Latest news with #MikeRichman
USA Today
12-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
BKFC's Mike Richman shares disturbing images of cuts from bloody loss
BKFC's Mike Richman shares disturbing images of cuts from bloody loss Mike Richman paid the price for the realities of bare knuckle boxing on Saturday at BKFC 74 when his face was split apart. Richman suffered a fourth-round TKO loss to Josh Dyer at Maverick Center in Salt Lake City, costing him his light heavyweight championship and a lot of blood and skin. It was difficult to see the extent of Richman's cut through all the blood. After he was cleaned up and stitched up, he took some before and after images of the gruesome lacerations. Check it out below (via Instagram Stories): After the fight, Richman issued a statement where he said he intends to drop down in weight. A Bellator and longtime MMA veteran, Richman has gone 6-3 in his BKFC career, but said in recent bouts he has been competing well outside of his best weight class.
Hamilton Spectator
07-05-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Village of Pemberton eyes 14.2% tax increase for 2025
Taxes are set to go up in Pemberton. At its May 6 meeting, Pemberton's mayor and council gave first, second and third readings to a five-year financial plan containing a 14.2-per-cent municipal tax increase for 2025. 'This was a tough process,' said Mayor Mike Richman. 'There's a significant increase in our budget here. We know that. And I think all of council has sort of stated in different ways that to do less would have been—as much as we want to keep things as affordable as possible, we've kept our tax rate quite low and to do less [of an increase] would be irresponsible.' Pemberton's budget reflects the Village's stated priorities during this year's budget seaso n; namely, addressing aging infrastructure, maintaining amenities once grant funding has expired and building up reserves to meet the needs of a growing population. Through the 2025 budget season, council has asked for a handful of revisions to the budget, including a five-per-cent contribution to address historically low general reserves and to start saving for the cost of a future municipal police force , contributions to water and sewer reserves to pay for future upgrades to meet a growing population and the establishment of a Speĺkúmtn Community Forest Spending Policy . 'So, you heard loud and clear that we need to take care of our infrastructure,' said Richman of the budget and tax increase. 'That we're growing and putting these reserves aside is a step in that direction. Starting the reserves towards policing is a step in that direction to try to ease the pain of what's coming with that. So it's been a tough budget as well, but I believe we've landed in the right place and I just want residents to know that it's still very lean.' Pemberton's council approved a five-per-cent tax increase in 2022 , an eight-per-cent increase in 2023 and 9.8 per cent in 2024. After unanimous approval of the five-year financial plan, council also gave first, second and third readings to a host of other tax and utility rate bylaws. A breakdown of 2025 tax rates by dollars of tax per $1,000 of taxable property value can be found in council's meeting documents. The report also breaks down tax rates by contribution to the municipality—including reserves and the community engagement fund—to the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District and to the Sea to Sky Regional Hospital District. The frontage rate for sewage remains at $5.24 per metre of sewer adjacent to a property. The water frontage rate has increased from $3.20 per metre in 2024 to $6.97 in 2025, per a new bylaw. Councillor Ted Craddock suggested considering charging for road frontage in a future budget. Other municipalities use revenue from road frontage taxation to pay for road maintenance and development. User fees for water and sewer rates have also increased from last year, broken down by class of property. Council laid out a series of capital expenditures to fund over the next five years, including a new municipal hall and council chambers building, fire engine replacements, a new firehall, electric vehicle chargers, upgrades to public parks and a new water treatment facility. A full list of projects to be funded through the 2025 budget and beyond is available in the five-year financial plan . A new RV sani-dump was also discussed, with $33,000 set aside for a hypothetical replacement for the old RV waste hook-up in the 2025 budget, which closed along with the visitors centre in 2024 . With RV season approaching, chief administrative officer Elizabeth Tracy suggested installing one next to the Pemberton transfer station might be the way forward. Council directed staff to look at replacement sites. A draft final budget was circulated during a committee of the whole meeting on April 22. Council is set to vote on its 2025 budget during a May 13 special council meeting. The 2025 tax rate, effective Jan. 1, 2025, is up for adoption then.
