Council passes new cemetery bylaw

By Ken Johnston
Editor

A light agenda saw Rainy River Town Council whip through most of the town's business in record time Monday evening at its regular monthly meeting.
The only time consuming item was the passage of a new cemetery bylaw to establish rules and regulations for Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Due to the recent installation of a columbarium Town Clerk Veldron Vogan said that council needed to add to its existing bylaw and at the same time modernize it.
The 13 page bylaw took about 20 minutes to read before it was unanimously passed.
Other business
•Council agreed to contribute $2,000 per year for three years starting in 2011 towards the new emergency room ultrasound at Rainy River Health Centre for a total of $6,000.
Councillor Brent Anderson asked why the wait until 2011 and the Mayor, Deb Ewald, explained that is when the town is done contributing to the CT Scanner.
•Town General, Water, Sewer and Cemetery budgets were all passed and were balanced.
•Council sold resident Susan Carpenter property on 7th Street for $2,200 plus all transfer fees and taxes.
•A new committee was formed for overseeing a Community Garden and a motion to apply for funding for the garden was approved.
•A lease agreement with the CN Hotel was approved. The Hotel is operating the park canteen, campgrounds, pool and other facilities in Hannam Park.
•Council approved renting a booth at the Emo Fair at a cost of $90 and to pay the expenses of Councillor Gord Armstrong to be at the fair on Aug. 15th. Armstrong had put in for three days but Councillor Gerry Marchuk questioned the request noting the Town Coordinator Anthony Mason will be there representing the town as well.
•A donation to the Wallaceburg Disaster Relief Fund of $100 was approved.
•Council agreed to buy six copies of a Directory of Railway Stations at a cost of $270.00 plus shipping.
Councillor Anderson asked who the six copies are for and Councillor Marchuk noted they wanted one for the Town and had to buy six to get one. The rest will be donated to area libraries.
Marchuk noted that the Rainy River Station will be in the book.
•Council passed a resolution asking the Min. of Health to reinstate the Youth Action Alliance's funding.
YAA are students working to stop the use of tobacco and are overseen by the NWHU.