COK Town Hall in Barnhartvale - Oct 25th 2023

The City of Kamloops held the first of 6 Town Hall meetings this evening at the Barnhartvale Community Centre. Despite being on the city limits and the furthest possible point for people to travel in the South East quadrant of Juniper, Valleyview, Dallas and Barnhartvale, it was well attended. KCSC counted +/-65 residents along with around 15 city employees, 2 RCMP, and the council members with Mayor Hamer Jackson.

The event started with a very brief video of the Council explaining their strategic goals in a promotional video, then opened up to council/public interaction at one of 4 tables. Each table had a strategic goal and the idea was that residents would meet with their councillors and a city employee would write down their concerns for later discussion. The evening was guided by the Moderator, Kate Stebbings of Transmountain fame and the Current Chamber of Commerce president.  Kate is a strategic marketing and communications consulting consultant who resides in Kamloops.

The public would be able to speak to council and discuss their concerns at one of 4 tables, Sustainability, Economic Health, Safety/security, and Governance. Once the format was explained and the floor opened, the majority of the crowd flooded the Security and Safety table.  All 4 tables were well attended. 

At around 7:00pm the city employees read aloud the comments recorded at each of the tables, then the mic was passed around for comment among the crowd.  The open mic session lasted just over an hour.  When the moderator motioned, the questions and comments were recorded, but not all comments were recorded.  In some instances the city employees were able to respond and directly answer questions.

Of Note:

- the previously approved Valleyview bypass highway, we learned that it had been shelved as of 2 years ago due to run off water concerns on the silt bluffs

- Comments on removing smart meters from homes and how the home owner was experiencing health effects from the meter as well as a 750$ charge to remove the meter

- There was a large contingent from Valleyview who passionately spoke about the drug and crime problems along with the social housing (and recent related fire) on the 2600 block of Valleyview Drive - The answer was: Its the province. police hands are tied.

- Comments about the Community Climate Action plan being unreasonable 

- Deputy CAO McCorkle commented that the latest number shows around 300 homeless, but that its likely an under count and there is closer to 400 homeless in Kamloops

- Question was asked if the council was advocating to the province against decriminalization... the question went unanswered and was not recorded

- Noted that Barnhartvale and Dallas seem to be forgotten and don't get any new investment from the city despite having 16% of the population. 

-There is currently engagement open to the public on AT - Active transportation, which in this context meant where the city would be installing curbs and sidewalks

- There was discussion about the Land Trust and building 80 new affordable housing units

- Several comments about making zoning rules more clear and reducing barriers to have suites

- We learned there are 152 RCMP officers budgeted for Kamloops, with only 140 rotable and a further 25 to be provided in the future

- No bike connection between Valleyview and Dallas, this was addressed and we learned that there is a plan to connect Orchard walk to Dallas

At the end of the meeting participants were encouraged to place dots beside issues that had been recorded so the city could see which issues were most important.

Read more about future COK Town Halls here:

https://letstalk.kamloops.ca/communityconversations/news_feed/meeting-format

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