CBC
25-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Pemberton growing pains: B.C. municipalities tipping 5,000 population face steep policing costs
The population of Pemberton, B.C., is fast approaching a threshold, which has politicians scrambling to find ways to pay for the steep policing costs that would fall to the charming mountain town once it exceeds 5,000 residents. In five years, from 2016 to 2021, the village along the Sea to Sky Highway, 30 minutes north of Whistler, increased its population by 32 percent to 3,407 residents. In 2023, its population was estimated to be 3,678, encouraging local officials that the small town was growing for the right reasons — good small-town vibes, close to Vancouver and Whistler and access to nature — but alarming them over the new potential policing costs seemingly only years away. "We have to also keep up with things like infrastructure, fire, climate change, housing, transit, all these other costs," said Pemberton Mayor Mike Richman. "And then you add this one-time massive budgetary implication through policing, and it's really not manageable for small communities. It's crippling." In British Columbia, municipalities with populations under 5,000 do not directly fund their own policing costs. Instead, the province collects a police tax from these communities — through property taxes — to recover a portion of the policing expenses B.C. provides. But that all changes once small communities reach 5,001 or more residents. For Pemberton, it will mean assuming 70 per cent of policing costs for its community, which it figures will amount to $1.3 million in extra costs sometime in the next eight to 10 years. Its proposed 2025 $9.4 million budget includes deliberations over whether to begin raising taxes yearly to put away reserves to be ready for the increased policing costs when they come or just take on the added costs in a single year, which could mean a 40 per cent property tax increase for residents. "It's such a big conversation," said Robin Burns, owner of Pemberton's Blackbird Bakery. 'You know it's coming' The village has other municipalities to learn from, such as Oliver, Duncan and Metchosin, which have all recently surpassed 5,000 in population. "You know it's coming. Start preparing for it. Start building that pocket that you're going to need," said Duncan Mayor Michelle Staples. Duncan hovered around the 5,000 resident mark for several years and even went over and then below before having to take on extra costs for policing following the 2021 Canadian census. The city had begun putting money away, years ahead of time, into reserves, which ultimately has helped ease the proposed property tax increase this year, which is 11.3 per cent, with 11 per cent of it for policing costs. "We would have been facing over a 30 per cent tax increase this year had council of the day not done that," said Staples. "So that's why we're in a pretty good position." Oliver's council came up with a five-year plan of nine per cent property tax increases per year, which were used to invest in capital projects, so that when then new policing costs of $900,000 came in 2022, the town was ready to assume them without sacrificing other spending. "That was innovative and and it's worked well," said Oliver Mayor Martin Johansen of his predecessors. "We've been in good shape since." Johansen said residents didn't balk at the tax increases because the town worked hard to communicate the need and the plan to use them. It's something Pemberton is trying to do now to garner the support of residents and potentially put $257,000 in annual contributions to reserve funding for each of the next five years to "smooth tax impact," according to budget documents. Richman says Pemberton is trying to engage the province in conversations over how there could be a less drastic funding formula for small communities having to pay more for their own policing. "To go from zero to 70 [per cent of policing costs] is not gradual," he said. "It's kind of ridiculous and it puts a massive pressure on our budget … if we raise our taxes by about a per cent, we bring in about $25,000. That's it." Richman and others, such as Pemberton and District Chamber of Commerce President Adam Adams, want more information about how policing in the village and outlying areas would work once Pemberton was paying, along with how costs could be shared with the regional district and local First Nations. "Tell us on an individual basis what that actually means," said Adams speaking on behalf of businesses. "Gradually building up to it, I think, will make it more digestible for the community rather than all of a sudden we need to ask you now for $1.3 million, and everyone has a lot of sticker shock."
