Some of our image-laden pages may load more slowly depending on your internet service. Patience if they don't display immediately. You'll be glad you waited.

South Okanagan Photos

Report on Oliver Town Council – Pat Hampson

Regular Council Oct 27 2014

Delegations & Petitions:

A group of excited students, accompanied by travel Chaperone Tracy Harrington, attended the Council meeting to describe their Exchange Student trip to Oliver’s Sister City, Bandai, Japan. Each student rose to tell Council and the Channel 18 viewers about highlights of their trip. Almost without exception all the students had glowing remarks about the welcome and care provided by their host families despite the language barrier. Some comments of the highlights of their trip included:

    • “I played card games with my host family and lots of fun even though none of us could speak English or Japanese”.
    • “I really enjoyed the ice cream.”
    • “I really bonded with my host family and I want to go back.”
    • “We visited what must be the tallest building in the world the Tokyo Skytree, it was 2,080 feet high.” (There was a picture looking through the glass floor at the top!)
    • “I saw lots of interesting things but I did not like the slippers”.
    • “My host family gave me lots of food.”
    • “The way of life is so different, they have no dining rooms and sit on the floor to eat.”

It certainly appeared that these Oliver representatives had a great time judging by their comments and the slide show which Ms. Harrington presented.

Mayor Hovanes stated that he believes the exchange program for students and reciprocal visits by Bandai officials is very important; Council appeared to agree.

Dog Pound Facility Update:

The Town’s contract with a local business has expired and there is no facility for housing impounded animals. Public Works property is undergoing a rezoning to allow for a Dog Pound facility and until this legal hurdle overcome the Town must enter into a temporary agreement up to 6 months with the Osoyoos facility. The previous contract cost was $203.33 per month and $25.00 per day per dog. The cost of the Osoyoos contract will be $200 per month for licenses and an impound fee of $10.00 per dog. Council approved the staff request to enter into an agreement.

School District #53 Reclaimed Wastewater Agreement:

Some readers may have seen the new signs in some areas of SOSS advising that reclaimed waste water is being used for irrigation. This is actually not as bad as it sounds but because the water does not meet drinking water standards set by the Province residents must be notified of areas where it is used. A farmer who leases the grass-lands at the Oliver Airport has been using this water for irrigation for several years.

This will be a Ten Year (10) agreement and water will be supplied from March 15 to October 31 of each year. During this period SD 53 will pay the Town $110.23 per acre. The rates are contained within the Reclaimed Water Use Rate Bylaw #1022. In the event the SD decides to use potable water that rate will increase.

Strategic Planning:

The Chief Administrative Officer, Heidi Frank discussed the opportunity for Council to take advantage of the services of a Consultant to lead Council through a strategic planning process in the immediate future. The CAO suggested that Council would benefit from the services of Mr. Gordon McIntosh of LGL Institute. Council spent some time discussing the advantages and disadvantages of retaining a consultant and focused on the cost of up to $9,000. The Mayor reminded Council that the Town has conducted ‘in-house’ workshops and also retained facilitators who led Council in a priority setting session with good success. However in the final analysis several Councillors preferred to participate in the ‘In house’ option to save money and if that should not be successful then the option of contracting outside consultants could be revisited.