Barbara Roden
Vista Heights Drive Ashcroft, BC, Canada

Five years ago, Ashcroft council asked the residents of the Village to approve us borrowing just over $400,000 for the purchase of a new primary fire engine. Four years ago, council asked residents for approval to borrow up to $4.2 million to fund our portion of the new water treatment plant. Thanks to excellent fiscal management from our CFO, Yogi Bhalla, and a lot of hard work by everyone involved, the Village ended up borrowing just over $1 million for the plant. We also h...ad funds left over from the federal and provincial grants to allow us to move forward with other water-related projects. I'm very pleased to say that at the Ashcroft council meeting on Aug. 24, council passed a motion authorizing the Village to pay off, in full, both loans as of summer 2020, more than a decade before they were scheduled to be paid off. That will free up approximately $125,000 per year that was earmarked for debt repayment over the next 10+ years, and means the Village will be debt-free, with ample reserves. Thank you to the residents of Ashcroft for allowing us to proceed with these two vital projects, and thank you to all who worked hard to allow us to be in this position!

This is an entirely serious, not at all light-hearted appeal to the youth of Ashcroft and Cache Creek to help defend our communities from the Cardboardonians, who have announced plans to take over our communities on Aug. 22. We know little about these Cardboardonians except that only young people can defeat them, and that water is deadly to them. I'm therefore calling on the youth of Ashcroft and Cache Creek to build defences (from recyclable material) in their yards, alert the HUB Online Network that you are ready to defend us, and have water guns loaded and at the ready on Aug. 22, to defeat the Cardboardonians. We are counting on you. We know you will not let us down.

An extreme heat warning has been issued for the area, with temperatures pushing 40 C. over the next few days. Please follow safety precautions, and keep an eye out for anyone you know who might be vulnerable to the heat, including infants, young children, the elderly, and people with chronic health conditions.

After months of having to sit on the news, the Village can finally announce that we have received funding to replace the hot tub at the Ashcroft Pool and to replace Lift Station #1, a key part of our wastewater treatment system. The funding comes courtesy of the federal and provincial governments, and was officially announced on July 3 (although the Village received unofficial word of the grants late in November 2019). $828,000 in federal funding and another $552,000 in provi...ncial funding, through the Rural and Northern Communities Infrastructure Stream, will cover 100 per cent of the cost of replacing Lift Station #1 in North Ashcroft, which has been identified in the Village's Asset Management Plan as a high priority infrastructure project. For the hot tub, the Village is receiving $69,686 in federal funding and $58,066 from the provincial government under the Community, Culture, and Recreation Infrastructure Stream. The estimated $46,000 to finance the rest of the project will come from the Village. The money will be used to construct a 15-person fibreglass outdoor hot tub with therapy jets to replace the existing hot tub, which was built in the early 1990s and has been out of commission for the last four seasons. The new hot tub will also include a portable lift to assist patrons with mobility issues in and out of the tub. A big thank you to the federal and provincial governments for this funding, and to Village staff for pursuing grant opportunities so that the Village can proceed with these projects!

Remember when an episode of 'The Twilight Zone' filmed in Ashcroft back in February? The episode - entitled 'A Small Town' - was released on CBS All Access (along with the other nine episodes in season two of the series) on June 25, but those without access to the streaming service will be able to attend a free screening of the episode at the Ashcroft HUB next week. The Village of Ashcroft and the Thompson-Nicola Film Commission have been working with CBS to obtain rights to ...screen the episode, and with the Ashcroft HUB to arrange the screenings, which will take place at 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 7 p.m. on July 9 and 10. There will be no charge to attend, but because attendance is limited to 50 people at each screening, seats need to be reserved in advance. Physical distancing protocols will be in place, and a concession will be available. To reserve seats at the screening of your choice, contact the HUB at (250) 453-9177, drop by the office, or email [email protected]. The episode is set in the small town of Littleton, where the widower of the former mayor discovers a model of the town in the church attic. He soon finds that anything he does to the model happens in the real town, and that while the model can be a force for good, it can also be used to produce less desirable results, leading to conflict and dissension between the townsfolk and the new mayor.