January 9, 2023, Regular Council Meeting Summary
There were 4 members of the public in attendance, and 14 people joined virtually, most of which were County employees.
-First Reading was given to Draft Bylaw 01-2024 Natural Gas Rates Bylaw, which is a bylaw to increase the County’s gas distribution rates.
-Council resolved to place the decision for sidewalk repair in the hands of Administration. Council already approved the budget, now Administration will determine the sidewalk repair plan.
-A couple of policies (202, 219) were rescinded simply because they were redundant.
-Policy 316 – Booking and Usage of Meeting Room and Council Chambers – Groups, businesses and organizations can book and make use of the meeting room and council chambers at no cost. They must receive prior authorization from the CAO. Only Joyce Pierce was opposed to this policy as she expressed concern about people abusing it and potentially carving their names into the desks.
-Long Lake Ski-Hill: Councillor Dafoe recused himself from this discussion due to pecuniary interest. A discussion was had regarding the ski-hill and what it would take to get it up and running. Carol Revega presented the background information and stated that it would require snow making equipment to run 24/7 for 14 days to create adequate snow. Our equipment cannot perform this task because it must be below -18 for the entire 14 days, plus its old, not on warranty, and likely couldn’t handle that. A 3rd party contractor could do it if the temp was -5 or colder, but it would cost more than $174,000. Therefore Council resolved to not open the ski-hill for the Jan-April portion of 2024.
-Tomorrow’s (Jan 10) Coffee with Council was cancelled and rescheduled to Jan 18 pending venue availability due to the expected poor weather.
-Council went into closed session, and when they came out, Council resolved to accept the CAO Performance Evaluation as presented
– The CAO also added another item to the agenda “Correspondence for Action” in the form of a letter received from the Thorhild Ag Society looking for support for the April 2024 Bullarama. The County will write a letter of support for hosting Bullarama in April 2024, and a letter to the ALGA stating that the Ag Society is authorized to obtain a liquor license for the event. Councillor Dafoe made note that adding to the agenda after coming out of closed session is unusual and a bad look. This does not contain every item covered in the meeting.
This summary does not include every item on the agenda.
View the meeting minutes here.
Listen to the meeting audio here.