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Kelowna City Hall

Kelowna to give some love to 14,000 street lights

KELOWNA - Most people don’t think much about street lights unless they happen to crash their car into one of them. Kelowna has 14,000 street lights with a replacement value of $23 million, Kelowna council heard during budget deliberations today, Dec. 17. Many of the lights, however, are past their service life and require maintenance...

Public safety top of mind as Kelowna council approves tax increase

KELOWNA - Taxpayers will likely face a property tax increase of 4.12 per cent after city council passed the 2016 provisional city budget. The increase is heavy on public safety as more than half the increase of about $6 million is dedicated to hiring more police and bylaw officers while moving ahead with construction of...

City of Kelowna playing catch-up on roads after pothole complaints go up

KELOWNA - Ignore potholes in your roads and they will come back to haunt you. That’s the lesson Kelowna city council took away after approving $3.4 million for road resurfacing in the 2016 budget. Councillors heard the annual roads resurfacing program has been underfunded for several years as the city focused on other priorities. Complaints...

Kelowna Fire Department to buy four new trucks for $1.6M

KELOWNA - The Kelowna Fire Department is going to get a bunch of new trucks in 2016. The city will spend $1.6 million next year replacing four of the department’s service vehicles, including $1.33 million for two new fire engines. That will buy the department two engines; an $810,000 replacement for engine four, a 1996...

Kelowna councillors face hard choice in hiring more police officers

KELOWNA - Kelowna city councillors are facing a hard choice in the 2016 budget — hire all six police officers recommended by formula, or hire just three for now even though street crime has increased over the past year. Councillors are already facing a 4.11 per cent increase on the 2016 budget, of which 1.97 per...

Kelowna councillors to pore over budget during all-day review

KELOWNA - Preliminary projections place the 2016 budget increase for the City of Kelowna at 4.11 per cent, more than a $6 million increase on taxation.  That number is based on a 2.14 per cent increase for city operations and capital projects, City manager Ron Mattiussi said in a report to council Monday, plus a...

Quadriplegic man says city doesn’t care about his parking plight

KELOWNA - The family of a quadriplegic man seeking to turn their front yard into parking for his lift-equipped van will not be satisfied with anything less. Because of that, Ann and Roy Penrose have refused an offer from the city to waive the $700 fee and have them appear before council to argue their...

Heritage council a step closer to reality in Kelowna

KELOWNA - Heritage management in Kelowna by an independent committee is a step closer to reality. City council agreed to have staff move on to the final stage of resurrecting the heritage advisory committee, an arms-length group to consist of nine representatives from local heritage groups, Westbank First Nation and Tourism Kelowna that also includes...

Hefty Kelowna property tax increase resting on contract obligations, mayor says

KELOWNA - Mayor Colin Basran would love to pare down the 4.11 per cent tax property tax increase council is considering but says they don’t have much room to move. Basran says the combined costs of recent union contracts with city workers and firefighters, plus initial borrowing cots for the new police station, all contractual...

Warm weather leaving puddles on Stuart Park rink

KELOWNA - The unseasonably warm weather of the last few days has resulted in pools of water developing on the outdoor rink at Stuart Park, threatening the popular facility with daytime closure. “That’s been the pattern that we’ve seen over the last few years, especially in the early or late season,” arenas supervisor Steve Fagan...

Vibrant town centres critical to Kelowna’s future

KELOWNA - Town centres are the jewels of a city, where population and employment are dense and amenities and services make the area liveable. Kelowna has five town centres and the city is counting on them to both help counter the urban sprawl that characterized earlier development and to anchor future growth. This week city...

Glenmore could finally get long-awaited recreation park

KELOWNA - It was first recommended almost 30 years ago but only now could Glenmore get a new park. City of Kelowna planning staff want council to spend $5 million to build the first phase of a recreation park — think playing fields and ball diamonds, not flowers and rock gardens — on city-owned land...

Kelowna councillor frustrated with RCMP communication

SUPERINTENDENT HASN'T TAKEN QUESTIONS AT A COUNCIL MEETING IN OVER A YEAR KELOWNA - A city councillor says he’s surprised and a little disappointed the Kelowna RCMP have not appeared at a public council meeting to take questions since the new council was sworn in over a year ago. City councillor Ryan Donn says RCMP...

Parkinson recreation centre replacement could cost $50 million

KELOWNA - City staff are recommending the deluxe version for a replacement of Parkinson Recreation Centre with a $50-million price tag. However, staff also say the city should explore with the Central Okanagan school district the possibility of developing a facility integrated with the new high school the district is proposing across the field from...

Vacancy rate eases as Kelowna pushes rental housing construction

KELOWNA - The city has done a lot to encourge development of rental housing and there’s not too much more that can be done, except to let the incentives do their work and keep on pushing for more. That’s the opinion of Luke Stack, a city councillor and also executive director of the Society of...

East Kelowna farm earns council support for distillery and weddings

KELOWNA - An agri-tourism operation on a small plot of farm land in East Kelowna got a rare endorsement from city council this week, despite plans to include weddings and a distillery. Kristi and James Caldwell requested council support for their application to the Agriculatural Land Commision to allow a portion of their land to...

Information services seeks budget increase from city

KELOWNA - Information technology is no longer a support service but a full-fledged business unit at City Hall and needs a budget increase to accommodate both current demand and future needs. That’s the message information services manager Rob Entwistle brought to Kelowna city council during an overview of the city’s digital strategy. “We are known as...

Over-heating pumps threaten water service in the Mission

KELOWNA - A faulty pump motor is forcing the City of Kelowna to spend $300,000 on an additional pump for the Cedar Creek lake intake. Failure to do so, could leave parts of the Mission and the South Slopes without drinking water and fire protection service, utility planning manager Andrew Reeder says, in a report...

IT department prepares for digital future at City Hall

KELOWNA - The City of Kelowna is moving to bolster information technology and lessen the risk of future redundancy, data breaches and possible failure of key systems, says a new report. Information services manager Rob Entwistle, in a report to council, says the department is moving ahead in four of 19 areas identified in its...

Work begins on new dike for Mission Creek restoration in Kelowna

KELOWNA - City crews have taken the first step in reversing decades of misguided management of Mission Creek in Kelowna. The first phase of the Mission Creek Restoration Initiative began this week with the closing of the creek’s south dike between Casorso Road and Gordon Drive, according to a city media release. With creek waters...

Popular rink to open next week in Stuart Park

KELOWNA - Crews have begun making ice at the popular Stuart Park outdoor rink in Kelowna with opening planned for next week. City crews will be working afternoon shifts from 4 p.m. to midnite at Stuart Park over the next few days readying the rink for an opening Tuesday, Dec. 1, according to arenas supervisor...

One year in, new Kelowna councillors are finding their groove

KELOWNA - It’s been a year since three brand new members joined Kelowna city council and while they don’t agree on everything, they do agree on one thing — it’s been a fast ride. “It went by in a blink of an eye,” Coun. Brad Sieben says. “It seems like just yesterday we were planting...