Tuesday,
January 25, 2005 Volume 26 Number 4
Peace Wapiti wants some of SRE School proceeds back to SRRA
Bezanson School could be one of the main benefactors from the
sale of the Spirit River Elementary School.
Peace Wapiti wants to discuss with Alberta Infrastructure the
possibility of using a portion of the funds from the sale of SRE
School and directing them towards the modernization of Bezanson
School. What they actually hope to accomplish is getting into
a cost sharing agreement with Infrastructure to get the project
up and running.
“We should approach the government and request that they
contribute additional funds if we support it with some of the
money we received from the sale of SRE,” said trustee Lynne
Phillips.
Bezanson School is on the division’s priority list and needs
major work done to the heating system and roof.
As for the rest of the proceeds from the sale, which added $1,827,558
to Peace Wapiti’s bank account, Alberta Infrastructure directed
the school division to put $1,065,729 towards future capital projects
and the remaining $761,829 in capital reserves. Phillips went
on to request that some of that money for capital projects go
back to Spirit River Regional Academy for some items that were
omitted during the building process. “Jim Nicholson (SRRA
Principal) gave a few suggestions as to what he feels is important
to the school,” said Phillips. “I would like commitment
from the board to use a portion of that money to go towards SRRA.
$1.8 million will go a long way in our system to help other schools,
but I feel some of that should go back to SRRA for things that
weren’t done, dropped or deleted along the way.”
Peace Wapiti Administration will go over the “wish list”
from SRRA and make a priority list for the remainder of the funds
for capital projects throughout the division to bring back to
the board at a future meeting. “Jim (Nicholson) noted some
security and safety issues that he would like addressed,”
said Superintendent Darwin Eckstrom. “We have a lot of projects
that the money can go towards in our schools.”
NEWPRO
feeling Canfor closure at Hines Creek
The start up of the co-generation plant in Grande Prairie in conjunction
with the loss of fibre coming out of Hines Creek is putting a
tremendous strain on NEWPRO’s fibre supply.
NEWPRO obtains about 30% of their materials from Canfor in Hines
Creek and without that, they are going to be in a bit of a bind.
“It definitely has an impact on us,” said NEWPRO General
Manager Richard Norton. “The biggest thing is that it was
a little bit unexpected (Canfor closing in Hines Creek). It’s
really going to put a pinch on things.”
Canfor in Grande Prairie supplies the co-gen plant there with
about 120,000 tonnes of waste material per year. That, along with
the closure of Canfor in Hines Creek, has NEWPRO negotiating with
Canfor to get more sawdust and shavings from their mills in Grande
Prairie, Fort St. John and Chetwynd. “We need to negotiate
with Canfor, and that’s what we are in the process of doing
right now,” said Norton.
NEWPRO gets their material from Canfor in Hines Creek, Grande
Prairie, Fort St. John and Chetwynd, as well as Buchanan Lumber
in High Prairie and Boucher Bros. in Nampa. Norton said that the
co-gen plant in Grande Prairie takes from Canfor in Grande Prairie
and they themselves are basically getting everything available
from Buchanan and Boucher already, meaning Fort St. John and Chetwynd
have to pick up the slack. “That means significant extra
hauling for us. We need to go further away to get our supply and
we need to work out where that comes from,” said Norton.
The plant processes sawdust and wood shavings into furniture grade
particle board.
NEWPRO back in operation
A fire that struck the mill last Sunday (Jan. 16) caused approximately
$75,000 damage. It was all electrical damage done by the fire
which closed the plant for about a week. Norton said on Friday
that they would be open again on Saturday (Jan. 22). The fire
was contained to the drying area of the plant in the east side
of the building.
54th
street in Rycroft to receive major upgrade
With 30 percent of the street requiring reconstruction and poor
drainage at one intersection, residents along 54th Street in Rycroft
will have a new paved road this summer.
Work to be done includes the removal of the existing asphalt curb
on the west side of the street, as well as the concrete curb,
gutter and sidewalk on the east side of the street. A standard
curb and gutter will replace the old ones, but the sidewalk on
the east side will not be replaced at all. The engineering firm,
GPEC Consulting Ltd., determined that gutters and curbs on both
side of the street are in such poor condition with cracks and
uneven grade, plus with the asphalt at its present height, adding
a level course of overlay would reduce the amount of curb face
remaining to a height less than what would normally be desirable.
Therefore, the entire street from 46th Ave. to 47th Ave. will
be re-paved instead of just receiving an overlay.
Plus, GPEC included reconstruction of the intersection of 54th
St. and 46th Ave. extending both east and west to the end of the
curb returns to eliminate the poor drainage in that area.
The Village will use money from the Street Improvement Program
(SIP) for the last three years to assist with the funding of this
project. With the grant money from SIP all dedicated to this project,
plus money from the village’s transportation reserve, it’s
estimated it will cost village ratepayers around $24,000 to do
the work.
The project will be tendered as soon as possible to get the best
price possible on the work and with the early tender, it’s
hoped to have a few contractors bid on the job for a better price
and to get it done before fall.
Village Administrator Sandy Isaac told the new council members
that the pipes under the street were cameraed to try and prevent
further water and sewer line problems after the pave job is done.
“Before we do any paving or overlays in the village, we camera
the lines to see the condition of the pipes,” she said. “If
something foreseeable comes up, we’ll fix it before it breaks.
It doesn’t guarantee that nothing will happen after we pave,
but it does minimize the likelihood of problems later on.”
Environmental
fee on electronics begins Feb. 1
It’ll cost you a little bit more to buy that new TV, computer
or printer.
Starting next Tuesday (Feb. 1), retailers will collect an environmental
fee on TVs, computers and other related electronic equipment bought
in Alberta. The fee goes towards the cost of collection, transportation
and recycling of electronic materials, public information and
awareness programs and electronics recycling-related research.
This new fee being charged in Alberta is the first in Canada.
Since the electronic recycling program was started in October
of 2004, an estimated 190,000 televisions and 90,000 desktop computers,
which contain hazardous materials such as lead and mercury, were
discarded.
“When the program was being developed, Albertans said they
would support paying a fee as long as it directly funded the collection
and recycling of electronics,” said Doug Wright, CEO of the
Alberta Recycling Management Authority. “This fee is paid
by new electronics consumers, not taxpayers, and the money will
be used exclusively for the electronics recycling program.”
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