IN THE NEWS:

County’s New Land Development
Plans are now proceeding with developing the county’s newly purchased land north of Rocky.  Some of the highlights of recent decisions include:
“Clearwater County recently engaged Pivotal Project Management and WSP Engineering to assist with the design and conceptual planning…” (CC news release, October 22)
Plans include, “40,000 square feet of shop space, and 30,000 square feet of office space as well as a 20 acre operations yard.”  (The Mountaineer, October 27)
Pivotal Project Management is the project management division of WSP. It is headquartered in Toronto but has offices in Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary.  Information on their web-site describes large urban developments they have been involved with but no rural projects were listed.
WSP is the re-branded name of Genivar and is headquartered in Montreal.  It does have an office in Rocky.  According to their web-site WSP specializes in infrastructure planning, design, program/construction management, operations and maintenance.
As reported in the Mountaineer the overall cost of this project is estimated to be $18million.  This is in addition to the purchase price of $1.2 million for this bare quarter of productive farmland.  We will keep you up-dated on further happenings as they occur.

County’s Communications Committee
A draft frame of reference for the county’s communications committee was presented to council on October 27.  In the accompanying information some interesting figures were given regarding age distribution and social media/internet usage.  Noted highlights were:
64.3% of Clearwater County’s residents are over the age of 35.  (Pre 1945--- 13.2%; 1945-1960--- 24%; 1961-1980--- 27.1%) This includes the majority of county taxpayers, those who are still actively working as well as those who are retired. 
Concerning social media, data provided shows that on the county’s site on October 20, 2015 there were 959 Twitter users and 967 Facebook followers.  Each of those numbers represents about 8% of the county’s 12,000 population.
Of the internet service providers that visitors to the county website used, 27% used Telus, 16% used Shaw Communications, and 12% used Comtech.  CCI, Xplornet, Bell, Service Alberta, and Harewaves were each used by less than 5% according to figures provided by Google Analytics.
      It would be very interesting, and perhaps a useful tool, for a survey to be done to determine if technology provision is an area of concern for the majority of taxpayers as well as a desired use of taxpayer dollars.
Roses:  A huge bouquet of roses goes out this month to our local emergency first responders.  They willingly give of their time and efforts to provide us with a variety of necessary services, often in the face of severe tragedy.  Not only do they themselves selflessly volunteer, but their families are also impacted by our responders’ involvement.  We sincerely want to recognize and thank all of them for their dedication, expertise, compassion, and unbridled service to our community.

Rant:  This month’s rant focusses on the 3 T’s---transparency, truth, and trust. Just as the 3 R’s have long been touted as the basics of sound education, the 3T’s must become the foundation for solid government.  Regardless of the level of government, elected representatives are responsible to their electorate and as such should be expected to provide them with open, complete (transparent), and truthful information concerning all operations and activities.  This should be a reasonable expectation for those funding the bills, the taxpayers.  Only when there is an atmosphere of truthful transparency accorded the people can they reciprocate with due trust in their representatives. 

Coming Events:
Thursday, November 12, 7:00PM, Leslieville Elks’ Hall, CCTA Annual Meeting.  Guest speaker, Don Bester, President of the Alberta Surface Rights Group speaking on oil lease concerns.

Thursday, January 14, 2016, Regular monthly meeting.  7:00PM Leslieville Elks’ Hall