Castlegar Council Considers Community Requests for Budget Talks

Budget season has kicked off in Castlegar and a list of community suggestions were a part of a recent Special Council Meeting.

One request is a bathroom facility at the Millennium Bike Park to support children that use the area and increase overall users.

Councillor Sue Heaton-Sherstobitoff made the motion to explore porta-potty costs:

“Because then the people in the garden can use it too because it’s come before, like the garden people have asked, and the people using the dog park can use it too. So I’m not sure what it is to rent or utilize a porta-potty there but it would just be probably for four months or something.”

That motion passed and another porta-potty is being priced out year-round for Cone Hill Park.

Councillor Heaton-Sherstobitoff also made a suggestion to advance relationships with indigenous communities:

“I’m thinking…. we should do a partnership with COINS (Circle of Indigenous Nations Society) and do an indigenous cross walk at Dairy Queen or through the pot shop to their place. There’s already two crosswalks there and we could do a nice design with them and partner with them.”

Councillor Brian Bogle speaks to 14th avenue safety concerns surrounding excessive speeding between the cemetery and Kinnaird Park:

“I’m wondering if we could just get one of the speed-readers placed there because I do recall a couple of others areas where there were concerns about the speed and I’m not dismissing that there could potentially be a speed issue there.”

That discussion favored less costly options, like staff reporting back on previously collected speed data for the area and informing RCMP of safety concerns.

Supported recommendations have not been adopted and will instead return for consideration during budget deliberations.