Quesnel Council Highlights - May 15th mtg

Courtesy of the City of Quesnel:

Lease Renewal for City’s Residential Garbage Truck Council approved extending the lease with Noran Holdings, from August 1, 2018 to July 31, 2021, for the City’s fully automated specialized residential garbage truck. The City’s Public Works Facility does not have a heated bay large enough for the garbage truck, nor does the Public Works facility have the space to store the small inventory of the garbage truck carts that are stored and ready for use. Since purchasing this garbage truck in 2009, the City has leased the heated truck bay located at 2950 Highway 97 North.

Northern Development Initiative Trust – May 2018 Grant Intake Council approved staff to submit two Northern Development Initiative Trust grant applications. The first grant application is for a $15,000 grant application for the Community Marketing Strategy. This project would focus on attracting and retaining residents. This type of marketing emphasizes our community’s best attributes, tells our best stories, and it targets sectors and individuals who may be enticed to come to our community to visit, to live and to invest here. The second grant application is for $30,000 for the Spirit Square Events Pop-Up Kit. The Quesnel Downtown is actively seeking opportunities to bring foot traffic to the downtown area. To generate activity, events are being planned throughout this fall, after the completion of the Reid Street Revitalization project, and annually thereafter during spring, summer, and fall that aims to create vibrancy and community engagement. Events may include a variety of family friendly musical entertainment, children’s performers, cultural storytelling and dancers. To accommodate events, the vision for the event pop-up kit would include tying into the existing electrical in Spirit Square to allow for vendors throughout the parking lot, the use of deep fryers, speciality lighting, canopies, durable outdoor café tables and chairs, and a sound system big enough to host bands.

2018 Tax Rates – Residential School Tax Rate Revised At the May 1, 2018 Regular Council meeting, staff brought forward a summary report showing the 2018 tax increase for the average single family residence in Quesnel. After that meeting, the City was informed that a provincial administration error had occurred when calculating the School Tax that resulted in the province sending out revised Residential School Tax rates. The average household assessed at $185,116 can now expect to see a revised tax increase of $74.86 to their 2018 property tax bill compared to the $102.17 previously reported. Note: 2018 City of Quesnel Property Tax Notices were mailed out to Quesnel Tax Payers with the correct Residential School Tax rates.

Bylaws 1853 – Quesnel Emergency Program Bylaw Amendment – Overtime for Exempt Employees – First, Second and Third

Next Meetings 5:30 pm, May 22 – North Cariboo Joint Committee 7 pm, May 29 – Regular Council Meeting