The MD of Pincher Creek Number 9 Council met on Tuesday afternoon, March 27.
Ron Schmidt appeared before the Council regarding two matters.
Let There Be Kids
The first item Schmidt addressed was the upcoming "Let There Be Kids" documentary celebration, to be held on June 10. Click here for the story we ran about this event on March 15. Schmidt is a "Let There Be Kids" Pincher Creek committee member. He invited Council to attend the celebrations, and asked them to consider helping with food costs and supplies for the free-to-the-public event. "We would ask for your consideration in that matter," he said.
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| St. Henry's Church C. Davis photo |
Schmidt then addressed the issue of the proposed historic designation for St. Henry's Church, located near Twin Butte. He is the Chairman of the Historical Society of St. Henry's Church. A letter was sent to Bishop Henry about the matter last year. "Is the project still ongoing or has the council other projects that take priority?" he asked. "The church needs the MD support in order for the Bishop to approve support for the project."
"We're asking if there's been any more feedback from our friend Bishop Henry's office regarding the letter the MD has sent them," he clarified. "Is the historical program still ongoing?" Councillor Bjorn Berg said "I think the historical resources program is still ongoing."
Apparently the letter in question voicing the MD's support was sent in August of 2009, and there has been no response to it since that time.
"I don't know how to pursue this either," said Schmidt. "There are things that we'd like to do out there other than just routine maintenance."
"I think we've done our bureaucratic due diligence," said Councillor Berg. "It's in their ballpark now."
Councillor Terry Yagos moved that Council send a follow up letter to Bishop Henry, which was unanimously approved.
Director of Operations report
Director of Operations Leo Reedyk said that the ongoing Texas gate inspections were 90% complete
. "Overall they are in good shape," he said. "There are still the ones we knew about that are too small for the road."
Reedyk and the Council also discussed the Pincher Creek airport and its potential relationship to a Job Fair being proposed by the Town of Pincher Creek. The Voice will be publishing a story relating to that discussion soon.
Reedyk said MD crews have been checking and inspecting bridges and potentially frozen culverts.
According to Reedyk some issues with water licencing have arisen around the Regional Water initiative that were unexpected. Apparently the water licence for the aquifer in Lundbreck is not transferable. "Some question remains, he said. "Maybe we should keep that licence for watering the park."
Reedyk said that if the Castle River was chosen for the source-water for the planned new water plant a new licence would be required. He said the timeline for the project that was proposed to Council was "very doable."
Road Maintenance Policy 300 temporarily tabled
Council tabled the proposed new Road Maintenance policy in order to fine-tune the wording.
According to background information provided by the Public Works department, the MD maintains 1000 kilometres of roadways, using 8 graders, each with a specified route to cover. Most roads are re-gravelled every 3 years.
Weed Spraying subcontract discussed
Council debated the weed spraying contract, proposed to be handled by Volker Stevin.
Reeve Rod Zielinski asked "How do we write a weed notice and also be responsible for reinforcement while adding 10% to the taxpayer for administration fees? We're getting involved in weed spraying around the dam and I don't know where we're going to get all the employees to get it done. What is our mandate? Is it to spray everybody's weeds or provide enforcement to make sure it gets done?"
"The biggest issue is finding qualified staff," Reeve Zielinski continued. "I've had this discussion too many years in a row." Councillor Rod Cyr said "We can't always rely on schoolkids, we have to find people who will come back. It would be more in line to find people who know what they're doing or take an interest in it."
"The last motion on this was last year on July 12," Reeve Zielinski said. "At that time council decided not to sign another contract in the future with Volker Stevin." Documents indicate that the significant issue at that time was "that Volker Stevin was adding a 15% Administration fee to our invoice before passing it on to Alberta Transportation for payment." That fee was since reduced to "less than 10%". Apparently Alberta Transportation has heard concerns about this issue from other jurisdictions.
The discussion was tabled until the next meeting of Council, to be held Tuesday, April 10.
