IN THE NEWS

By Marianne Cole

Election results 

Special congratulations to our newly elected councillors: Division 1: Gennifer Mehlhaff; Division 2: Sydney Graham; Division 3: Daryl Lougheed; Division 4: Jordan Northcott; Division 5: Neil Ratcliffe; Division 6: Bryan Cermak; Division 7: Michelle Swanson.

At their re-organizational meeting on Monday, October 25th, Daryl Lougheed was elected Reeve and Jordan Northcott, Deputy Reeve.

From comments made during the election campaign as well as during their first council meeting, it seems that our council is very dedicated and enthusiastic about working towards fiscal responsibility and transparency. We wish them the best in their endeavors.

MDP Review 

This item of business will be one of the priority items as the new council begins their duties. It was last discussed by the former council at their September 28, 2021 meeting. At that time the Planning Department presented a summary of the comments they had received and indicated that there was about a 50-50 split among those that supported/those that opposed the MDP draft. This is distinctly different than the break-down of the comments we, as the CCTA, have heard.

Consequently, at our last meeting on October 20th a motion was passed that we complete a FOIP (Freedom of Information & Privacy) request asking for copies of all written comments that the Planning Department had received on this matter. We should be receiving that information by November 20th. We will then review/tabulate those results and report our findings.

Broadband 

Work is progressing on installing fibre optic cable to Ferrier, Nordegg, and down to Sundre. In spite of significant questions about the need for Clearwater County to spend potentially unnecessary dollars to install fibre optic cable all the way to Olds, that work is still continuing as well.

Along with the above work, renovations are also currently underway on a “Point of Presence” building in Rocky. A former workshop in the same yard as the Emergency Services office building is being renovated to be used as a “hub” for broadband operations.

While all this work is being done, there is still no business plan outlining overall costs and potential income/funding from broadband operations. This has been asked for repeatedly by our former council and was mentioned again by the new council at their first meeting on October 26th. Again, the reply was that this financial information is being gathered/worked on and will be available soon.

Leslieville Training Facility

The Leslieville Fire Training Facility was completed late this summer and is pictured here. While the original budget was estimated at $500,000, the 2021 capital budget for this project was $770,000. The costs incurred to date are $613,000. Groundwork still has to be completed and the proposed 2022 draft budget for that is $680,000 but it has yet to be approved by council. $30,000 was recently received from TC Energy in support of this project and talks are continuing with a potential third party contributor. There is approximately $484,000 available in the restricted surplus account to also help cover costs, with the remainder coming from tax revenue.

Historically, our firefighters have gone to a similar facility in Red Deer for training at an approximate cost of $4,800.00 per year. In assessing the value of having our own facility that might have a total construction cost of $1,293,000, it could take 260+ years to recoup those costs, (not including the yearly maintenance) at the yearly Red Deer training rate.

Annual General Meeting 

Our CCTA Annual General Meeting will be held on November 17, 2021 at 7:30PM at the Arbutus Community Hall. We encourage/urge everyone to attend and we would love to welcome new members to our board. An invitation has also been extended to our new council to attend/speak as well. WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE.

Coming Events: 

November 17, 2021, 7:30PM, Arbutus Community Hall, Annual General Meeting

January 19, 2022, 7:30PM, Regular Monthly Meeting