Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Municipal Press Release Crowsnest Pass

PRESS RELEASE


Crowsnest Pass Operational Services (Public Works) is implementing
plans to improve overall efficiency and service delivery to community
residents.

These plans include numerous functional changes that will see improved
utilization of resources, improved efficiency and increased accountability.

The first step will be the consolidation of the Blairmore and Coleman shops
into one facility which will be the Blairmore Facility. This facility will now be
known as the Crowsnest West Facility, while Hillcrest facility, which also
serves Bellevue, will be known as Crowsnest East Facility.

These changes will take place over a relatively short period of time and
residents should be assured that service levels will not be reduced as a
result of these changes.

Myron Thompson
Director of Operational Services
Municipality of Crowsnest Pass

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought that a few years ago they were going to build a very expensive shop in Coleman.Looks like this council is following up on the idea that we did not need a new shop and they are working toward being more effecient.My tax bill next year will tell the story.

Crowsnest Pass Home said...

Yes a few years ago the municipality was going to build a new shop in Coleman. The line we has a council was fed, was that it would eliminate the two present shops in Coleman with the dollars raised from the sale of those two shops to pay for the new one. We were also told that with the anticipated growth of the community to the west, the shop would be critical. When the cost of the building ballooned from $300,000+ to $1.3 million and the majority of council realized that administration had no real plan to build that facility. There was a stop put to the silliness.

Anonymous said...

Dean
I wonder if they could have carried this out with the previous head of that department in charge.
I hear on the streets the employees are not very happy.

Tom said...

Pretty quiet around town regarding the changes coming. I wonder if the Fire Departments are next. Its good to see the council taking a step forward. I wonder how this will reflect in the next election? Pretty smart move making all the changes in their first year.

TransparencyCNP said...

The Blairmore Shops look much better since the cleanup, but with a facility like this in the middle of town, we sould at least have some lawn on the boulevard in front and a bit of fence and shrubs to conceal the trash bins and dumpster. Isn't that a standard we should be setting for private businesses?

It would help if they just parked the shiny new trucks up front and kept the industrial-looking stuff further back. And then gather up all the pipe etc. and conceal it behind.

As for the shop buildings, if they had a nice sign with our new municipal logo (which I've not yet seen, but I'm sure is very beautiful) and colour coordinated trim paint and maybe one of those canopy thingies over the people door - well, I'm not a designer but I think something like that could at least convey a "somebody cares" impression.

Also we are coming up to the grand opening of our trail system, which is supposed to "showcase" the town. That side of the site could stand a bit more tidiness.

peter rosner said...

It does make sense to concentrate the workforce especially in the summer months with people on vacation. Hopefully they have thought this through i am curious what they will do in the winter months with a foot of snow on the ground in the morning. Will the workers drive to Blairmore only to be sent back to Coleman, this could really delay things. I guess the advantage in all this is less chiefs and more workers.

Anonymous said...

The problem with this is there is no savings. They are still bearing all the costs of the Coleman shops. What do you think the value of commercial buildings are in downtown Coleman.
Blairmore shop area thats a different store move that shop to Frank then you have prime river front property in Blairmore, that would be worth a small fortune, in addition it would make the area much more attractive.
A public works employee tells me that they have it in their collective agreement that there must be a minimum number of municipal foreman. So there will not be less chiefs.
The shortage of people around summer time is a problem manufactured by the employees and the municipality themselves.
Mr Rosner I know you work at the mine when was the last time Teck allowed 75% of their workforce of at any one time? Its great for the employees that everybody gets vacation during the summer. Does not make for an efficient operation.

Anonymous said...

well at least they would have saved some money getting rid of the Bellevue Library

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:03:00 AM wrote:
"then you have prime river front property in Blairmore, that would be worth a small fortune, in addition it would make the area much more attractive."

This is presented as a decision of Public Works with no suggestion of Council involvement. I'm all for Council NOT "micromanaging" everything, but they deal with issues a lot more micro than this.

Back when some people were taking seriously the $400,000 riverfront lots on the slackpile it didn't seem to occur to anyone that their view would be grungy industrial looking sites on the south side.

Council is working "behind the scenes" on a "Strategic Plan" - I guess this will not include anything like an "urban renewal" plan for the riverfront.

Anonymous said...

