Skip to content

Creston housing society needs to raise $100,000 for project

Creston council hears from housing society, accountant, will apply for UBCM funding, increases remuneration by 1.4 per cent...
12381crestontown_hall_creston_4
Creston Town Hall is located on 10th Avenue North.

At Tuesday's regular Creston town council meeting, Creston Valley Community Housing Society representatives Rita Scott and Heather More gave an update on a proposal to build eight units of low-cost family housing adjacent to Millennium Park.

A site plan has been created and Scott said the application for financing through Columbia Basin Trust would be submitted by July, with a decision expected this summer.

About $100,000 in cash and services will have to be raised locally, she said, and rents will be kept low to allow families with low incomes to enjoy a reasonable quality of life.

•Rick Minichiello, from Gadicke Minichiello Carr, presented the annual audited financial statements, giving the 2012 numbers a clean bill of health.

•The town will apply for funding from the Union of BC Municipalities to hold a Community to Community forum with the Lower Kootenay Band.

•A request for the town to once again advertise in the Creston Valley Thunder Cats hockey program was approved. The cost will be $750.

•Toyota and other councillors will participate in the 2013 Tim Hortons Camp Day on June 5 by serving coffee at the Highway 3 location.

•In its annual review of remuneration for the mayor and councillors, council members voted to approve an increase of 1.4 per cent, based on the consumer price index for the year ending in October 2012. According to a survey of B.C. municipalities, Creston’s elected officials’ remunerations fall into the lower half of the scale for small cities and towns.

•A new logo will be adopted from the new branding program approved earlier this year.

•Creston will undertake an educational program, using signage and newsletters to discourage drivers from idling their vehicles for more than short periods of time. The town considered a bylaw to enforce the decision, but deemed it to be impractical to enforce at this time. A policy already in place to discourage idling of Town of Creston work vehicles will be reinforced, possibly with stickers being added to vehicles to serve as a reminder of the policy.