Photo: Village of Salmo

Council and city staff will discuss how Salmo's expiring funds will be allocated for a plan to install three solar lights along a local walking trail.

The recommendation is scheduled to be presented at the Feb. 11 council meeting to determine if the city will use the Local Government Climate Action Program (LGCAP) funds to pay for the project.

A special council meeting was held on Jan. 20 to deliberate using the LGCAP funds that will expire at the end of March.

The Village Administration chose several options based on the council’s guidance and connected with an electrical company that assessed the location and strength of the lights.

The company subsequently recommended that the village reconsider using solar lights based on the location, stating that there was an inadequate amount of sunlight on that side of the mountain to generate the required power.

They suggested that each light would require its own battery, infrastructure and power storage, which would triple the cost of the project. The lights cost around $15,000 each.

The company encouraged the council to reach out to the Ministry of Transportation and Fortis BC to utilize the power from a former radio station nearby that broadcasted from 2008 until 2017.

However, these changes would disqualify the project from using LGCAP funding.

Now the city needs to decide how they will they will proceed to provide the necessary lighting.