Notes from Feb. 13 BI council meeting

By Jamie Rieger
Bow Island census
Residents in Bow Island can expect an enumerator to come calling later this spring as the Town council voted in favour of conducting its on census. The move comes after discrepancies were discovered in the results from the federal government census that were recently released. According to Stats Canada, Bow Island’s population has decreased by 2.1 percent to 1983 since 2011.
In a discussion with the Commentator after the Stats Canada numbers came out, mayor Reynolds said, “They haven’t got our numbers right. It shows we have dropped and we have a challenge here,” said Reynolds. “This is important for our per capita grants, including FCSS, landfill, EDA, PEP, and Canada Badlands.”
Council voted to hire a person who is able to communicate in Low German to accommodate a segment of the community who may not have been included in the federal census.
Town manager, Anna-Marie Bridge said the census would be conducted late this spring and would take approximately one month to complete.
Arena puck board
Bow Island town council voted in favour of increasing the initial  price of puck board ads at the arena from $500 to $600 to cover costs of materials and graphic work. Annual fees will remain at $250.
Forty Mile Inter-municipal Subdivision Development and Appeal board
Bow Island Coun. Kevin Davis is replacing Coun. Nan MacLean on the Forty Mile Inter-municipal Subdivision Development and Appeal board as MacLean is currently sitting on the Municipal Planning Commission and can not be appointed to both boards.