Mountain View County council continued 2015 budget deliberations at a meeting on Oct. 6, with the county's re-gravelling and chip seal programs on the agenda.
The operational services department is proposing changes to the service delivery standard and the delivery method for the re-gravelling program.
Currently the county spreads 222 tonnes per kilometre and operations would like to increase this to 275 tonnes per kilometre.
The result would be more gravel on the roads, which should lead to a better, more maintainable driving surface, department director Ron Baker said in a note to council.
Another change being proposed by operational services is increasing the number of trucks used for the re-gravelling program.
Currently the re-gravel crews are allocated five trucks for the program.
“From our experience delivering the 2014 program a minimum of eight trucks are required to deliver the program,” he said. “In 2015 operations is proposing delivering the gravel with eight contract trucks and utilizing a county loader, foreman and grader for the re-gravel program.”
The addition of 53 tonnes of gravel per kilometre and three trucks is forecasted to increase costs of the program by $548,028.
Mountain View County reeve Bruce Beattie said council will be considering the proposed changes as part of its deliberations.
“The discussion was around what our requirements will be and these proposals for increases to the program,” said Beattie.
The operations department is also proposing changes to the rechipping program.
The county currently has 808 kilometres of chip seal roads and 42.3 kilometres of subdivision roads to maintain, and service level for these roads is to have them chipped every seven years.
“Operations has proposed altering this service level to once every five years,” said Baker.
During the Oct. 6 budget meeting, councillors were also given a review of the county-owned inventory.
The county currently has 263 properties, 141 reserve properties, 58 zoned agriculture under 20 acres, 35 leased for agriculture, 23 airport properties and six recreational properties.
“That is an update to give us a better understanding of where our properties are in terms of some of our municipal reserves and lease land,” said Beattie. “There is some question about what should be our long-term plans for those lands that we hold. That's part of the discussion. That's part of discussion of assets and how do we deal with those assets.
“Those are the preliminary discussions. The question is, is it better to hold land as an asset or do you sell the land and then you have dollars in the bank?
“Personally, I don't think you can beat land as an investment. At this point we have no debt effectively as a county and we are able to keep tax rates at a reasonable level so there's no real reason to liquidate assets in order to generate cash.”
In a report to council, administration said, in part, that “controlling access and allocating hunting rights continues to be an issue for some lessees” and that there is increased pressure from community groups requesting use of Crown-owned land, such as agricultural societies, community associations, search and rescue groups, and land trusts.
During the Oct. 6 meeting, councillors also considered and rejected a proposal to spend $10,000 on re-siding of the former county shop in Sundre.
“The decision was not to proceed with the re-siding because it is our intention to dispose of that property. We don't want to put money into it because we think that it's not an asset that we are going to keep,” said Beattie.
The county will be moving forward with a proposal to spend $25,000 on monitoring the hydrocarbon contamination at the shop in 2015, he said.
Council also received a report from the agricultural services board regarding the board's small shop in Didsbury. Councillors asked for more information on the building to be brought back to a future budget meeting.
