Watching for grants-in-aid that a community could benefit from is often one of the many jobs village and district staff hold. It seems for the Village of Radium Hot Springs, looking for funding through grants is a part of any project.
After applying for a Clean Water and Wastewater Fund to allow for upgrades to the water supply line, council was informed at their regular council meeting on Wednesday, May 10th that their application was unsuccessful. Mayor Clara Reinhardt explained to the Echo that the village has enough in the budget to respond to demand.
“We’ll watch for grants that become available so we do have a budget to allow for regular bits and pieces to be done every year on an as-need basis so when the time comes and we get a bigger chunk of money than we can do the whole thing at once,” said Reinhardt.
Reinhardt said the problem “tends to be on the hill there’s one section where there’s gravel and it’s chipped away at some of the paint and it started to corrode.”
As the construction of the new community hall is underway, the council has requested some additional information from Solar Now to help them decide if they will add solar panels to the new building. According to Reinhardt, the company showed council what it will look like and now council is awaiting information on costing life cycle and payback time.
“We also need to work with the architect. Initially they’ve shown the solar panels on the lower roof of the new building and the architects are wondering if we wanted to move forward with it, if maybe we wanted to look at putting them on the upper roof, because it takes quite a bit away from the look of the building,” said Reinhardt.
By adding solar panels it would power the level 2 car electric charging stations. The stations are a project the village has worked alongside the Community Energy Association to secure for the community.
“That’s sort of the vision right now because that’s where the charging stations are going, this is to help provide the power for the charging stations and then when the charging stations aren’t being used then the power goes back into the grid and it turns our metres back,” said Reinhardt.
Council committed again to close sections of village roads for the Columbia Valley Classics Car Club annual fall show.
“One of the things that’s come up is in the past volunteers have been used for flagging at some of the key intersections and it’s come to our attention we shouldn’t be using anyone that isn’t a qualified flagger. There’s going to be some meetings with the car club just to ensure we have fully qualified people at all of the flagging stations,” said Reinhardt.
Reinhardt to the Echo, “Of course we work with the car club, that’s a pretty major event for u. Barricading the street is something we do.”