VSS Gets $10,000 From City

Written by Peter McIntyre  107.5 KISSFM  Monday, 11 June 2012 18:42
Vernon council's nearly four hour meeting on Monday turned out to be time well spent for a local school. The elected reps approved a ten thousand dollar grant for the new Vernon Secondary, which opens this fall. It will go to an institutional composting system, able to convert 300 pounds of food-waste a day including discarded meat and chicken bones. Bob Spiers was opposed to the city providing funding, feeling it should have gone to the regional district. He tells Kiss FM, "The composting and stuff, that's all part of solid waste management. It's the only function out at NORD that is mandated by the province, so it seemed like a natural tie in." The Vernon School District will also be asked to match the grant. Councillor Catherine Lord was also opposed for similar reasons to Spiers. Council's 4-2 vote in support went against a recommendation by the finance committee to deny the grant, party based on the fact that no other governments were providing a grant. Part of the discussion was whether to deal with the issue that day, or put it off two weeks as it council's policy after hearing from a delegation. Council decided to deal with it Monday as it was included on the agenda due to the committee's recommendation. The $44,000 'Green-Good' composter is the first phase of a four part Go-Green program at the school.
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Also article about project at VSS Goes Green 
excerpt:
Representatives of the City of Vernon, RDNO, Interior Health, Community Policing, Community Futures, School District 22 and CUPE were also involved in the development of the Go Green Project. For more information about the project, contact Slizak at 250-545-0701 or sslizak@sd22.bc.ca. Donations can be made to Vernon Secondary School Go Green Project by mail or in person at 2303-18 Street, Vernon, V1T 3Z9. Tax receipts are available.
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P.84 of Agenda Package  shows details of the total Go Green VSS initiative.
excerpt detailing costs below. Grant application of $10,000 was towards the composting section of project only. This is the application which the  Finance Committee on May 17 recommended to the full council that it be denied. See Page 55 of Finance agenda Package Agenda Package - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 1:30pm  .