During last week's council meeting, councillors approved a policy setting out the connection fee for water and wastewater on the east side of Sundre.
Policy #415 outlines requirements surrounding connection to the water and wastewater infrastructure provided north of Highway 27 and east of the Red Deer River.
Water and wastewater services will become available to the properties adjacent to the services installed in 7 Street N.E., in 1 Ave. N.E. from 7 Street N.E. to 11 Street N.E., in 9 Street N.E., and in 11 Street N.E. within the next two years.
The policy states, in part, that “a connection fee of $7,000 will apply to each property. This fee is reflective of the current costs associated with the services provided which includes administration, contingency, engineering and GST.
“This policy creates a clear expectation for the property owners and town personnel regarding the connection to municipal water and wastewater services on the east side of Sundre within a specific area,” said CAO Ryan Leuzinger.
“The fee to connect to the water and wastewater infrastructure is subject to change to reflect the current economics of our community.”
The ‘connection parameters section' states that the town will not require the adjacent properties, outlined in this policy, to connect to the water and wastewater infrastructure immediately or within a specified time frame.
Under the policy, the requirement to connect to the infrastructure will occur under numerous conditions, including “if the owner of a property applies for, and is approved, a change of the land use zoning designation; if redevelopment of 75 per cent or more of the property occurs; if the owner applies to have a septic system or water well installed.”
Councillors say no to franchise fees
Councillors have passed a motion that the town not charge a franchise fee through FortisAlberta to residents.
A proposal to have Fortis collect a one per cent fee on the average power bill, with the $12,165 revenue returned to town coffers.
“The Town of Sundre has opted out of authorizing a franchise fee for a number of years past. The proposal comes forward to council every year as an opportunity to increase the Town of Sundre's revenue without increasing taxes,” said Leuzinger.
Coun. Patricia Toone, who called the fee another form of taxation, put forth a motion for a fee of zero per cent. That motion passed, with Coun. Paul Isaac voting against.
Seniors' housing motion passes
Council has approved a recommendation that Mountain View Seniors' Housing become a not-for-profit corporation and registered charitable organization.
In September 2011, the regional CAOs began an examination of the present governance structure of Mountain View Seniors' Housing at the request of the MVSH board.
The regional CAOs conducted the review and provided recommendations through a report. It is the MVSH board that must make the change to the governance structure of the organization if they choose.
The MVSH board met on Sept. 22 and recommended the structure be changed to a not-for-profit corporation and a registered charitable organization.
All other municipal partners in MVSH must also approve the not-for-profit and charitable organization policy change.
Appearing before council, Mountain View Seniors' Housing CAO Sam Smalldon outlined the organization's new vision and mission statement for council.
The organization has set out four main goals: sustainability, leadership, staff development and facilities management.
The sustainability goal includes a review of current governance model and alternatives, developing a long-term capital plan, and communicating the strategy to all levels of government.
The leadership goal includes developing government and industry partners.
Committees suspended following review
Town councillors have suspended a number of committees that have served their function and are now redundant.
The committees in question are public works committee, the media, communications and public relations committee, the facilities committee, the Parks and Trails and Open Spaces committee, the business and residential eastside servicing committee.
“The governance committee reviewed the requirements of the above committees during the Sept. 6 governance meeting and agreed with administration's recommendation to suspend the committees,” said CAO Leuzinger.
Deputy mayor schedule OK'd
Councillors have set out a schedule for the appointment of the deputy mayor over the next year.
Paul Isaac, followed by Michael Baird, Patricia Toone, Chris Vardas and Tony Jordon for six-month terms, will hold the deputy mayor position.
The deputy mayor acts as the chief elected officer in the mayor's absence.
Seniors' housing committee appointments
Councillors have OK'd the appointment of residents Glynn Westcott and Tom Boucher to the Seniors Housing Committee.
“As a result of community seniors' discussions hosted by the Town of Sundre in the first half of 2011, a group of stakeholders were invited by the Town of Sundre to meet on Sept. 7 to discuss seniors' housing needs in the community. The result of that meeting was to create a committee that would investigate housing options for the Sundre community,” said Leuzinger.
The committee will be working closely with Mountain View Seniors' Housing and other stakeholder groups to address future senior housing needs.
Strategic plan in the works
Work is ongoing on the Sundre town council strategic plan, Leuzinger told councillors.
“The plan sets out the goals and objectives of the council that is sitting right now,” he said. “
The guiding document is non-binding that can be used by administration “when we are looking at initiatives that we are bringing before council. It gives us some guidance on where council would like to see taxpayers' dollars spent.”
A draft of the plan could come before council this fall for consideration, he said.
Data storage upgrade OK'd
Council has given the OK for administration to purchase a unit to upgrade the town's computer storage system for $8,000.
“The town has been experiencing computer outages due to drive failures. The town's data storage needs are growing faster than drive capacities will allow, given we only have one drive bay for data.
A RAID (reluctant array of inexperience disks) allows us capacity for growth and is simple to expand – simply add a new drive to the array when you run out of room. In addition, inevitable drive failures will interrupt the workday far, far less as the RAID largely repairs itself when failures occur.”
Last month the town experienced several computer shutdowns due to drive failures. This caused staff to be unable to work efficiently and in many cases such as front desk, utilities and payables, which mainly perform data entry, were unable to work at all, he said.
“As well, during computer downtimes administration is unable to assist most customers,” he said.
