Columbia River – Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald will be in town on Friday, Oct. 16 to meet with his constituents. He will be available for meetings by appointment at the Revelstoke Community Centre. 

To arrange a meeting, contact his staff at 1-866-870-4188 or by emailing norm.macdonald.mla@leg.bc.ca.

CSRD takes over Arena green bin

Management of the green recycling bin next to the Revelstoke Forum was taken over by the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District.

Darren Komonoski, the operations manager of public works for the city, told the Committee of the Whole last Tuesday that, effective immediately, the CSRD is responsible for all recycling bins and collections in that area.

He said the green bin is all-sort, co-mingling bin, meaning recyclables could be thrown into that single bin.

The bin was put in place last month however it is not big enough to meet demand so a second bin is being added “in the very near future,” said Komonoski.

Wildland Fire Protection Committee Meeting notes

Communication was touted as the reason for the relative success of the fire season in the Revelstoke area by the Wildlands Fire Protection Committee, which met last Wednesday.

It is hoped that the seriousness of the fires in Kelowna and Lilloet this year will help the public to be proactive in the future in safeguarding their properties against fire.

While most of the Wildlands Fire Protection Committee’s plans for preventing fires in the area were carried out over spring and summer, the busy forest fire period in July and August did intervene, stretching resources and making it impossible to put some plans into action.

One such plan was the fuel management project scheduled for the high school grounds and a surrounding area. This was to involve burning off low-reaching vegetation to reduce the risk of ground fires spreading into treetops, but concerns over piles of debris that would need to be burned caused the project to come to a halt. The project is scheduled for next year.

Other future fuel management projects are to include an area around Columbia Park, which was the scene of a potentially serious fire earlier in the year.

Meetings are being scheduled in neighbourhoods where fires could be a problem, with education being the key to preventing future forest fires.

Fire fighter memorial debated

A debate emerged at the Committee of the Whole meeting last week over a proposed memorial to local fire fighters.

Councillor Antoinette Halberstadt said she questioned the need for a fire fighters’ memorial when a workers’ memorial already exists in Revelstoke.

“I am wondering, that since the fire department is a city department, about the diplomatic advisability of duplicating a workers memorial,” she said. “I think we need to be careful to make it not look like the fire department are separating themselves out from the rest of the community and towards their own special, separate memorial.”

Revelstoke fire chief Rob Girard said the memorial was part of the culture of the fire service throughout North America and British Columbia.

“It’s a celebration for our successes and also a gathering place to honour those that were killed in the line of duty,” he said.

Mayor David Raven spoke strongly in favour of the memorial, saying it was necessary because of the danger they put themselves in to protect society.

“I think the two together are absolutely necessary for the culture of Revelstoke,” he said. “It’s not to diminish the workers memorial in any way, but rather to honour the firefighters and police officers who do put themselves in that risk,” he said.

The memorial, if approved by council, will be located in front of the fire station at Fourth Street West and Campbell Avenue.