Final Mile Rural Connectivity discussed
Council discussed a Provincial Government initiative designed to provide high speed internet services to rural households that don't have it. Municipalities and internet industries were invited to submit an application to be considered for funding by March 31, 2012.
Unfortunately for those in the MD of Pincher Creek who are experiencing internet connectivity issues, the initiative applies only to those with less than 1.5 Mbps* service. Most customers within the MD be receive somewhat faster service than that, making them ineligible for the initiative.
"We have to have a partnership with a provider to get the grant," said Lou Reedyk. "And we would have to be a major shareholder of any subsequent infrastructure for five years. Tough Country is already providing a service above the minimum level. I don't believe there's a business case to be made for it."
Councillor Helen Cyr pointed out that the expiry date on applying for funding was March 31, making it unlikely the MD would have time left to even consider it.
*Note: That means a service that allows for less than 1.5 mega-bytes of information transferral per second. To put that into perspective, I ran an internet speed test on my own machine, which is connected to a high-speed service, arguably the fastest connection you can get in the Town of Pincher Creek on a busy Friday afternoon. It reported an average speed of 20.87 Mbps. 5 years ago 1.5 Mbps would have been considered adequate (but barely) for most internet users. With the higher demands of internet users today it is generally considered to be a substandard level of service.
(You can test your internet speed at this handy link: http://speedtest.shaw.ca/run)
DU Ranchlands Log Cabin needs a new roof
According to the DU Ranchlands Corporation, their Log Cabin is in need of restoration and repair, in particular to the roof of the structure. The cabin was designated a Municipal Historic Resource in 2009, which means it "cannot be destroyed, disturbed, altered, restored or repaired other than with the written approval of Council or a person appointed by Council".
Councillors Helen Cyr and Bjorn Berg indicated that the Council should not be responsible for filling in the application. Council decided to suspend a decision until the completed application is brought back for their approval.
Proposed road allowance closure requires Public Hearing
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| From MD documents. The dotted rectangular line is the road allowance in question. |
Mill Rate set for 2012
The 2012 Mill rate passed second and third readings, and was carried unanimously by Council. The mailing date to ratepayers is anticipated to be May 1, 2012.
The estimated municipal expenditures and transfers for the MD of Pincher Creek No. 9 for 2012, not including Provincial School and Pincher Creek Foundation requisitions totals $19,905,200.00. Revenues and transfers from all sources other than taxation for 2012 is estimated at $11,958,860.00. The balance, $7,946,340.00 is to be raised by general municipal taxation.
Requisitions:
Alberta School Foundation Fund
- Residential/Farm Land - $1,198,934.93
- Non Residential - 1,092,726.76
- Opted Out School Boards
- Residential/Farm Land - $93,657.10
- Non Residential - $7,115.51
Pincher Creek Foundation - $300,764.00
Assessed property valued in the MD of Pincher Creek No. 9:
- Farmland - $58,909,000
- Residential - $456,410,510.00
- Non Residential - $290,756,760.00
- Machinery and Equipment - $198,361,500.00
- Electrical Co-Generation - $338,352,230.00
- Total: $1,342,790,000.00
Rates of taxation for 2012:
General Municipal
- Farmland - 5.5221
- Residential - 4.0498
- Non Residential, Machinery and Equipment, Electrical Co-Generation - 6.9763
Alberta School Foundation Fund and Opted-Out School Boards
- Farmland/Residential - 2.5082
- Non Residential - 3.7827
Senior Citizens Foundations - 0.2240
The minimum amount payable as property tax for general municipal purposes shall be $20.00 per parcel.
These rates became effective upon the aforementioned third and final reading of the Bylaw.
Census
The municipality will conduct its own census for 2012/13. Funds budgeted in 2012 equal $75,000.00 with the expressed strong likelihood that some funds will need to be carried over into the 2013 budget.
The census is expected to be undertaken between November 2012 and February 2013.
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