Grant for recycling bins
Recycling bins for beverage containers will appear at some of Jasper鈥檚 busiest day-use areas next spring, thanks to a $20,000 grant from the Community Champions Program.
The grant is enough to purchase eight large capacity bins to be placed next to the existing waste bins at places like Sunwapta Falls, Mount Edith Cavell and Medicine Lake.
Janet Cooper, Jasper鈥檚 environmental stewardship coordinator, said the bins are currently being manufactured in Lethbridge, Alta. and they are due to arrive in Jasper next month.
As the bins will be outside of the townsite, Parks Canada will be responsible for collecting the containers.
Support, in principle
Council accepted the Jasper Event Tourism Strategy for information at its Jan. 21 meeting, and expressed its support in principle for the initiative.
The strategy was funded by Tourism Jasper鈥攚hich received a $30,000 provincial grant to contract a consultant鈥攁nd was developed collaboratively by the marketing agency, Parks Canada, the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce, the municipality and members of the private sector.
The purpose of the strategy is to provide more effective and efficient delivery of high quality tourism events, so as to increase economic activity in the town.
Before unanimously supporting the motion to accept the strategy in principle, Coun. Helen Kelleher-Empey said, although she finds the strategy excellent, she isn鈥檛 ready to fully accept it until there is a greater understanding of what the financial implications will be for the municipality.
鈥淭hat needs to be defined more,鈥� she said.
Coun. Rico Damota agreed.
鈥淲e recognize this is a positive thing for the community, but we don鈥檛 have the right information to yet to move forward in any specific direction.鈥�
The next step in implementing the strategy will be appointing a strategy committee, determining who the host organization will be and preparing a communication plan.
More meetings
Committee of the Whole meetings will return to their regular schedule of two per month, on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, following a unanimous decision from council.
Coun. Rico Damota suggested the increase, noting that there is a lot of work to be done and often there isn鈥檛 enough time to do it in the one committee meeting each month.
鈥淭here is a lot on our plate,鈥� he said, acknowledging that at the end of the last term, one meeting was sufficient. But, these days, that鈥檚 not the case.
鈥淚 think we鈥檙e missing out on a lot of opportunities right now,鈥� he said.
Coun. Gilbert Wall agreed with Damota, noting that the next committee meeting would be exclusively for budget deliberations, so鈥攚ith the former schedule of one meeting per month鈥攊t would be an entire month before any other issues or topics could be discussed.
The agenda for Committee of the Whole meetings is available on the town鈥檚 website and the meetings, which begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Emergency Services Building, are public.
The new meeting schedule will begin in February.
Kudos for snow removal
Members of council applauded the snow removal crew for its efforts following the massive snowfall earlier this month, noting that many community members had passed on thanks.
鈥淚 got a lot of kudos,鈥� said Coun. Rico Damota, 鈥渁nd I just wanted to pass that along.
鈥淚 saw the combined efforts with our staff and the use of a local contractor and Parks Canada鈥攊t was a full blown effort. That was great.鈥�
Bruce Thompson, the town鈥檚 director of operations, applauded his team, as well, and noted that he would be sitting down with them to discuss what went well and what could have been done better.
鈥淚 thought the crews did a great job getting it cleaned up,鈥� he said.
聽Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
