The Village of Radium Hot Springs reconsidered and then unanimously adopted Bylaw No. 416, 2015 at its most recent regular council meeting.
The meeting was on Wednesday, January 13th, but council had previously identified (during its strategic planning session) that there was a strong desire to create a new parking bylaw, as the last change was made to the former parking bylaw around 1991.
Previously, the Village of Radium Hot Springs unanimously approved Bylaw No. 416, 2015 with a first, second and third reading at the regular Wednesday, December 16th council meeting with an option to amend the motion to regulate traffic and parking within the municipality’s future.
The village is reviewing all its bylaws and parking rose to the top because of “the ongoing challenges we face trying to balance being a mill town with being a tourist town,” Radium mayor Clara Reinhardt later told the Valley Echo, adding logging truck parking near main street had become a particular concern.
Radium chief administrative officer Mark Read informed council that some municipalities have similar bylaws that vary between 80 and 100 pages in length. As the new bylaw avoids going overboard with details while at the same time making sure it still offers the municipality some tools to deal with some of the issues.
Chamber meeting
Radium council asked their staff to accept a meeting with the Radium Chamber of Commerce/Tourism Radium after receiving a letter from Tourism Radium manager Kent Kebe.
“The board and marketing committee is open to discuss possible solutions for events funding and the different roles that we all can (and) must undertake to make events happen in our village and to be successful. We are all in our 2016 budget processes and would like to discuss with council and staff to see how this could be achieved for 2016,” read the letter.
However, the Village of Radium Hot Springs mayor Clara Reinhardt and councillor Tyler McCauley voiced a strong desire to either have the staff of each organization meet directly, or to have council meet directly with the chamber board during the requested meeting. McCauley suspected that the meeting could be regarding funding for the Market on Main.
“If we’re meeting with the board, I would like it to be just the board because when you mix the staff and the board, you’re getting the opinion of the staff and not the board,” said Mr. McCauley.
“If they want meet with council, then it should be board to board or staff to staff,” agreed Ms. Reinhardt. “That’s a really good idea — seems reasonable.”
Councillors discussed the scope of future projects briefly and agreed to meet regarding the 2016 budget.
UBCM meeting
Radium council discussed who could attend the upcoming Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) meeting and decided plans and dates about the meeting will be finalized closer to the event’s deadline to RSVP.