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Community Power Project in Pemberton Council's sights

Pemberton is to move forward developing its Community Power Project initiative on Pemberton Creek. Councillors instructed Village of Pemberton staff at the Nov.
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Pemberton is to move forward developing its Community Power Project initiative on Pemberton Creek.

Councillors instructed Village of Pemberton staff at the Nov. 6 council meeting to develop a Request for Expression of Interest (RFEI) for consideration at a meeting later this year. The RFEI will seek out potential arrangements for P3 collaborations in order to get the run-of-river project.

This follows the VOP's unsuccessful attempt to attract federal government investment for the project from P3 Canada. Pemberton Mayor Jordan Sturdy said in an interview the federal agency's criteria for projects had shifted, with priorities going more to infrastructure.

Sturdy said that the project could be a 15 MW project valued at somewhere between $30 million and $40 million.

"We know there are some private operators who would be interested in examining the opportunity," he said. "Hopefully, sometime in the new year we'd see some responses back and council would be looking at the options and making a decision of where to go from there."

Sturdy said they were already exploring possibilities about the connection to the grid with BC Hydro.

"We're also doing some of the preliminary fish assessments in the upper drainage. A lot of that was done some time back, we need to confirm it," he said.

Recreation consultations explore swimming pool option

The Village of Pemberton is holding two public consultations to explore where residents in the village, SLRD Area C and Mount Currie would like their recreation priorities placed in the coming years.

The Recreation Consultation Sessions will explore spending and payment options and the wish list of public amenities such as an indoor swimming pool.

The first session takes place at Pemberton Secondary School on Nov. 14 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. The second takes place at the Ullus Community Centre at Mount Currie from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Long-time fire chiefs honoured

Pemberton fire chief Russell Mack and retired deputy fire chief Christian Staehli were honoured at the council meeting with provincial service awards for their work.

Mack has been a firefighter for over 35 years, Sturdy said, starting with the Richmond Fire Department. He joined the village's operations in 1996. He was presented with several distinctions, including for his longstanding service.

Staehli received his service award for 20 years.

"(Mack) has brought a whole new level of professionalism and commitment to the organization and has been a real asset," Sturdy said.

"Christian has been with the fire department for 20 years... he started with them at the age of 18. I heard the story that when he was in high school he'd take the radio in with him and was known to go off to fire calls in the middle of school."

Hazardous pesticides disposed of

Farmers and landscapers around the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District disposed of out-of-date hazardous agricultural chemicals; 523 litres and 33 kilograms of pesticides, including five kilograms of DDT, went to officials during Obsolete Pesticide Collection event on Oct. 23. Overall, 26 different types of pesticides were submitted at SLRD's Pemberton Transfer Station.