From Mayor Ward Stamer and Council, congratulations to all the high school graduates and their families this past week, the future is very bright for you.
Now with summer here, we are reminding residents to stay within the Stage 1 watering program, this gets more critical as we go into the next two month of dry and hot weather, if we all stay within the protocols and water our properties on our prescribed days, with conservation in mind, our water system can sustain the increase in the need to irrigate gardens and water the parks.
So far, our utilities superintend is approving Stage 1, but he is keeping an eye on the reservoirs and wells to ensure we can support your water consumption, for basic needs. Next on my task list is renovating the old grocery store, just beside the Interior Credit Union, as you go by the building you will notice that renovations have started this week, with a completion date of next summer. If you would like to offer a new name for the building, let us know at the district office. The building will create a number of commercial office spaces and will be the new home for the Chamber of Commerce.
This past week, Barriere received emergency preparedness funding from the province, to continue our work on fire prevention and flood mitigation. A number of property development proposals continue to progress through their planning phases with a goal of development much needed housing in town. Canada day activities are planned for Saturday, in Fadear Park at 2 p.m., don’t forget to wear red and white. Please go to our website for all of our updates and information in real time, and sign up for instant notices, at www.barriere.ca
June is ParticipACTION month! If you haven’t heard already, in collaboration with Simpcw First Nation, Barriere is excited to announce that we have been selected for the ParticipACTION Community Challenge! ParticipACTION is a nationwide physical activity challenge encouraging Canadians to get active during June. The challenge is open to everyone with a V0E 1E0 postal code and all minutes logged into the app or website for the month of June will be counted towards Barriere’s total score. After June 30th, 50 finalist communities’ will be invited to submit an application to win the $100,000 grand prize that can be used by the community to create or enhance recreation facilities, trails and other programming. As of June 22nd at 12pm we are in first place provincially and tenth place nationally.
It’s property tax time again. You may have already received your 2023 property tax bill in the mail (or by email if you’ve subscribed to that service). In order to avoid any mandatory penalty charges, your payment must be received by the district of Barriere Office no later than 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 4th - regardless of what method of payment you have chosen. (i.e. online bank payments, mail delivery, courier, etc. that may not be reach the District by this mandated time even though you sent it earlier than the deadline.) So make sure you take that into consideration when making your payment.
This is a friendly reminder to make sure you claim your home owner grant (if eligible) prior to the deadline, even if you are not planning on making a payment before the due date. This will ensure any penalties will not apply to the home owner grant amount. Read the back of your tax notice carefully on how to apply for your home owner grant. As of the 2021 change initiated by the Province of BC, municipalities are no longer permitted to accept Home Owner Grant Applications on behalf of the Province. This is the 3rd year of this change. The Province does not send out reminders to claim your home owner grant after the deadline. Any amount, including unclaimed home owner grants, will be penalized and carried over onto your next year’s tax notice as arrears. If you forgot to claim your eligible home owner’s grant last year, you can still apply to do so but the penalty remains owing.
On a final note, the Fall Fair is fast approaching on the long weekend in September 2-4, 2023, now is the time to start thinking about your parade entries.
