City Council briefs

City Councillors may forego the Local Government Leadership Academy Elected Officials Seminar in Kelowna in January if they can bring consultants here to conduct a similar seminar for less money.

The Kelowna seminar, scheduled for January 20-22, is expected to cost the City $11,000.

Council asked Chief Administrative Officer Tim Palmer to explore the possibility of bringing experts here if it could be done for less money. It may be possible t cut that $11,000 cost n half, he said.

The matter has now been tabled until the next Council meeting.

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Consummate Building Services has been awarded a three-year contract to clean the Community Centre and the Provincial Court House.

CBS had the lowest bid — $322,730.52 — for the contract. The two other bidders, Apex Janitorial and Evergreen Building Maintenance offered their services for $378,000 and $340,200, respectively.

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An American company, Advanced Air Systems, has been awarded the contract for an air filtration system capable of suppressing the sewage treatment plant odours that have periodically assaulted the nostrils of Southside residents.

A report to Council from Engineering and Development Services Director Mike Thomas said the AAS system is, at $105,930, less expensive than two competing bids by competitors Purafil, which is also based in the US, and Unisorb Canada. Their bids were $149,964 and $203,700, respectively.

“This is not a treatment process that will deal with the bacteriological problems — it’s a filtration system,” Thomas said.

Once the equipment arrives the City will put out a Request For Proposals for someone to install it. Hopefully, this will be a “sweet-smelling” conclusion to a problem that has plagued the area for about a decade.

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Revelstoke Mountain Resort is being authorized to set off consumer-grade fireworks for a community fireworks show on its slopes on December 31.

Peter Humphreys was approached by RMR earlier this year about supervising the show. That is something he told Council in a letter that he has done many times prior to moving to Revelstoke.

He said RMR has designated an area on the hill that is “well away from any buildings and have developed an emergency response plan” in case something goes awry.

RMR did set of fireworks last year and, in so doing, ticked off Fire Chief Rb Girard who had told them not to do so.

This time RMR must follow all terms and conditions set by Girard as well as all requirements of the Federal Explosives Regulations.

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The City issued 14 business permits in November, bringing to 965 the total number of permits in Revelstoke, up from 952 in October. One licence was cancelled in October.

The licences were issued to Avalanche Electric, Outdoor Elements Landscape Design, Dale’s Drywall Service, Ava Terra Services, Forbes mechanical Inc., Plumb Local Services, Revelstoke Mountaineer Communications Ltd., Revelstoke Painting, GEF Operations Limited, Silver Bear retreat, The Downtown Home, Blier Contracting, Jody Lownds Law Corporation and Edward Jones.

A year ago there were 913 business licenses in Revelstoke.