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Clearwater Incorporation Study Committee

Minutes of Meeting #2- January 19, 2006

Meeting started 7:30 pm

Present: Bert Walker, Max Tanner, Ralph Sunderman, Charlene Holtby, Pauline Gregory, Ron Van der Zwan, Linda Selbee; Carol Robertson, Sheena Van Dyk, Christy Dobi, Kelly Graffunder; Hans Wadlegger, Heather MacLennan

 Absent: 0

 1)  Action Items from December 13^th meeting:

·        Max sent Ron questions to include in the minutes

·        Bert met with Carol Schaffer regarding the Vavenby Industrial site

 2) Review of minutes for error and omissions:

·        None noted

 3) Review of information for various boundary changes:

·        Max and Bert went over numbers

·        Vavenby industrial site numbers were in error = $7,853,000

·        Convert into residential assessments which equals 4.5 mill rate

 Table for assessed values converted to tax revenue

*   Mill Rate is $4.00 per $1,000 - .004-estimate

** Tax Multiples on page 26 of previous study (residential = 1, major industry = 4.5)

 Action items:

·        Bert will work with Suk Gill to determine revenue rates from property assessment values

·        Max will work out revenues from properties assessment values

 Incorporation Boundaries discussion:

·        Max went over map on the wall of the incorporation boundary

·        Greer area was not included on the map

·        Map of Vavenby Industrial site was reviewed

·        Discussions on why leave out Blackpool and Birch Island? It was explained that these areas were left out last time due to lack of public support and the cost factor of poor quality roads, so the committee decided to leave it out of the incorporation boundary.

·        Discussion on who consultants should send the questionnaire to and it was decided should go to Miller subdivision, Candle Creek, Blackpool and Birch Island. (Later in meeting is was decided committee would research costs against revenue to determine who the consultant should send surveys to)

Action Items:

·        Bert is to get Greer area amended into the map and have a map legend created that is colour coded to show new included areas and old incorporation boundaries.  Also have another map completed showing Blackpool to Pumptown and Birch Island

·        Bert to get road information for Blackpool and Birch Island.

4) Review meeting Bert had with Carol Schaffer re: Vavenby Industrial site

·        Carol initially appeared opposed

·        Discussion included that Clearwater is the support community for the industrial areas; there is the possibility for a revenue sharing agreement where $ could be transferred to Vavenby based on their population

·        Vavenby expressed their interest in maintaining a park and the transferred funds could be used for this purpose

·        Vavenby also stated that if they were to incorporate they would be interested in the industrial site

·        There did not appear to be a strong opposition to the incorporation possibility going with Clearwater

·        Incorporation committee discussed and agreed that a percentage of the $ gathered could go to Vavenby

·        Canfor is a satellite, so tax $ would be frozen forever. This makes it attractive for Canfor to have future development on this industrial site

 Correspondence:

·        Max read letter Bert sent to Sherry Eland regarding bridge over North Thompson river (Blue Bridge), intent of the letter was asking for costs on bridge to compare to assets that would be gathered from including bridge

 5) Similar communities 2005 municipal taxes:

·        Max reviewed spreadsheets that showed other communities similar to Clearwater with municipal taxes (spreadsheet handed out at meeting)

·        Bert reviewed spreadsheet showing tax rate to business

·        Last study showed Clearwater at a high rate

·        Bert did an example graph on white board that would show the costs to help determine incorporation boundary inclusion i.e.:

Cost Spreadsheet for Determining Boundaries for Incorporation

·        Using this graph the committee can determine boundaries for the consultants to focus on

 Action item:

·        Bert is to expand spreadsheet to include business and residential

 6) Membership list:

·        Membership list has been expanded to indicate who the members are representing

·        Include Heather MacLennan onto the membership list

·        List was passed around to update members e-mail address

 Action item:

·        Max to add Heather to membership list and expand the list

 7) Process - review Dec 29/05 memorandum from Derek Trimmer:

·        Max went over letter and it was agreed committee had no issue with parallel studies (Clearwater and Barriere) being completed by consultant

·        A joint meeting with Barriere and the Ministry has been proposed (Feb 8 in Barriere)

·        Earliest possible incorporation vote will be September/06

 8) Review of draft consultants Terms of Reference (TOR):

·        Committee reviewed TOR, Max recorded consensus changes to TOR and agreed to do the necessary changes

 Action item:

·        Max to complete TOR with committee recommended changes

 9) Review of daft News Release:

·        Committee reviewed news release, recommended changes which Max recorded.

 Action Item:

·        Max to complete changes and submit news release to the paper

 10) Discussion on setting up website:

·        Recommended by committee to have a web pagebuilt and attach to the Resource Centres web site

 Action item:

·        Christy Dobi will talk to Julie Kress regarding designing a web page for the community incorporation committee

 11) Need to develop a budget:

·        The need for a budget was discussed and it was decided to have the subcommittee do this 

Action item:

·        Subcommittee to develop a budget

 12) Items not included in last study:

·        Max has started a list of items that were not included in the last study that need to be included in this study to pass to the consultants.

·        Anyone who has anything to add to this list pass it to Max

 Action item:

·        Committee members to review the study and bring forward any items missed.

 13) Meeting in Barriere:

·        Discussed traveling to the meeting

Action item:

·        Max will look into the cost of utilizing the public bus for members to travel to the Barriere meeting

Meeting adjourned at 10:15