Blogging for Local government from Province EAD meeting

Blogging can take 15 minutes to set your self up with a blog site such as “Wordpress”.  Blogs are like having another web site. There are many things to know about blogs such as: you must feed blogs check in once a day, do not  put up material more than a screen page long, pictures, comments from other people (can be included) , linking to other sites. It can also be a way of being self indulgent.  In a  Blog it could be considered that you are the publisher, and therefore  you are responsible and  liable for comments made on your site.  Regional Directors who have blogs have to be gate keepers to what is posted on their site;  overseeing  a site can be time consuming, can they afford the time?

From Richmond Upside down-cannot make it right

Is it nailed down?? B & E's far too numerous!

                North Shuswap Safety & Police Advisory Committee met with the RCMP to discuss how Citizens on Patrol (COP) could be started in the North Shuswap. At one time there was a COP program but volunteer burn out help collapse the group. With the increase in crime on the North Shuswap, people are seeing the need to be more proactive. Last year saw at least 5 different criminal groups come into the area ripping off residents and businesses.  It is going to get worse before it gets better,  and the RCMP needs help.  The RCMP would greatly appreciate the citizens to be their eyes and ears, as they have a very large area to cover and few members to police the area.

                If enough people join the COP, it could be arranged that a person would only have to volunteer 1 day a month to do patrols in the North Shuswap.  Presently the plan is to have an open house in March to see if people in the region want to do something about the growing crime in their area.

Social Media changes to Politicians attitudes

At the Provincial Electoral Directors meeting, Social Media was a discussion to give insight & cautionary stuff about all the new fast moving technology that is seeping into every aspect of our lives. Social media is the use of email, blogs, twitter, Facebook.  The one thing that everyone must do in dealing with social media is “You have to take things at your own pace or you can get overwhelmed”. As local government- you do not have a choice- Local Governments will have to communicate this way.

                Getting your message out and interacting with people is a use for social media. Facebook is one way of getting out the information what it is a Director is doing.  Many professional people like the personal feeling that Facebook gives.  In Facebook  the information will vanish eventually, it is important to have the local stories kept. This can be done in social media such as blogs. Information can be filed and one can search those files.  Facebook is predominately used by 15 to 18 year olds. Facebook  has it’s value recent demographics show that other people are using it. For women  who use it,  the 30-35 age bracket is the fastest growing group.  Statistics also show that over 50 year olds are now  30% of Facebook users. As with  all these statistics  with grain of salt because registered /active users are a fickle lot and can quickly change to another type of media.  

A sunnt day looking SE

Feb 21 Apc Meeting 2011

The Advisory Planning Committee (APC) meeting supported an ALR application to split a property so the 2 owners  can leave the property to their heirs without the unneeded hostility that could be created when two parties own the same property. The property is in Magna Bay near Ross Creek flats. 

Brian David from the Skmana X Country  Ski Club was supported  to receive $3,000 to help replace the exhausted machinery to help the ski trails. The Skmana cross country ski trails fell on hard times due to a lack of support and volunteers . It has a new breath of energy has lifted  it out of the doldrums and is creating, not only an improved cross country ski trails but also snowshoeing , biking, hiking  and possibly a touring snowmobile trail. They are going into a fresh direction and need help to get them over this hump. The advantages for the North Shuswap is of course is access to the snowshoe/ski trails within less than ½ hour from Scotch Creek; as well as possible economical spin offs, improved life style that could attract people to the area (bringing in doctors nurses and other professionals) and access to improved  health sport choices.  To see what the trails and organizations like go to: http://ski-skmana.com/  .

Two applications were not supported; one the BC Lake Stewardship Society and the North Okanagan Shuswap Brain Injury Society. Though both of these societies do good things and likely are useful to some of the North Shuswap, they are not directly involved in Area “F”. It becomes more nebulous with those societies that are more wide spread and not localized near the North Shuswap. It is a hard line to divide how monies should be handed out to different benevolent societies when they are mainly based outside of the area. Once we go down that steep & slippery slope of giving funds to the many good will groups that “could” help the North Shuswap, funds will quickly be depleted from our Grant In Aid.    

I also introduced my new Alternate Steve Rivett to the APC group. Other discussions were: the need for a new Regional Director, Special Events, changes to the Fires Services Bylaw,  the Celista /Magna Bay/Anglemont ground water report, Subdivision Servicing Bylaw changes, Noise Bylaw and the Soil Bylaw.   

Small Water Systems discussion by the “Provincial Eelctoral Directors Water Committee”

Small Water Systems discussion by the “Provincial  Directors Water Committee” was of a suggested change to looking at systems of 2 to 25 people. The costs of running small water systems, to the quality that is expected by health boards can run into the millions of dollars. It is not workable in some cases; there needs to be a way of residents getting the water that they have been using for years without going into debt to do it. The committee did not want to be looking at water shed protection. The discussion is just on water systems.  The idea is that it would be self regulating by the system operators/owners. They would have to take tests 4 times annually, as well have to distribute the information from these tests to the users of these systems. There would be a chemical analysis of the water, every 5 years. The premise being worked on, is that people have to understand there is a risk and a cost; either in a health risk or a cost risk. The committee is saying that leaving it to the people who have small systems should be able to make that choice. The cost for the highest quality of water is not affordable to small system users.  You cannot regulate common sense. We do not want to see people priced out of their homes or having a home that cannot access useable water. There was concern of how this exclusion could be written up. One would not want a developer of 200 lots to divide his subdivision into four and then skim under the legal provisions that they should be following. A suggested cap of 25 users is good in that it is an easy number for effective communication.