Sustainable Sustainability Commision comes in under budget
By Andrew Zwicker
Rossland’s Strategic Sustainability Commission officially wrapped up its 2009 work this past Monday with the presentation of its annual report to Rossland City Council along with its budget request for 2010. Considering that apart from their manager, Jennifer Ellis, the Commission is made up wholly of dedicated volunteers, the group feels proud of their accomplishments to date.
“I think the work of the Commission and the Task Forces has been quite remarkable for the short time we have taken,” commented Commission chair Kelvin Saldern, “There was a long boot up process. Since then we’ve really swung into action; we’ve got an impressive list of accomplishments.”
Those accomplishments have come largely in the areas of the group’s core operations, which include administrative, communications and educational activities as well as the group’s project work and recommendations to Council.
In the past year, the Commission has organized itself and established four working task forces focused on housing and affordability, water stewardship, community economic development and energy. The list of projects the Commission and task forces completed or got underway during the past year includes the launch of the State of Rossland Indicators and Sustainability Monitoring Project, the Communities Adapting to Climate Change Initiative, the Nomadic Entrepreneurs Study, the Sensitive habitat Inventory mapping project, the Housing needs Assessment Project and the Community Energy Survey. A key component in all of these project (as well as other areas) was getting the word out to the public on what they were up to as well as attempting to engage the public in the projects and processes. Through newsletters, website updates, blogs, posters and a new sandwich board outside of the post office, their efforts, at least in part, were hard to miss around town.
The Commission has done all this on a modest budget of $60,000 from the City of Rossland. The City had actually allotted $71,950 to the commission who came in 15% under budget for the year. In an effort to maximize that budget, the Commission was able to leverage an additional $89,500 in grants and programs from outside funders.
In addition to presenting their annual report (which can be read in full detail in the January 11th City Council agenda on the City’s webpage), the Commission presented their 2010 budget for consideration.
“There were serious budget considerations, and I appreciate and understand the pressures that are on this whole city. In that light we’ve presented a budget which is actually a 15% reduction from last year's,” explained commission co-chair Terry Miller.
The Commission has presented a budget request of $61,250 to city council for 2010 including $20,000 for core functions, $31,250 for project work and $10,000 for emerging priorities and contingency.
Among the key priorities for the group in 2010 are working on and completing:
- State of Rossland Indicators and Sustainability Monitoring
- Communities Adapting to Climate Change Initiative
- Lower Columbia Region Attainable Housing Needs Assessment and Strategy
- Attracting and Retaining Nomadic Entrepreneurs Strategy
- Sensitive Habitat Inventory Mapping (SHIM)
- Community Energy Plan
- Cost of Living and Cost and Revenue Solution Research
- Economic Development Plan
“We’re excited about the work we’re doing and we believe that we’re adding great value to this community, especially in these uncertain times,” concluded Miller.