From reading this blog and others I have gathered the following impression of whats going on in the Pass.
At this point all council is doing is rearranging the chairs on the deck of the titanic. Bellevue library, moving Coleman shop to Blairmore, minor tinkering that will achieve little and save even less.
The vast majority of what the municipality spends our tax dollars on is wages and infrastructure. One is covered somewhat by grants the other by the tax base.
The municipality must first accept that there is a problem. Restructure the workforce to be more efficient and effective.
The largest step backwards to achieving this is the recent growth of the workforce. In my home of Calgary we are seeing Council (with Nenshi new comer that was going to change everything) talking about increasing the administration of the city by 150 people a year for the next 10 years at a cost of $300million.
Government mentality at all levels is wrong, major corporations get larger all the time and add very few staff, they find ways to do things more efficiently.
Some examples, better programs for tracking equipment usage and down time. Determine what equipment is working productivily for you and which is sitting all the time. GPS in all your municipal equipment would provide you with some interesting information and certainly make staff more accountable. Sit in one spot for more than 15 minutes and watch the number of pieces of municipal owned equipment go by.
Better scheduling of time off tied to the efficient operation of the municipality.
Better scheduling of operators during the winter months, so you are not paying overtime for the 128hours a week that it may snow and the employees are not working.
I have only been coming here for four years but its interesting talking to long term locals and I'm sure its probably common in most small towns, but 10% of your workforce is doing very little. Probably have not earned a honest paycheck in the last twenty years. The bad part of that is that it tarnishes the other 90%. The point being is if I know about this after being here such a short time why is administration not dealing with them?

You want to know why more people are not moving here? its the economy, real estate is in the toilet. During these times when people are being frugal they look at things like tax rates. Yes I am one of those whiney people that gets upset because I pay has much tax here for a home as I do in Calgary for a home that is only worth half of what my primary residence is.
Now I know that gap will not disappear in a year or two, but make it stop getting larger.

You new guys on council don't be like Calgary Nenshi and his cohorts campaigned about "change". In reality we got nothing new and a council that is considering a 23%tax increase over the next three years.

Gord

Anonymous said...

Gord said:

"You want to know why more people are not moving here? its the economy, real estate is in the toilet. During these times when people are being frugal they look at things like tax rates."

If real estate doubled, the tax rate would halve, assuming the same dollar municipal budget. In that situation I think buyers would be more concerned with the higher prices than the % tax rate.

Anonymous said...

10:38

I would agree some what with you except. If you check out the MLS site things are changing there are probably 30+ homes available below $150 K. Even at the high end prices are dropping.
But the reality is the real estate market is dropping every where. So then you get back to the issue of the two types of buyers that we attract here.

First the weekender they usually have the flexibilty and the financial where with all to get any where in western Canada. I recently read an article where developers on Vancouver Island are selling properties into the Calgary market. With the sales pitch that you can jump on a plane in Calgary and be at your Nannimo property faster than you can drive to Radium.

Second we have the coal miners most of whom are being hired from out of town. There are two types of those people. The group that are here for the four work days plus those that live here full time.

I was speaking to a home owner in Sparwood at the lesiure center who rents out three bedrooms in his basement to guys that were hired from Cranbrook in the last few months. They drive in early on their first day shift, sleep that night and then head straight home after the second day shift. Come back for their first nightshift sleep after that one and then head home right after their last night shift. These guys have homes in Cranbrook, and kids in school there that have no desire to relocate. They basically sleep away from home for two days a set. Two of these guys used to be truck drivers on the highway. They now spend more time than they ever did previously at home.

Then you have the miners that want to move here full time. Now you have the competition between the communities.

Families are going to look at amenities, schools etc. We do not have a lesiure center here, and without the tax base of the Elk Valley never will. But lets assume the resources are found to build a center here it will be 2013 at the earliest before it opens.
So a non factor for at least two years.

What else do people look at? the asthetics of the area Sparwood, Elkford, Fernie, Crowsnest Pass all beautiful places to live.

Proximity to work, we are never going to be closer than the Elk Valley to the mines. Simple choice for a new miner do you want to spend an extra 200 hours a year commuting to work?

Then you get down to other issues: taxes I can pay $2500 in the Pass for a $250,000 home or I can pay $1500 in Sparwood for the same home plus have all the amenities and a brand new high school.

Check our schools this fall to see how many families made the choice, of higher taxes, further to work and no amenities.

Gord

Anonymous said...

