The City of Kamloops is still on track to get a new business improvement association to represent the Valleyview and Dallas area by next year.

Randy Ruygrok with the East Kamloops Business Improvement Association says when formalized, the new BIA will include all Class 5 (light industry) and Class 6 (commercial) properties between the Valleyview interchange and the Dallas Industrial Park.

“We’ve established a board. We’ve registered as a society. We’ve built a preliminary budget in place, and now we’re right to the point where we need to go before council for approval, before we begin the legislative process,” Ruygrok said on NL Newsday.

“The City [will then do] a mailer out to all the businesses and if that is approved, then a levy is established and we can start being a BIA out in Valleyview.”

According to the EKBIA’s website, the plan is to charge all eligible properties a property tax levy of $8 per $10,000 of assessed value. That means business owners with a property assessed at $1 million would pay a levy of $800 to the EKBIA.

“You have the option of voting no, and if they get enough naysayers, then it won’t happen but I don’t foresee that happening because the people that we’ve talked to are all pretty positive about it because there is a lot of stuff going on,” Ruygrok added.

“I mean, society has gotten more complex, and there is a feeling that we need to establish a common voice for the businesses out there and advocacy for safety and clean up and things like that.”

Ruygrok says if established, the EKBIA will begin to build a footprint and start planning things like marketing, events, and business services once the levy is released by the City of Kamloops.

“I honestly believe that City Council wants a BIA out there, they want a unified voice,” Ruygrok said.

“They’ve seen what the CAP Team has done downtown and the Clean Team has done in North Kamloops and if we can work and keep that part of our city looking beautiful, that will be a great thing.”

There are two other BIAs in Kamloops – the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association representing businesses in the downtown core, and the North Shore Business Improvement Association representing businesses north of the Tranquille River.