DIDSBURY - Town council has approved the community participation policy, which is a process to deal with requests from local groups and/or individuals for financial support on community projects. The move came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
The information given to council states that the community partnership projects policy will offer a clear process for the Town of Didsbury to consider public recreation, parks and cultural partnership opportunities that would enhance current infrastructure and services in our community.
Projects can be both capital and operational in nature. The policy will establish a standardized process of application and review of projects through two different streams: large community projects and small community projects.
Mayor Rhonda Hunter said the idea for having such a policy came up last year.
"Council identified back in 2018 that processes were pretty much lacking that would have guided, for example, the skatepark project and a proposed splashpark, both of which are of interest and value to a wide variety of residents," Hunter said.
"The new policy was created to provide an application process that is open, transparent, fair and consistent, and we are happy to say that we now have that process in place."
The Town of Didsbury's recreation and culture survey has been completed and all the data tabulated. Council approved a motion to have council analyze the data and bring back a report at the June 25 regular council meeting.
The survey saw 420 valid responses. Unfortunately, staff noticed that there were 766 completed surveys from three IP addresses. Of those, 763 responses were removed, leaving only the first three responses from those IP addresses.
"When we noticed duplicate wording and the same word being misspelled on multiple responses, we checked the IP addresses," said Nicole Aasen, manager of community services. "This led staff to further investigate and two additional IP addresses were found to be submitting multiple survey responses."
Aasen said that council will be able to utilize the report to request updates to any current plans (such as the 2013 recreation and culture master plan and Didsbury Memorial Complex outlying plan).
"The information may also be used in any future planning and budgeting decisions that council make," she said.
In other council news, council approved entering into a mutual aid agreement with other municipalities in the Mountain View region for fire services. The agreement is for 10 years.
Council approved an expenditure of $4,725 including GST for appraisal of two properties in town: the old school site and the old fire hall.
The information given to council states that administration contacted two appraisal companies and have been given an estimate of $2,250 plus GST for each property. The price would include physical inspection and would be completed within three weeks.
Council approved the awarding of the sidewalk repair program contract to Collins Concrete, whose bid was the lowest at $57,537 plus GST.
Council accepted as information a review by administration regarding a hiring freeze.
The review includes hiring freeze parameters, which include identification and definition of essential and non-essential positions and when it is necessary to get approval for hiring a vacant position, a summary of an organization review that addresses efficiencies in staffing, and information on the creation of an economic development position into the existing organization chart.
"Administration has more work to complete a review of the organizational chart which will encompass all departments," said Amanda Riley, Town of Didsbury CFO.