Gord, Do not forget the beautiful view in Sparwood.Nothing better than the plant steaming away all day.And the sound of the trains all day must be like music to their ears.Of course paying more in income taxes is always great.I bet they all love the HST too.Fueling up the car is so much better of course.Of course it is always nice to get out of town to see someone at the hospital.You are right Gord, sounds like a no brainer to me.

Anonymous said...

It kind of got off topic here. This is regarding the last couple of comments. Our house in Blairmore sold in about 3 weeks to a young family. The husband is working in Sparwood, but not employed by teck. My hubby worked in Sparwood, same deal, not for Teck. We chose the Pass 3 years ago because it was closer to Calgary (where we'd moved from) and we couldn't find a suitable house in Sparwood.
Why the new owners chose Blairmore instead of Sparwood, I don't know.

And on a different note, I chuckle when I read comments from people who own property both in the Pass and in Calgary and complain about the higher taxes in the Pass. I say, if you can afford to own 2 homes, you shouldn't complain about taxes. If it's such a hardship, sell one. There's an awful lot of people who can't afford .....blah, blah, blah...you know how it goes!

Anonymous said...

8:25 Wow you sold your house in Blairmore in ""3"" weeks was that this summer? I am impressed if so.
Did you give it away?

Anonymous said...

Well 2:04 I took the time to read your comments this morning, your little sarcastic rant about Sparwood. Nowhere in Gord's comments did he attack the beauty of the Pass, he stated.

"What else do people look at? the asthetics of the area Sparwood, Elkford, Fernie, Crowsnest Pass all beautiful places to live".

But you want to insult the town I have called home for the last 40yrs thats fine.
You are right we have that big coal plant that puts out steam all day long it also puts out $4 million a year to the town which allows us to have that big lesiure centre, real walking trails etc etc.
Lets look at the Crowsnest Pass: no big old coal plant in the middle of town to stare at his there?
Maybe play a round of golf and look at all those beautiful "historical" building at the east end of the course.
Should one turn their glance to the south and see those wonderful 52 acres of "future development".

Not to mention all those campers coming from the west you get to see that ever growing pile of junk out in Sentinel! keep heading west into Coleman whats the first thing you see to the North of the highway? another old industrial junk pile.
But never mind, just keep pulling your camper into Blairmore lets go camp at that campground across from the mall. Well shockingly there is "another" industrial wasteland.

Yes I pay a little more for gas, plus the HST but imagine how much I save by not travelling back and forth to the mine that extra hour per day. I'm sure it all balances out.

One more comment seeing we are talking about hospitals, when is that old piece of crap "another big tourist draw" coming down?

The next time you want to slam Sparwood look in your own backyard first.

Very proud of my Sparwood
Bill

Anonymous said...

Bill, My intent was not to slam Sparwood.It was to point out that all of our towns have advantages and disadvantages. Sparwood has a rec centre, CNP has a ski hill..etc.Gord was saying that it should be an easy decision to choose to live in Sparwood over the CNP.I disagreed with that opinion and stated a few things that are comparable.As you are proud of where you live I also am proud of where I live.

Anonymous said...

It was this summer that we sold the house. It was priced right, which was less than what we bought it for 3 years ago. But, when you have to move .....

TransparencyCNP said...

Bill's camper could have gone on to the motel next to an industrial junkyard, or a motel next to a lumber yard with temporary fencing and tattered tarps.
Then he would pass some well kept homes and renovated retail across the street from the derelict carwash with the coal trucks and the portable sign advertising cheap liquor.
Next he would come to the upgraded main street with the cutesy lamp posts and the nicely renovated historic hotel.
A few steps north he would find himself in junker alley by the decrepit motel.
Heading back west, he would pass some nice homes and offices, then the municipal yards, which have all the charm of an autobody shop in an industrial area. Such as FCC Collision in Frank Industrial. Oops, bad example. Like the muni shops, FCC is a rectangular industrial building with a garage door, but FCC has a few shrubs and a blue awning with matching trim, and they keep the junk out back where it isn't so noticeable. I should say FCC is a "Good Example".
I'm not against development or the businesses referred to, but the modern standard that people from other places are used to is to separate residential, industrial, main street, automotive/big-box, etc.

Anonymous said...

Dean

I hear that council has been meeting for most of the last two weeks up at the MDM. Did you hear whats going on? sure seems very hush hush??????

Also did you hear anything about how the public works guys reacted to the big move to the Blairmore shop???

Anonymous said...

The Crowsnest West consolidation did not take place yet!