A Summary of today’s council meeting:
There was approximately 35 members of the pubic in attendance for today’s meeting, which was wonderful to see!
-The Emergency Services bylaw came back with more ammendments and was able to receive first reading today with the ammendments from last week, with one change added today regarding ATV use during fire restrictions/fire bans. Councillor Trevor Dafoe and Councillor Richard Filipchuk very determinedly expressed that on a farm, off-road vehicles are critical pieces of equipment and not a “recreational” item, therefore the bylaw should state that during a fire restriction or fire ban, ATV use will be limited to private property and not allowed on public lands
-Related to this, Ron Costain had a delegation requesting either forgiveness or an extension on his February fire invoice. Council opted to extend it for an additional 60 days
-Radway Post Office – The majority of surveys came back showing a preference for the installation of community mailboxes in Radway (rather than moving PO Boxes to Redwater). CAO Maier stated, however, that he is hoping that it is a moot point as Canada Post is currently reviewing an application from a private business owner in Radway to run the post office. He recommended that council direct administration to forward the survey results to Canada Post. When asked if a deadline has been provided by Canada Post on the decision, the CAO said none has been provided.
-Members were assigned to the Assessment Review Board
-A discussion was had regarding the burned/unusable bridge on RR214, and the options to pursue for rectifying the bridge damage. Several options were discussed including closing it entirely, replacing it with a bridge culvert, and total replacement. All the councillors expressed that it is a busy road/bridge and that it should not be closed. STIP grant applications are available in November so we will apply for a grant for bridge repair. Reeve Pierce also said that we have 17 bridges that need repair or replacing in the next 5 years and that we also need to look at which ones were already in the queue for 2024
-A wonderful presentation was put on by Jodie Foster on behalf of TCRU in a delegation to Council. It was very clear and extremely informative on the ongoing Waste Management issue of the possibility of switching to a single liner.
It is very clear that Jodi and other members of the community have been keeping their thumb on the pulse of this landfill for a decade now. Although this may seem like it is only impacting a few, this is an issue that actually affects everyone in the community. Even if you are not situated anywhere that potential contaminants could leach to, your neighbours are.
In the ongoing goal of us all being one VOICE, we must continue to support what affects our neighbours. Inform. Engage. Empower. If Jodi or any other member of TCRU could share with this group the excellent presentation including her transcript, that would be a tremendous help to informing the whole community, and getting more people engaged and as empowered as what we saw from Jodie today.
Kudos!