Town of Sundre council has once again applied for mediation in a dispute with Mountain View County council, but county reeve Bruce Beattie says it's not necessary.
Oversized pipes were installed on the east side of Sundre to supply water and wastewater services to both town and county residents a few years ago.
Neither county council nor Sundre council can agree on the cost-sharing portion the county owes the town.
Both councils have been debating back and forth since 2008 and town officials have applied for mediation in the dispute at least three times.
The county is currently offering $357,205.53, but town officials are requesting $401,324.49.
“We don't see that there's anything to mediate because there was never an agreement to actually participate in the over sizing of the east side servicing,” said Beattie.
He feels the county was not part of the decision making process when Sundre council went through with the project.
“Our memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the town calls for each council to have an opportunity, well first of all to be consulted in terms of the project, and then to have an actual vote by each council to accept the project moving forward – and none of that happened in that project,” he said.
“Sundre chose to proceed without the required council motions to support such a significant capital expenditure.”
He believes the county's offer is fair, reasonable and well beyond the county's responsibility.
“We hope that the town recognizes that although no formal agreements or motions were put in place between our councils, the county is demonstrating good faith by restating the above offer,” he wrote in a letter to Sundre mayor Terry Leslie last month.
During a county council meeting in September, county council passed a motion not to contribute to costs ineligible for the Building Canada Funding grant or to pay 10 per cent of taxes from Tall Timber for both water and wastewater services provided to the park.
“In regards to denying the request for the 10 per cent payment of taxes for each water and wastewater the county is firm in its belief that those funds are to be paid solely for new development. Tall Timber is not new development,” Tony Martens, chief administrative officer for the county, wrote in a letter to Dave Dubauskas, the town's chief administrative officer, in September.
But town officials say the MOA between the town and county states: “as additional consideration for the town providing water and wastewater services to properties in the county, it is agreed that the county will pay to the town 10 per cent of the municipal taxes collected for any developments serviced with town water and 10 per cent for any developments served by town wastewater services”.
“Our agreement does not specify new developments, it says any developments and it is the position of Sundre council that we should adhere to the agreement as stated,” Leslie wrote to Beattie in September.
But county councillors believe otherwise.
“We concur that the agreement does not specifically state new development, however in the spirit and intention of that clause we believe it is for new development,” wrote Beattie.
The county also offered the town $304,000 in August of 2013, but town officials believed the county owed $756,504 at that time.
“Based upon independent engineering data and financial statements, the appropriate proportioning of all costs for the project and over sizing, the county share of 26 per cent of the total cost ($8,080,060) is $2,100,816. Net of the BCF grant ($5,170,430) the county share owing to the town is $756,504,” former Sundre mayor Annette Clews wrote in a letter to Beattie at that time.
Sundre council at that time passed a motion to take the next step in mediation under the MOA, however, it was later called off.
“The county has made a number of offers in recognition of a moral obligation,” said Beattie.
“We don't think it's appropriate for us to move forward with any kind of a mediation on an agreement that never existed.”
He wants to have a working relationship with the town and anticipates what will come out of an upcoming meeting with town officials on Dec. 16.
"We don't see that there's anything to mediate."Bruce Beattie, reeve MVC
