The Vancity location for Alert Bay was announced at the last Village council meeting. Vancity will take over the same location used by Coastal Community Credit Union. The new location will be known as Branch 71 in the Vancity system and they expect to be fully open by mid-August.
They are, however, targeting mid to late May for a partially-open branch where basic services can be accessed.
The Village discussed the budget for the upcoming year and are forecasting a modest budget.
Plans for this year include using a grant awarded in 2013 for a number of green energy projects. Some of the plans include solar water heating for all municipal buildings, LED street lighting, and a 50 kilowatt wind turbine.
Business taxes were discussed at the meeting as well and the council voted to reduce the tax multiplier for businesses to 2.75 from 3.00. This reduction in the multiplier may or may not be reflected in an actual decrease in taxes for each business.
Individual increases depend on both the multiplier and the business’ assessment. Residential properties, overall, had lower assessed values over the previous year.