Updates on three department plans and projects the municipality has been pursuing were postponed last week during council’s meeting.
While regular meetings are held on Monday nights, last week's was rescheduled to Tuesday, Feb. 5 to accommodate any members of council who wanted to attend the Alberta government’s open house on the Bighorn Country Proposal at the Royal Canadian Legion Sundre Branch #223. See the Gazette for coverage on that public consultation, which was heavily attended despite the bitter cold.
Three councillors — Todd Dalke, Paul Isaac and Richard Warnock — were unable to attend the Tuesday meeting due to scheduling conflicts, barely leaving a quorum with Mayor Terry Leslie and councillors Rob Wolfe, Charlene Preston and Cheri Funke.
Originally on the agenda were plans to hear the latest developments regarding high-speed broadband Internet, trails and pathways as well as the community gazebo that is to be built at the Greenwood Campground.
However, due to the three absences, the decision was made to hold off on the departmental reports until another meeting when as many members of council as possible would be present.
“The updates will come forward on February 19,” said chief administrative officer Linda Nelson.
Other business
In the meantime, council discussed a couple of bylaws and proceeded to pass a few motions.
The first was to give all three readings for the Boards and Committees Bylaw, which had previously been looked over by the Bylaw Policy Review Committee, whose recommended amendments were incorporated into the final draft, reads Nelson’s report to council.
The new document, she writes, will eventually replace all of the bylaws related to committees of council as well as outline the overall rules for committees in general. As well, the terms of reference for each committee will establish specific duties, mandates and functions to each committee.
Council unanimously approved the new bylaw.
First reading was also given for a bylaw to change the boundaries of an environmental reserve to rectify a parking lot encroachment.
“The southern portion of the IGA parking lot encroaches on town owned environmental reserve,” reads the administrator’s report, in reference to a 0.106-hectare piece of the parcel.
“This portion of land will be sold to the IGA proponents.”
While council had approved the matter in early 2017, the CAO reported that the Registrar of the Land Titles Office has since requested a revised bylaw to correct an error to address the boundary change, and that a subdivision application was required to create the 0.106-hectare parcel. Additionally, a revised bylaw to redesignate the parcel from Public Service District to Central Commercial District was necessary to address the proper designation for the parking lot.
Council carried the first reading for a bylaw related to the parking lot encroachment to approve the appropriate land use districts for the lands by correcting the error made in the bylaw approved in early 2017.
A public hearing was set — as is required per the Municipal Government Act in such matters — for Feb. 19 at 6 p.m. in council’s chambers.
