to sell the Hot Springs at this point. Council is still open to alternative solutions.

The Arena/Parks crew is busy preparing the Rotary Park for the new playground equipment. You will see a lot of activity in that area over the next while. Thanks to the Nakusp Rotary Club for putting a grant request forward to the CBT Community Initiatives and the community for approving the request.

The ice plant for the arena has been completed and hockey and public skating has started. You can check the times by calling the arena at (250) 265-4500. Curling will start on Nov. 9 and the club is always looking for new members. The leaky auditorium roof has been replaced and the solar panel grid is in place. The next stage is to complete the fire exit stairs, put in a concrete water storage tank and the building HVAC redesign to use waster heat for building heating. A 16,000 gallon tank will be used to house waste heat from the arena. The heated water will be used to heat the arena when the ice plant is not running. The new tank will double as a cooling tower support. We are hoping to have the tank constructed in the spring of 2010.

I hope to see everyone at the Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph.