From running water in a park at Perley School to treating it at the municipal wastewater facility, city council moved forward on a number of other issues at the last council meeting.
Rewilding school project
Grade 1 Perley School teacher Sharon Peron presented her case to council to ask for city support to install a water line to a section of the school property that she has dedicated to creating a mini “wild” ecosystem of plants, trees and rocks.
Peron said that an overwhelming majority of students expressed an interest in having a water feature in the mini park. Her solution is to build a dry riverbed feature that would have a tap at one end so that water levels could be controlled for safety and for conservation.
The project has received donations from several local companies and has also received grants from the RDKB and Tree Canada. The city operations manager estimated that the cost to connect the Perley project to a nearby water mane would cost $8,000. Council voted unanimously to go ahead with the installation.
Streetlights cost more than planned
City operations is adding 43 new streetlights to the existing 590 to make for more consistent lighting throughout the city. The money going to pay for the additional lights will be drawn from other parts of the municipality’s budget and is not projected to cost the city any additional funds.
More money needed for wastewater treatment
Grand Forks’s wastewater treatment plant is getting retrofitted with new systems and staff are now requesting $632,160 to help overhaul the way it cleans the city’s sewage. The money will go to help develop disinfection techniques and removing what staff called “a peninsula of sludge” that has accumulated over 20 years in one of the treatment cells.
CannaFest pot shop closer to opening
The company behind the CannaFest Music Festival got a step further towards operating a non-medical cannabis store on 3rd Street, after council accepted a report to grant the enterprise a business license. In earlier stages when the city solicited feedback from the public, it received no official feedback indicating opposition to the store.