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City Council Briefs Still no funding assistance for NACC Simon Whitehouse Northern News Services Published Friday, April 20, 2012 Ben Nind, executive director of NACC, approached city council at the April 10 municipal services committee meeting, stating that he had secured $1.2 million from the federal government and wanted a $100,000 contribution from the city.
Bird said this week the city has so far not been able to find money to help because grants have already been committed for 2012 and there are restrictions on other pots of money. He said the city looked at perhaps having a super bingo run by NACC, but such events are held on a lottery basis. He also said they are held only once a year, and one has already taken place.
"Having more than one super bingo for $100,000 (dollars) can be an iffy proposition," Bird said, questioning whether there would be enough interest in a second such event.
Nind, who was again in the gallery this week, told council that reapplying for funding from Canadian Heritage isn't likely a solution because the latest approval NACC received came after a three-year wait.
RENAMING OF STREETS
City council approved the naming of streets at Yellowknife Airport to Blackberg Drive and Laserich Gate at the April 10 regular meeting. The former route is named after Andrew Luther Blackberg, who was instrumental in the community initiative that founded the Yellowknife Airport in 1944.
"He was instrumental in the early maintenance and early building of the Yellowknife Airport, so he was someone we wanted to honour," said airport manager Steve Loutitt. "We felt that the road leading to our maintenance garage was quite fitting for that."
The latter is named after members of the Laserich family including legendary pilot and Adlair Aviation Ltd. founder Willy, who died in 2007. Son Paul, who died last November, ran the aviation company for many years. This included offering medevac services to communities in the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut.
"Paul was probably one of the prime tourism emissaries arriving in Yellowknife by air," said Mayor Gord Van Tighem. "He would almost give them the shirt off his back - lend vehicles to drive around, show them where to park airplanes and was really an overall greeter and ambassador while running Adlair.
"I was privileged to pass on this news to Rene Laserich (Monday) morning and the family is quite excited."
Rene is Willy's son and Paul's brother.
ASSAULT COMPLAINTS UP
RCMP Insp. Dave Elliott provided his report of police incidents for the months of February and March during Monday's municipal services committee meeting. He said calls for service continue to increase in a number of categories, especially assaults.
"The biggest one that we are noticing is in the assault complaints. They are about 50/50 from people hearing noise or hearing somebody fighting and calling us," said Elliott. "The other 50 per cent is somebody who is involved in the assault calling."
The charts provided to the city show that RCMP responded to 91 calls in March, which was up from 73 in February and up significantly from what they were in March 2011 - 50 calls. In January there were 59. The report also indicates 32 of the 91 calls were unfounded. Elliott also made reference to the Karen Lander shooting on Glick Court, March 14.
"I'm not going to get into that too much other than that Medicine Hat Police Service has been called in to investigate that and we will await the result of the investigation," he said. "The way the MOU is set up, we are completely hands-off and a completely different police force is conducting the investigation. So we don't have any input."
Elliott said a report of what the RCMP would like to focus on over the coming fiscal year will be provided to the police advisory committee by the next meeting with council.
"One of the big things that we want to work on will be the bike patrol again this summer," he said.
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