Valemount Council: soccer club grant, ReDi grants, 2025 budget
By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
Valemount Council approved a grant to a soccer club, approved ReDi grant decisions, and discussed the 2025 budget at its regular meeting on March 25th.
Mayor Owen Torgerson called the meeting to order at 7:06 p.m. He began the meeting with a moment to thank Valemount Community TV Station Manager Michael Peters, who will no longer attend and film Council meetings after 12 years of covering every open meeting of Council.
In a letter to Council, Peters said the new audio and video equipment in the council chambers can be operated by a member of Village staff, and it is no longer necessary for him to attend in-person. However, the station will continue to rebroadcast meetings on channel 7/653 at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. For more information on the end of VCTV’s live coverage of Council, visit our story here.
Torgerson presented Peters with a card and a glass as a note of thanks for his time spent covering Council meetings.
“Given your service over the last 12 years in ensuring that every single open meeting… has been transparent and accessible by the public, I wish to congratulate you and present some thanks on behalf of Council, staff and the entire organization,” Torgerson said.
Then, Council adopted the minutes of the March 11th regular meeting, as well as the March 6th and March 19th special meetings of Council.
Soccer club grant
Council approved giving a $485 grant to the Valemount Bear Cubs soccer organization. The club requested the grant to pay for insurance costs and to rent the Valemount Secondary School field twice a week for eight weeks.
The money will be drawn from the municipal donation line item in the Village’s budget. While this year’s budget has yet to be officially adopted, the line item currently sits at $4,000 and no other requests have come forward for the 2025 budget, according to the staff report.
ReDi Grant decisions
Council approved recommendations from the Resident-Directed Grant (commonly known as ReDi Grant) adjudication committee. The annual grant, funded by Columbia Basin Trust, allows Valemount residents to submit a survey ranking which projects they feel are most worth funding.
This year there were 12 applications to the ReDi program. Council approved nine of the applications to receive the full amount they applied for, and approved two organizations to receive partial funding. Just one project, the Valemount Learning Society’s Eight-Week Emotional Intelligence Program, was denied funding. According to the staff report, the committee recommended against funding the program as many of the budget items were wages or operational costs, going against the Trust’s ReDi Grant guidelines.
For more information on this year’s ReDi grant recipients, see the next issue of The Goat.
Five Year Financial Plan bylaw
Council gave first and second reading to the 2025 Five Year Financial Plan bylaw, an annual document which establishes the Village budget for the next five years. This year’s plan includes a 5.5 per cent tax increase – residences will owe $30.34 per $1,000 of assessed property value, up from last year’s $28.07, and businesses will owe $71.12 per $1,000 of assessed property value, up from last year’s $69.52.
Before the plan is officially adopted, the Village will allow the public to give feedback. A presentation on the budget will be available on the Village’s website, and hard copies of the consolidated plan are available at the Village office. Residents can email feedback to [email protected] before noon on April 22nd.
Torgerson thanked resident Junior Osadchuk, who wrote to Council in October requesting they look into financing new paving and lighting along Dogwood Street.
Adjournment
With no new items, public comment or in-camera portion scheduled, Torgerson moved to adjourn the meeting at 7:31 p.m.
