In The News

 By Marianne Cole

New Reeve/Deputy Reeve 

Special congratulations to our new Reeve Cammie Laird and Deputy Reeve John Vandermeer. They were chosen by their Council colleagues at their re-organizational meeting on Tuesday, October 27th. We look forward to working with them in the year to come.

Meeting with County Administration 

 On Friday, October 30th six members of the CCTA Board met with CAO Rick Emmons; Murray Hagan, Director of Corporate Services; and Keith McRae, Director of Planning and Development. The almost three hour long meeting provided excellent information and great open discussion on 3 main issues:

MDP Review 

 This has been a major concern for the CCTA as it has seemed that many people are not only unaware the review is taking place, but also don’t know what some of the major suggested changes might be (i.e. allowing 3-4 subdivision parcels out of a quarter with options for sizes greater than 5 acres per parcel).

Administration presented written information reviewing all their efforts to publicize this issue through a special edition newsletter, local newspapers, radio, and social media. Throughout August and September people were encouraged to submit written comments, with a total of 55 received. The results of those are being compiled and will be presented to Council later in November. To alleviate our concerns that open public meetings are necessary we were reassured that staff is investigating both virtual open houses and traditional in person meetings.

Broadband Project 

 As reported in our last Beacon, the County is proceeding with a pilot project to put fibre optic cable into the Ferrier area in an attempt to improve broadband connectivity. Our concerns had focussed on the lack of a business plan with projected costs and potential revenues, as well as questions related to the involvement of local internet service providers (ISP’s). In response to those concerns we were told it is difficult to do a business plan before doing a pilot project. Also we were told that local ISP’s have attended public meetings as well as made presentations to Council. Upon completion of the pilot project ISP’s will have the opportunity to access the County’s fibre optic network.

 Regional Governance 

This is a very concerning issue that could see the joining of the town of Rocky, the Village of Caroline and Clearwater County into one governing body. In order to assess the benefits/disadvantages of such a move, a consultant will be hired and there will be a financial audit and service review conducted. In addition, a committee of representatives from each of the town, county, and village has been struck. The representatives from the County on that committee are Reeve Laird and Deputy Reeve Vandermeer.

County residents have expressed concerns over the fact that our reserves could go to fund the town’s debt and that some of the linear tax we collect from the oil industry (established to cover additional road maintenance costs due to heavy equipment usage) may go to fund the Town’s budget. We will continue to watch these developments and we were assured that public open houses will be held to gather public opinion. WE WILL KEEP YOU IN THE LOOP!!

AGM 

Our CCTA Annual General Meeting will be held on Monday, November 9th at 7:30PM at the Arbutus Community Hall. We will be electing our Executive and Board Members and we really encourage/welcome new member to not only join our organization but also run for office. We could certainly use some younger faces to join the gray-haired “oldies”!!!

Smiles for November: 

What do you call a pig that does karate??? Pork chop.

What has four wheels and flies??? A garbage truck.

What do you call a sleeping bull??? A bulldozer.

Coming Events: 

Monday, November 9, 2020, 7:30 PM, Arbutus Community Hall, Our AGM

January meeting date to be determined at AGM

Note: We do not have a meeting in December.