Committee and board appointments were the main topics of discussion at the Village of Warfield regular council meeting on Monday evening.
In the correspondence section of the meeting agenda, council received a letter from Barbara Gibson at the Trail and District Public Library Board. The letter informed council one of two Warfield representative spaces is currently available on the board.
A discussion about whether the new member on the board should be from council was held.
Tom Milne, the only incumbent on council, says that since the library funding from Warfield is negotiated in the recreation deal, there may not be a need for council representation.
“All the money we are putting into this is under the recreation deal,” he said. “In past times, we have had a member of council on there because the library was a separate function, but it is no longer that way. It is all inclusive.”
Mayor Ted Pahl, revealed that he spoke with the current library board rep from Warfield, who has been actively recruiting someone for the second spot.
The council also decided to re-nominate the three sitting members of the committee of citizens to recommend the distribution of Columbia Basin Trust Funds: John Merlo, Jim Hill and Howard McMeekin.
The council received a piece of correspondence in the form of a letter of resignation from Bill Trewhella, stepping down from his position on the Warfield Endowment Committee – a group that spends the interest earned on an endowment in the village's name.
The resignation left a spot open on the committee, and while there were a few names thrown around as to who should replace Trewhella, nobody was confirmed to join remaining members Laurie Pettijohn and Thorpe Watson.
When it came to councillor committee appointments, a few changes were made to the Labour Relations committee.
Originally, Mayor Pahl sat on the committee with Councillor Brett Rakuson. After discovering a scheduling conflict for Pahl, a different councillor was named to the position, which involves renegotiating CUPE contracts with village employees.
“It seems that the union people, especially at the CUPE office, they want to work during the day and head home and have dinner at night,” said Councillor Milne.
Pahl revealed that daytime meetings and contract negotiations would present a problem for him, and that Milne would be a good replacement.
“I think that Tom should be doing this, because (he has) experience with all this,” said Pahl.
Milne accepted the position, and joins Rakuson on the Labour Relations Committee.
As a closing to the regular council meeting, the councillors were invited to share their reports on goings-on in the village.
Rakuson made a suggestion regarding future events: invite the organ donor registration group to set up a booth. He had attended the kidney donation open house in Trail last Saturday and brought forth the idea to invite them to future Warfield functions.
“I thought about (the presentation) for a while and when we do these recreation things, like craft fairs, we could get a hold of these people and set up in a corner and maybe we can help them sign up a few (donors),” he said. “There is definitely a need and I am sure that if you phone these people, they will show up if there is a place for them to display their stuff. It is not just kidneys. It is everything. It is no hardship to us and we can benefit the community as a whole.”
The council agreed to add it to the list for discussion during the next event the village hosts.
“We can definitely look at including something like that when we do our events, like the Warfield Days Pancake Breakfast, things like that,” said Mayor Pahl.
A discussion about scheduling conflicts surrounding the regular council meetings was held. The chat ended with a new schedule: moving the meetings to the first and third Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m., rather than Mondays.
The next council meeting is scheduled for Jan. 7 at 7 p.m.