CREMONA - The Village of Cremona’s search for a new chief administrative officer (CAO) is going well and expected to be completed by early next month, says mayor Tim Hagen.
Former CAO Rudy Friesen has moved on to become CAO of the Town of Bowden.
The CAO is the municipality’s top paid employee, overseeing the operations of the village.
“We are in negotiations with a person right now,” said Hagen. “Depending on when we get the contract done and signed, I’m hoping three weeks or a month to have the new person in place.
“We’ve had some really good resumes from people and had some really good interviews. It does look good.”
The village’s corporate services coordinator is the acting CAO pending the hiring of a new permanent person.
Franchise fee reduced
Meanwhile, during last week’s council meeting councillors passed a motion reducing the ATCO gas franchise agreement fee from 25 per cent to 23 per cent for 2023 to assist residents dealing with increased costs of living.
“We are trying to help people out a little bit,” he said. “We are hoping that we get basically the same amount of money as we did last year because the price of (natural) gas is going up.”
This year the village is expected to bring in about $41,000 from the franchise fee.
The village has signed a new joint use and planning agreement with Chinook’s Edge School Division. The move also came by way of motion.
Under the five-year agreement, the school division and the village have agreed to permit the use of Cremona School facilities and village-owned facilities by students and members of the public in accordance with the terms of the agreement, their respective policies regarding such use, and any user agreements required by either of them.
The school principal or designate will act as booking agent for all bookings of the school and the manager of parks and recreation of the village will act as the booking agent for all bookings of the facilities.
“Persons and groups using the school shall be responsible for supervision of themselves,” the agreement states. “Such supervision shall be provided by an individual that has been identified to the school and the school shall approve of the supervision prior to the use of the school.”
Under the updated provincial Municipal Government Act, joint use and planning agreements are required between municipalities and school boards.
Council also voted to approve the extension of the 2022 farmers market until Oct. 2.
