Quesnel city council held it's June 25th meeting. There were no presentations or delegations for council to hear. All councillors were in attendance with Coun. Roodenburg appearing via Zoom.
Council agreed to two items that came out of the North Cariboo Joint Advisory Committee. Those were approving a five-year agreement for the Quesnel Kangaroos to continue playing out of the West Fraser Centre and a five-year agreement with the Gold Rush Cycling club for trail maintenance.
Coun. Goulet gave the report of the airport advisory committee including wanting to meet with Central Mountain Air (CMA) to discuss the details of how many passengers go through and have the committee gauge how well the airport is operating.
Goulet said progress is being made on the terminal building project and an architect will be required to complete the design. He said that work is expected to begin later in summer.
He also brought up flaws in the new runway completed in 2022, specifically the line painting. That work is also expected to occur during summer.
Coun. Runge gave reports on the accessibility committee and policies and bylaws committee. He said the accessibility committee had 41 surveys filled out at their accessibility event at Spirit Square and 39 surveys filled out online. Those surveys will contribute to the committee's future plans for accessibility within Quesnel.
"I think it was well over 50 (calls to RCMP) in some single locations," Runge said at the meeting. "So we need to see if there's any way to get a little help to the RCMP."
The policy and bylaw committee discussed a "false-alarm bylaw" which would impose a fine for people who call emergency services in a false alarm. Runge said that bylaw would come to council in the future and it is needed because of repeat offenders who call 9-1-1 without a need.
The committee is working on policy around donations of land, money or artwork, the lack of guidelines became apparent with the donation of Bert DeVink's moose statue. That policy will come back to a future council meeting.
The final item was on the community flagpole policy. The new guidelines approved by council are that a flag can be up for two weeks or the duration of the event, whichever is less. It adds that the city has the right to schedule flags if dates groups want to fly a flag on the pole conflict. The flagpole policy passed unanimously.
Council moved on to approve city staff work with the Quesnel disc golf club on creating a disc golf course on city property adjacent to the airport. The conditions laid out are that the disc golf club would be responsible for building and upkeep of the course and that the public would be able to freely access and use the course. Council guidelines added that the trails in the area must continue to be accessible. The city will provide no funding to the club for project.
Council approved the city's annual report. The report was required to have been posted publicly to collect comments from the community. The city received zero comments on the report, Mayor Paull said the report is award-worthy.
The city voted unanimously to nominate the Quesnel Bike Park and Rentals for the Union of B.C. Municipalities' excellence awards. The report said the partnerships with the Lhtako Dene Nation and the Gold Rush Cycling Club have made the program a success and people across the region recognize Quesnel for its trails.
Council approved an application for an addition to Keis Trucking Ltd's building at 100 Keis Avenue. The application was previously delayed due to environmental concerns but those have been addressed. The building will add 125 square metres to the shop.
At the end of the meeting Coun. Elliott thanked the community for participating in Pride and Coun. Goulet thanked the community for participating in Indigenous Peoples Day, adding that over 2,000 people were at Helen Dixon throughout the day. Coun. Roodenburg asked that anyone interested in volunteering for the Powwow in August send her an email to get a volunteer form.