Mayor Turner began the meeting with an announcement that came out of a closed meeting just prior to the public one that had just begun. Council had to address the concern revealed by OCP Chair, Dave Witty, at the previous Council meeting that the Committee's progress was in jeopardy due to the absence of a Municipal planning support. As a result of the discussion primarily between Mr. Witty, CAO Slegtenhorst and the Mayor they came up with a solution where Dave Witty resigns as Chair and becomes the Planner on a fee basis and Sue Ellen Fast, the Vice Chair of the OCP Steering Committee becomes the Chair.
First item on the agenda was an instructive and fascinating presentation from Kate Emmings, an Ecosystem Protection Specialist from the Islands Trust. She explained that she works for the protection branch of the Islands Trust, a division that focuses on land protection. Her presentation focused on explaining the nature of mapping ecosystems and why they are doing this. One of the key functions is to identify unique, rare and fragile ecosystems. Prior to the start of this project the knowledge of the ecosystems in the region was limited. The mapping is done essentially into six units: climate, topography, surface material, vegetation, soil and geology. There were some interesting findings presented in the preliminary data in this project that would be contrary to most people's thinking on the matter. There is a lot of dry maritime vegetation on Bowen and the wet maritime vegetation is found on the mountain tops where the cloud layer can often settle in. There is much more of interest on a broad variety of topics but you will have to go into the presentation to get the goods.
Grants-in-aid, fall cycle was next up on the roster. Kristen Watson, Deputy Treasurer for the Municipality, gave a report. The applicants were, The Youth Centre, The Historians, The Bowen Island Heritage & Preservation Society and the Coast Animal Welfare Education Society (CAWES).
Following Grants-in-Aid was a letter, a request from the Bowen Island Chamber of Commerce for additional funding. $6,000 had been put aside earlier during the Community Grants process. Councillor Morse brought forward a motion to grant the $6,000. to the Chamber. In the questions to follow the motion, Councillor Hooper took exception to the motion in that his strongly held view was that this was "budgeting-on-the-fly". Daniel Heald, Chamber Chair, defending the application in that the funding request was a for a shortfall in 2009 and not going forward in 2010. It was only after the 2009 was approved in May that the Chamber found out was their expected revenue would be from the Muni. He further stated that it was difficult to budget for a fiscal year when the amount given is revealed almost half way through the fiscal calendar year. The motion was brought to the table and then subsequently passed.
Next, the Noise Control Bylaw, was brought forward again by Chris Buchanan, Muni Bylaw Officer. He recapped the problem with the bylaw which is too confusing and difficult to enforce as a result. His recommendation was to rewrite the Bylaw. The CAO concurred with Mr. Buchanan's analysis stating it would be quicker in terms of staff time and would result in a better bylaw being issued to deal with noise matters. The Bylaw officer continued that he recommends they approve the on table amendment to deal with the "continuous noise" matter but instruct staff to do a rewrite of the noise control bylaw.
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