Tall Timber Leisure Park, the huge 400-site RV park just east of the Town of Sundre, wants to connect to the municipality's new multi-million dollar east side water and waste water project but the town and Mountain View County are not expected to work out details, including cost and tenant pricing, until well into the new year.The chief administrative officers (CAO) for the Town of Sundre and Mountain View County have both confirmed they have been contacted by park officials about tying into the new service. Robert Faickney, manager of the park, was unavailable for comment as he is vacationing in Arizona and won't be back to the area until March, said staff at the resort's office.Tony Martens, the county's CAO, said his talks so far with parks officials have focused on what sort of provincial grants might be available for the park to reduce connection costs to Sundre's new system, which cost each of the town's east side property owners $7,000 to tie in before Nov. 15 and $15,000 after that date.He said no formal talks have been held yet with Sundre officials about how seasonal park residents, who now rely on well water, can tie into the new system.However, Martens said he expects the issue to be on the agenda for meetings with Sundre officials early in the new year.“From an administrative point of view I'm sure we would have talks with the town to provide this service to ratepayers,” said Martens, adding that if there is minimal cost to the county he sees no foreseeable problem with the county agreeing to move ahead to work towards an agreement with the Town of Sundre.“If there is no cost to the county why wouldn't we approve it? If there is then that is another story.”Martens said a number of issues must be worked out, including a payment system for tenants at the park and which jurisdiction will be responsible for payment collection. He added a decision would have to be made between parties on which municipality would be responsible for the collection of unpaid bills.In the meantime, the Town of Sundre has already made preparations for possible future dealings with Tall Timber on the east side servicing issue.Last Monday at a special council meeting, the town passed a motion to spend $390,153.29 for additional project work on the east side. Included in the overall cost was cleanup access to the Tall Timber park. Administration's letter to council also pointed out the expenditure was exclusive to service connection to the resort.Dean Pickering, Sundre's chief administrative officer, said while he has also talked to Tall Timber officials about a future tie-in to the new east side water and waste water system he has referred them back to the county.“They could tie in anytime they want but they have to go through the county,” said Pickering. “We don't have the ability to set price for servicing. That has to go through the county.”He said any future bill the town would create for either the county or Tall Timber park to service the 334 lots in its RV condominium subdivision would have to be an off-site calculation.Pickering said engineers for the town have created some “rough costs” figures for off-site servicing on the town's west side but nothing has been prepared for the east side, which would involve a different set of calculations.He said the town is working on a new off-site levy bylaw which should be ready for the public in 2013.
