Saturday, February 6, 1993 &

Merchants defeat
improvement levy

Neil Rachynski
NEWS REPORTER

An initiative to promote
downtown merchants was
read its last rites Tuesday.

Castlegar city council has
rescinded Bylaw 630, the
Business Improvement Area
legislation. Almost 70 per cent
of the city’s downtown busi-
nesses petitioned against the
initiative, defeating it soundly.

Out of 49 property owners,
38 opposed the initiative. The
total value of the downtown
properties is $6.2 million, of
which $4.3 million is owned by
the petitioners.

A Business Improvement
Area is designed to allow the
merchants to pool their money
to promote and manage the
area. Under the failed legisla-
tion, the city would have col-
lected $50,000 annually from
the merchants on their behalf.

Coun. Kirk Duff said it’s un-
usual the plan failed because
it was initiated by some of the
merchants themselves.

“It came to council very
quickly and it appears to be
leaving the same way,” he
said.

Coun. Doreen Smecher said
there is support for a BIA, just
not right now. She said the
comments from the petition-
ers were positive, but mer-
chants want to first evaluate
the impact and total cost of re-
vitalization before committing
toa BIA.

Doing business with the
city is going to cost more.

At Tuesday’s session, coun-
cil passed a motion to increase
the fees for copies of certifi-
cates and other documents. A
list of electors will go from $5
to $20. The last time a list in-
crease was established was in
1973. Copies of bylaws, once
25 cents per page, will in-
crease to one dollar per copy to
a maximum of $10.

Tax certificates, which take
aconsiderable amount of time
to draw up, will rise from $1 to
$5. That hasn’t been changed
since 1960. Tax notices will al-
so increase from 50 cents each
to $5.

The new fee schedule will

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| Council Notes |

impact primarily banks, cred-
it unions, lawyers and real-
tors.

Fees Bylaw 637 was not
met with open arms by Coun.
Doreen Smecher. She balked
at the increase, and ques-
tioned what council was doing
for the community.

“It just seems to me it’s get-
ting more expensive to do
business in Castlegar,” she
said. “If we're hitting (taxpay-
ers) because we can and not
because we have to I guess I’m
against it.”

Coun. Doug Green dis-
agreed with Smecher.

“The cost of doing business
isn’t much. Five dollars is
nothing and the other charges
are there already. They're just
increased a little,” Green said.

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The city continues to be hit
up for cash.

The city has agreed to con-
sider a grant of no more than
$10,000 to help the Sunfest
committee hold its annual
summer event. The group had
originally asked for $15,000.

Coalition Unaccepting
Rash Bureaucracy president
Mike O’Connor took advan-
tage of question period to say
that the city was wrong to con-
sider giving such a handout.

“(Non-profit organizations)
have to get out and do some-
thing on their own,” O’Connor
said. “The city can’t continue
to give grants to every person
who comes in asking for it.”

O’Connor used Trail’s Silver

City Days as an example, say-
ing merchants and vendors
give the festival committee a
certain percentage of their
revenue so they can be self-
sustaining.
Coun. Kirk Duff replied
that he would pass O’Connor’s
comments on to the Sunfest
committee.

Another grant of $250 re-
ceived approval from council
to assist in the costs of the Dan
Markin-Mark Lightle Memor-
ial Golf Tournament.

Money raised from the
event will go towards cancer
research.

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@ Saturday, February’, 1993

Thieves net $1 4,000 in cigarettes from SuperVal

Corinne Jackson
NEWS REPORTER

Retailers beware.

Castlegar RCMP are inves-
tigating yet another break-in.

Castleaird: Plaza’s Super-
Valu had some $14,000 worth
of cigarettes stolen some time
between midnight and 6:30
a.m. Thursday.

“Through the media we're
suggesting that all retailers
look at their security, No. 1.
No. 2, look at what they are
doing with their cigarettes,”
Cpl. Al Hudema said.

Hudema suggested retail-
ers start thinking like jew-
ellery store owners and take
goods like cigarettes out of
public view when they close
up shop.

All the police can do at this
point is make suggestions to
help retailers protect them-
selves, Hudema said. He said
whether store owners use the
information is entirely up to
them.

“You can lead a horse to wa-
ter, but you can’t get them to
drink. Had (SuperValu) had
an alarm system, maybe we
would have been successful in
apprehending these people in-
side.”

Store manager Richard
Howes said he had been think-
ing of installing an alarm sys-
tem since Christmas when the
rash of break-ins in Castlegar

gan.
“We're probably going to
— a system) now,” he

said.

Cigarettes have been the
targeted item in break-ins
since Jan. 12 at Castlegar
Foods, Richards on Columbia,
and the Glade Esso station.

According to Hudema, the
break-ins “could be related but
there’s no evidence to indicate
that.”

Anyone with information
regarding the break-ins is
asked to contact Castlegar
RCMP at 365-7721.

 *

: News photo by Corinne Jackson
Cpl. Gordon Meisner of the Nelson RCMP’s identification section dusts a jug of orange juice for
fingerprints. Meisner said the thieves were obviously in no hurry if they had time to stop for a drink.

We're Moving Just a

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