The Teen Action Committee and the Kuskanook Harbour Society were both richer after a visit to the Creston Valley Services Committee’s regular meeting on Feb. 11.
The committee, comprised of Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) directors Garry Jackman (Area A), Tanya Wall (Area B), Larry Binks (Area C) and Coun. Jen Comer (Town of Creston, filling in for a vacationing Mayor Ron Toyota), voted to give the Teen Action Committee (TAC) $15,000 annually from 2016-2019 for a teen space, and will give the harbour society a total of $50,000 of gas tax funds.
The TAC funding, for rent utilities, furniture and maintenance, will be accommodated under the umbrella of the Creston and District Community Complex portion of the RDCK’s annual budget, as with other community activities or community halls, gaps in service that the complex can’t accommodate. It has been using the Sasquatch since June in a yearlong trial, with the lease ending this June.
Binks, the committee’s chair, asked that it be included as a line item, rather than simply a general expense in the budget.
“When none of us are here, I wouldn’t want it to go sideways,” he said.
The harbour society has $80,000 and asked the committee for $50,000 of a $435,000 project to repair and protect the harbour’s breakwater, made of about 400 wooden piles, 10 per cent of which have failed in the past four years.
That amount couldn’t be offered without it becoming a budget item, but Binks suggested that each director could offer a portion of their share of the federal Gas Tax Fund — $20,000 each from areas A and B, and $10,000 from Area C.
Each of the directors recognized the importance of the harbour, not only to Creston Valley residents, but to the third of 5,000-7,000 annual users who come from outside the area.
“It is truly our local access to our waterfront,” said Wall.
In addition to the funds, the committee will write a letter of support for the project.