CARSTAIRS - At its regular council meeting on Sept. 23, council approved a motion to allow the town to purchase the Carstairs Community Golf Club.
CAO Carl McDonnell said the borrowing bylaw will allow the town to finish the purchase of the golf course.
"It was approved," said McDonnell. "The borrowing bylaw was for $410,000 to be paid back over five years."
The rest of the cost of the golf course ($300,000) came from the town's reserves, he said.
The town took over the course on Oct. 1. The sale was approved by club members at a meeting on Sept. 9 and then approved by town council that same evening at its regular council meeting.
In other council news, council approved amendments to bylaws at its regular council meeting on Sept. 23. Updated were the residential community standards bylaw, the industrial district standards bylaw, and the commercial district standards bylaw.
McDonnell said the updates were mostly dealing with terminology.
The bylaw now states that a weed means a wild plant that grows in an unwanted place and is usually of vigorous growth. Another addition is that owners must ensure that any graffiti that has been applied to their property is repaired/removed. If the graffiti is offensive it must be removed within 24 hours, otherwise it must be removed within one week.
"Under residential (community standards bylaw) and littering, when it comes to people who dump branches off at the dump where the grass is, that is now included under littering," said McDonnell.
Meanwhile, council approved the accounts receivables -- past due accounts policy No. 12-010-19, which amends policy No. 12-010-04.
"That gives us the ability to send things to collections a little bit sooner if required," he said. "Normally they get 45 days. So from 45 days, previously it was 105 days where we would be working with the person to get them to pay. If it looks like they won't pay after 45 days we can send them to collections rather than waiting for 105 days."
In other news, council heard a delegation from a young Didsbury resident, Elijah Grue, regarding the helmet policy at the Carstairs skate park.
McDonnell said Grue talked about the rule about wearing helmets at the skate park.
"He wanted us to change it to use at own risk as opposed to having helmets mandatory," he said. "We explained the liability aspect of it especially with minors and if someone were to get injured. It's similar to what we expect at the ice arena for public skating and anything like that. You have to wear a helmet for safety reasons."
McDonnell said that Grue gave a good presentation. However, the town would not change the rule.
Meanwhile, council passed in principle the 2020 Rates and Fees Bylaw, although there are some items that still need to be looked at, said McDonnell.
"We don't know what the water rates are going to be yet from the (Mountain View Regional) Water Commission," he said. "Our recommendation is that we not increase our rates but just what the water commission rate increase would be. Once we know that we'll be able to finalize that bylaw."
The rates and fees bylaw sees an increase from $21 per month per bin to $25 per month per bin for everyone for garbage collection and disposal.
"For garbage we're looking at a $4 a month increase," he said. "Now that one we're looking at as well because with recycling worldwide becoming an issue with a lot of that stuff going to the landfill instead of being recycled, we have to talk to our service provider to see which way they're going to go.
"If we find that more material is going to the landfill where we pay a fee for it there will be increases. If it looks like it'll stay the same we can put it lower to probably $23 per month but we're still working to try to find out what our costs are going to be for next year for disposal cost."
Elsewhere, council approved three motions regarding the special events bylaw.
"These were basically updated what we had previously," he said. "It was important to review all three. A lot of it refers to the website for information or to find applicable bylaws."
Meanwhile, council also approved a motion regarding the asset management plan.
"It used to be called the tangible capital asset," he said. "Now we've put it under the asset management policy and consolidated it with that policy."
The asset management plan includes schedule A, which is the capital asset plan, and schedule B, the facility components and inventory.
"Capital asset is basically all the infrastructure and facilities the town owns, whether it's roadways or sewers or buildings," he said. "What's the asset plan to replace those facilities and what's the cost and how do you put the money away to replace those. Schedule B looks at the components of that. Like at the arena, for example, you take the compressors, condensers and the hot water tanks and they are on a separate life cycle."
