Friday, March 18, 2011

Crowsnest Pass Council Meeting March 15, 2011

Council Meeting of March 15,2011

Adoption of Agenda:

No additions
Motion to accept the Agenda was passed unanimously

Adoption of previous minutes.

1. Council meeting of March 1, 2011. Motion to accept the minutes was accepted unanimously.

Delegations: None

Administrative and Agency Reports:

CAO Clifford gave a verbal report that information on the Sawback Ridge development will be presented at the next Council Meeting

Director of Public Works Myron Thompson gave a verbal presentation on the issue of Spring Cleanup. Intention to start May 24th, Residents will be allowed to place out three items from a list of eligible items to be communicated prior. Residents will be expected to call the municipal office the two weeks prior to May 24th to book their pickup.

Councilors made the following comments:
Should the municipality look at picking large items up more than once a year.
Electronic recycling should also be done more than once a year
Fridges can be dropped of at Devlins any time of the year
Concern over the cost of this type of pickup being no cheaper than previous cleanups. Cleanup last year cost $442 per tonne, also Councilor Saindon stated that 80-90% of residents have the ability to take their own garbage to the landfill.

Business arising from the Minutes:

1.Outstanding Action Items from Motions of Council (2004-2010) Administration requested more time for this process, council granted until May 3

Correspondence: None

1. Hector Goudreau, Minister of Municipal Affairs-2011 MSI Funding municipality to receive approximately $1.9million from the province, $1.7 for capital and $200,000 for operational.

2. Hector Goudreau, Minister of Municipal Affairs-Clarification Letter sent to the wrong person a second time, Mayor Decoux asked administration to ensure this does not happen again.

3. Office of the Prime Minister-Receipt of Correspondence, Municipality had sent the Prime Ministers office a thank you letter, they sent the municipality a letter thanking them for thanking them.

Committee Reports:

1.Minutes of March 8, 2011 Goverance and Priorities Committee. Councilor Mitchell pointed out that the minutes stated that council members “will” attend the Mayors Prayer Breakfast it should have stated “may”. Motion to accept minutes as amended passed unanimously.

Bylaws:

1.Bylaw 819, Borrowing Bylaw-Grader & Hydraulic Excavator. At this point confusion set in, council started to question administration. Councilor Londsbury was surprised with the 5 year term he was under the impression that the items were to be paid off in this budget. Councilor Saje also stated that he knew the Municipality was doing short term financing but thought they would be paying it off in 3-4 months when the property tax dollars came in. Administration stated that it out been clearly shown in the budget that there would be a payment of $116,000 a year for the next five years. Mayor Decoux and several other councilors indicated that was there interpretation also. Motion to pass first reading passed unanimously.

2.Bylaw 822, Operating Line of Credit- authorizes the Municipality to borrow up to $1 million for an operating line. Motion to passed first reading passed unanimously

3.Bylaw 823, Discharge of Septage into Municipal Owned Septage Disposable Facility. Motion to passed first reading passed unanimously


Notices of Motion: None

Other Business:

1. Capital Equipment and Project Tendering update, this was a presentation by Myron Thompson relevant to the purchase of new equipment and the tendering process to demolish the Maplevue Hall. Motion to accept passed unanimously.

2. 10 Year Capital Infrastructure Plan, Continuation of Previous plans for Infrastructure, with the need for the Municipality to spend $42 milion over the next ten years. The major project being the upgrading of the Frank Sewer Plant, most of these costs will be covered by grants with the exception of approximately $430,000 a year which the municipality will have to provide, the Director of Public Works suggested that this amount should be placed in reserves each year for that purpose. Motion to accept passed unanimously.

3. Pinkest Town in the West. Motion to accept passed unanimously

4. Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast. Motion to accept passed unanimously

5. Reschedule the March 22 G+P meeting to March 29 if there is enough agenda items to deal with. Motion to accept passed unanimously

6. Volunteer Directory-Administration informed council that Director of Community Services will be bringing forth information on this to Council at a later date.

7.Community Enhancement-Mayor Decoux announced that he had been approached by Frank Loseth who as a group of volunteers that are ready and willing to help clean up the community, Mayor Decoux suggested that Mr Loseth be invited to a meeting of council to present his ideas.

Council Member reports: None

Public Input: Resident Joe Mahieux came to present to council his concerns about Bylaw 798 (Community Standards) specifically Part #3, Section 5. This bans the parking of Campers, Trailers etc on municipal boulevards. Asked that council take another look at this, which they agreed to and stated they would respond to him in a timely fashion.

Motion to go In Camera: Passed Unanimously

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oops that's a half million dollar misunderstanding.
Next thing you know somebodys going to suggest that we take our kids out of town to use Pincher Creeks swimming pool.

Anonymous said...

Wow, how shameful is that!Those 2 should be forced to resign or if they have any dignity they should just quit.Leaving people like that to make decisions for the rest of us scares me.
I do not know which is more stupid, not knowing what you voted for in the budget or saying out loud that you did not know what you voted for.
Everyone makes mistakes, but what were thinking when the cost of financing was being discussed.

Anonymous said...

Dean
On a previous post you remarked that one of the members of council,felt there was no need to finance the track hoe because there was enough money to be saved in the next six months to pay for it.
Did anybody from the council bring forth those ideas during the debate on borrowing half a million dollars?

Anonymous said...

I think some things should be done by the government and others things should be left to the private sector, but in the Pass they have it backwards:

1)We have hauling businesses struggling to compete with the free cleanup service.

2)We have taxi businesses struggling to compete with the subsidized Town Rounder. Could they contract to provide this service for less than $18 a ride?

3)We have campgrounds and RV storage businesses, but some people want to have their campers on the public sidewalk/boulevard (where the Alberta Traffic Safety Act requires us to walk). We have a lot of poor folks who can't afford enough real estate to park all their toys.

4)Tax-paying main street businesses have to compete with home businesses operating on streets and other public land, or agriculturally zoned land.

5)The muni generously subsidizes elite recreations (quadding, golf, skiing, hockey) that only a few can afford, but playgrounds are funded by bake sales.

Anonymous said...

I asked this before, but in case any councilors are reading, what interest rate are we earning on our Reserve Fund, and what interest rate are we paying to finance equipment purchase.

We are entitled to get this sort of info from the muni, according to FOIP. But "Good luck with that", as they say here.

Anonymous said...

I do not believe you Dean there is no way, there could be that kind of misunderstanding.

Anonymous said...

Dean did not see anything in the Herald today about this bylaw, or the confusion.