The Cariboo Regional District (CRD) held its second of four town-hall meetings in the South Cariboo on Jan. 20 at Forest Grove Community Hall.
Eight area residents who turned out for the meeting learned more about CRD’s 2011 budget and five-year financial plan.
They also heard the regional district’s budget is a bit lower this year, but property taxes will increase, mainly due to solid-waste management costs.
Area H Director Art Dumaresq gave a brief overview of the CRD before introducing the regional district’s chief administrative officer Janis Bell and new chief financial officer Scott Reid, as well as 100 Mile Mayor Mitch Campsall.
Although there were only eight residents who attended, Dumaresq said he believes they found the presentation informative.
After the formal presentation, staff and directors fielded questions about services and any other issues residents wanted to discuss.
The various concerns voiced included a strong focus on determining new water sources for Forest Grove.
It was noted the community cannot expand development much more considering the quantity of water available in the aquifer below the town.
The CRD has secured $150,000 from the federal gas tax revenue distribution to hire a consultant to explore the areas around the town to find a new aquifer that could be used to augment the current water supply, Dumaresq explained.
This project is scheduled to happen this year.
Concerns expressed about the increase in the solid-waste management costs resulted in an explanation from staff on the serious problems with commercial garbage being dumped in the Forest Grove landfill by individuals who are trying to avoid tipping fees at the 100 Mile landfill.
Similar to other problematic landfill sites and transfer stations areas in the regional district, residents learned it is costly to hire contractors to haul the garbage back to the 100 Mile landfill for appropriate disposal processing.
Another concern raised was regarding the potential for future sewage problems in Forest
Grove, which some felt may eventually require a sewage disposal system, such as they have in Lac la Hache.
“We explained that should this [sewage system] be requested by the residents of Forest Grove, it would have to have taxpayer approval through a referendum process, but we are not aware of any problems at this time.”
The perceived need for a transit system to Forest Grove and surrounding areas was also discussed, and it was explained that the CRD does not actually run the existing transit system in 100 Mile House, but only collects taxation for BC Transit.
“A couple of years back, BC Transit had a pilot program to provide bus service to both the Forest Grove/Canim Lake areas and also out to the Interlakes area.
“But, the ridership was very low in both areas, and a regular bus service would have resulted in a very significant tax subsidy from the residents of these areas, and could not be justified at the time.”
Noting the CRD tried an earlier town-hall meeting time this year by starting at 6 p.m. with the presentation at 6:30 p.m., Dumaresq said he feels it didn’t work out very well.
“Considering the very low number of area residents attending, I will be requesting a return to the 7 p.m. format for all future Area H town-halls.”
