The Village of Boyle will be doing some research over the cost to do some renovations at the RV Dump Station.
At their Nov. 15 meeting, the Village of Boyle council voted unanimously to direct administration to research costs for improvements to the RV Dump Station after discussing a proposal from the Boyle and District Chamber of Commerce to cost-share for upgrades to the station.
Mayor Colin Derko said as administration explores the proposal, they should also examine the possibility of fixing up the concrete already in place at the station.
“If we’re going to do it, let’s do it right and do it once,” Derko said.
Council also discussed the proposal to have a garbage container added to the station. However, Derko said that could create issues if people abuse it.
“You put a garbage can there and everyone piles their garbage around and then the ravens come,” Derko said.
Chief administrative officer Charlie Ashbey said the village could try to test if a trash can could work at the station.
"If it works, then fine, we broke ground; if it doesn’t, fine, we'll remove it,” Ashbey said.
Derko said if the station upgrades are done well, that could help stop people from messing the area up.
“When you have a place that looks nice, people tend to try and keep it nice. If it looks like garbage they tend to not really care and turn it into more garbage,” he said.
Council unanimously approved their 2018 interim budget, which is set at 50 per cent of the previous year’s operating budget.
Ashbey said this allows village staff to keep things running before council finalizes a budget in the new year.
“It covers our mundane expenditures,” Ashbey said, citing items such as wages and fuel as examples. “We don't usually spend anything outrageous. If we do we'll get a motion from council."
Council also voted to commit to a balanced budget in 2018, as required by the Municipal Government Act.
The village’s public works department is continuing to make improvements to ammonia leak detection systems at Boyle Arena, according to a report presented by Alex Neumann, superintendent of public works and utilities.
He said his department has added warning strobe lights along with horns outside the rink and one within the rink.
The department also discovered that the alarm system automatically shuts the ice plant down. However, Neumann added that the department had to repair the system further, due to it starting to send out bogus alarms after a sensor was bumped.
“That’s where we are right now. I don’t like it but hopefully we can finish ASAP,” Neumann said during the meeting, adding that a technician would be brought in to help repair it.
The village began work to step up safety at its arena after three arena staff members in Fernie, B.C. died due to an ammonia leak last month, as discussed during the Nov. 1 council meeting. The Boyle Arena rink uses ammonia in its cooling system.
“It is the wake-up call,” Neumann said. “We’re going to do anything we can that everyone is trained and armed and nothing ever happens to them.”
However, he added that he wanted to be careful about the fear at play.
“What I don’t want is to instill fear in anybody. We have to be practical here and we have to be objective,” Neumann said.
