SUMMING IT UP: Greenwood City Council
By Erin Perkins
More than 15 Greenwood residents attended the first city council meeting of the new year, Monday Jan. 9.
“We’re only into the second meeting and we’re already making some good headway,” said Greenwood mayor Nipper Kettle. “I can see we’re starting to gel and work together.” Kettle was pleased to see so many citizens at the meeting and said they were all very respectful. A trailing question An old walking trail along the Boundary Creek in Greenwood is under scrutiny. Gerry Henke, chief administrative officer for the City of Greenwood, said some residents have expressed that they want a walking trail re-established along the creek. The trail, which is no longer maintained, was created more than a decade ago. Since then homes and Fort Greenwood RV Park have been built along the creek and some of the access points have been blocked off. On Dec. 12, Bryan Bell, owner of Fort Greenwood RV Park, was invited to attend the regular council meeting to discuss the trail and how it affects his property. Bell had put up a fence across the trail area and down to the creek to mark the 65 RV lots on his wild west themed property. “This has more to do with public access being blocked off by a private individual,” said Greenwood mayor Nipper Kettle. “There’s half a dozen people upset over that trail being blocked off.” “We made a proposal to provide seed money to help establish a new trail years ago,” said Bell. “We’ve renewed that offer… (At the time) city hall felt they already had enough trails.” Since the meeting, Bell has removed the fence in question. The city is now hiring a surveyor to locate the property pins along the creek from Deadwood St. to North End along Boundary Creek. The city is unsure of what may become of the trail. “There are people who want a trail along the creek, but there may not be enough room,” said Henke of the space between private properties and the public land along the creek (the riparian area is 15 meters to the edge of the high water mark). “We have to find out where those pins are and then we can go from there,” said Kettle. Grant money for new playground surface Tire Stewardship B.C. has awarded a $14,384 grant to the City of Greenwood toward a $28,000 project to resurface a playground area in the city with a special material made of recycled tires. While council is happy to have the funds, they’d like to also upgrade the outdated playground equipment first, so they’ve put off accepting the grant until they can determine what that may cost. “What I’d like to do is put in some modern playground equipment,” said Greenwood mayor Nipper Kettle. “(What’s there) is so old and probably not even legal anymore… This project is good for the environment and for making the playground safe.” The 50/50 grant is being offered through the Tire Stewardship B.C. 2011 Fall Community Grant program. The program funds creative and exciting uses for recycled scrap tire materials. The scrap tires used in the project must be from B.C. and processed in B.C. If council accepts the grant, the project must be completed by Mar. 31, 2013. For more information about the Tire Stewardship B.C. 2011 Fall Community Grant program please visit www.tsbc.ca.
