Rossland's unique and effective Energy Diet has earned the city an Honourable Mention for a Climate and Energy Action Award, whose sponsors include province of British Columbia, the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM), Fortis BC, and BC Hydro. Patricia Dehnel, an energy planner from the Community Energy Association,...

Coun. Kathy Wallace took a moment at the Oct. 22 regular council meeting in Rossland to reflect on "definite problems" that exist in rural health care, problems she identified as "another symptom in our province of small, rural areas not fitting the grid pattern of larger urban areas." Wallace is Rossland's appointed director...

by Lois Beckett: Yesterday, we got a rare look at how information on your public social media profiles—including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn—is being harvested and resold by large consumer data companies. Responding to a congressional query, nine data companies provided answers to a detailed set of questions about what kinds of information they collect about […]

How can the public give their input into the budget, as Coun. Fisher suggested, while avoiding the potential for "chaos" that Coun. Spearn feared? I have a suggestion for council: swing a deal with ThoughtStream for a software license for the city, and hire one of their facilitators.   Right now, the idea of "engaging" the ...

During a normal school day at Christina Lake Elementary, the quiet chatter of children reciting their multiplication tables, working on group projects and reading out loud filters out of the classrooms and into the halls. Then a secret signal sounds. Not the usual fierce fire alarm, but something new. And within seconds the school falls […]

This is the final article in a series to address Coun. Cary Fisher’s surprise at a lack of awareness about the budget among Rossland residents. Part One examined the General Fund in broad strokes. The actual “general” revenue of the city in 2011 was $6.4 million, to which taxation contributed 57 per cent, residential taxes ...

In response to Coun. Cary Fisher’s "shock" at a lack of budgetary awareness among city residents, here we tackle the portion of the budget that deals specifically with city funding for community organizations and facilities, parks, and recreation. In Part One we examined the broad strokes of Rossland's major revenue streams,...

Coun. Cary Fisher has taken Rossland's budget to task, recently asking residents, "Do you know what you're paying for?” Fisher expressed dismay that many residents didn't know where their taxes go. He pointed to the media to sound the alarm and called for the public to identify budget cuts before the annual budget cycle gets...

Budget season is coming up fast and Coun. Cary Fisher, a self-described "numbers guy," has sounded the alarm: "Do you know what you're paying for?"Fisher came to council with an emphasis on trimming fat from the budget, but last year he felt that council didn't get a solid chance to make spending cuts because councillors were...

Some might say it is laziness, others may want to blame it on the tipping fees at the dump or transfer station, but the reality is people like to dump their compostable lawn waste, old appliances and even animal carcasses down the roads less travelled in the Boundary. Karen Mehmal, who operates a ranch and […]