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Sunflowers, swing-sets, and e-waste dominate council meeting

Cache Creek set to get new playground equipment next month
29770ashcroftNEWSCacheCreekCouncil130822
The playground in Cache Creek will look very different by the time next year’s Easter Egg hunt comes round.

Roll call: Mayor John Ranta, Councillors Lisa Dafoe, Herb Hofer, Wyatt McMurray (by phone), and Darrell Rawcliffe.

Cache Creek Council has voted to go ahead with the purchase of new playground equipment for the park.

At the council meeting on Aug. 19, a motion to award the contract for new equipment to Swing Time Distributors was passed unanimously. The cost of the equipment is $58,856 plus taxes.

Councillor Darrell Rawcliffe raised concern about the possibility of a deposit, of as much as 50% of the contract’s value, being required by Swing Time up front. Leslie Lloyd, the Village’s Chief Administrative Officer, said that at the current time the company has not indicated that any deposit will be necessary.

The Village of Cache Creek previously gave a deposit to another firm after a contract was awarded to provide outdoor fitness equipment. Shortly after the deposit – which represented half of the balance owing – was paid, the company went into receivership, and failed to deliver the equipment that had been ordered. The deposit has not been recovered, and the Village is now pursuing the matter via legal channels.

A recent review of the equipment currently in the Cache Creek park revealed that it was not compliant with current safety standards, and much of it would need to be replaced. A few items – including a digger and two sets of swings – will remain, but the rest cannot be salvaged.

Work on the park, and the playground improvements, will begin at the start of September, with the area bounded by the pool, the gazebo, and the path along the Bonaparte being raised to minimise the danger of flooding. When that has been done, the new playground equipment will be installed. All of the work is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Mayor John Ranta acknowledged that changes in acceptable safety standards over the years have certainly made playgrounds less dangerous than they were, but wondered if they might also be slightly more boring than in years gone by.

Another motion passed at the same meeting saw Cache Creek Council agree to declare the sunflower the official flower of the Village, subject to clarification that it is within Council’s powers to do so without further input from the public. The campaign to instal the sunflower as the Village’s official flower was spearheaded by Cache Creek Communities in Bloom, a sub committee of the Cache Creek Beautification Society.

Councillor Rawcliffe asked if the illage could look into the lease or rental of a facility that would enable residents to drop off electronic waste, such as television sets and computer equipment, on a year-round basis, rather than only once or twice a year. At the present time the TNRD arranges a specialdrop-off service for anyone wanting to dispose of hazardous electrical goods.

Mayor Ranta pointed out that the collection of e-waste is a TNRD responsibility, and one he would not like to see Cache Creek council take one. However, a motion to contact the TNRD regarding the establishment of a permanent e-waste facility in Cache Creek was carried unanimously.

Barbara Roden