Nov. 12 was the first official council meeting of the newly elected council. Councillors did meet Oct. 28 for an organizational meeting but last week's was the first chance for the new members to get down to business.
Mayor Dennis Cooper said there was “great discussion” and during the roundtable talks, a few new ideas were presented.
“There was discussion on how we pick people for committees,” explained Cooper. He said it was decided that council would now like to see all of the applications for a particular committee instead of just receiving recommendations from administration.
As well, council lobbied to have the heat turned on in the arena during the Red Deer College Kings' hockey games at the multiplex. He said a number of the new councillors have attended the Kings' games and said it was quite cold which prompted a motion to heat the arena during those games.
Winterizing Penhold begins
Crews in Penhold are busy winterizing various parts of the community now that Mother Nature has brought the white stuff to Alberta. Council learned last week that snow removal began in the town on Nov. 4.
“We had such a bad jump into winter and we had a number of streets with a lot of ice because of how it came,” explained Mayor Cooper, who said because the ground was still warm, when cars starting driving overtop, the snow quickly compounded and formed into ice. He said crews have been doing a “great job” sweeping and putting more sand out on roads to make it safer to drive.
Council also learned that alleys were graded before the snowfall and the sander has been mounted on the one-tonne for the season. Sand and gravel have been stockpiled and crews are ready to handle the winter season.
Work continues on inspection report
Council will be taking a serious look at the municipal inspection review come the new year. The review was ordered by the province following a petition last year by Penhold resident Ken McCarthy who successfully collected the necessary number of signatures of more than 20 per cent of Penhold's population.
Cooper said the review came with 64 recommendations. In addition, council has to send monthly reports to the minister of Municipal Affairs on its progress. A receipt of the most recent letter was included in the council package.
Cooper said the most recent letter sent to Edmonton explains that administration has gone through the code of conduct with councillors and completed the organizational meeting.
“We will look at the review package in January … and create an action plan to move forward with,” he said.
Currently the new councillors are getting familiarized with the budget. Last week, councillors were walked through the budget process and told how the town receives and spends money. More discussions are slated for Nov. 28 and Dec. 3.
