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Parking fees waived

Sechelt council

Sechelt council has decided to waive the daytime parking fees at the government wharf in Porpoise Bay.

Instead of making boaters pay to park during the day, the District will now charge a $10 flat rate for overnight parking in the area.

Coun. Alice Lutes spoke against the move at the Aug. 6 council meeting, saying the District will lose the revenue once generated by daytime parking at the wharf.

She and Coun. Mike Shanks voted against the change, but the motion passed with the rest of council in favour.

Quarterly report

A report from manager of financial services Linda Klassen showed some significant overages in the second quarter of 2014 at the District of Sechelt.

During her report to council’s committee of the whole on Aug. 13, Klassen showed that the sewer expansion project on Inlet Avenue went over budget by $193,500 and the West Sechelt sewer collection project is “estimated to be over budget by $43,363.”

Klassen asked for a motion from council to bring forward amendments to the 2014-2018 financial plan to deal with the unexpected costs.

She suggested using a $123,000 amenity contribution “sitting on our books” to help lessen the cost of the $193,500 overage.

The remaining overspending on sewers would have to “worst case, come out of the sewer reserve,” Klassen said.

“On the better side, I have another $56,000 that’s available to us for a grant, so that would leave us with only taking $14,000 out of the sewer reserve. So I’m asking for $14,000 minimum,” she said.

The report also highlighted two upcoming expenses that were not previously budgeted for — a $30,000 infrastructure review and $60,000 to “update the airport business plan and land use plan and craft a new airport governance framework.”

Klassen said the $90,000 could be funded from general reserves.

When the question was called, all of council was in favour of bringing forward Klassen’s proposed amendments to the financial plan. Those amendments will come to a future council meeting for discussion and a vote.