SUNDRE – Town council recently heard that the new subdivision in the municipality’s southwest is “progressing nicely.”
The update was one among numerous other departmental report highlights presented during a recent council meeting by Chris Albert, director of corporate services.
“The Brookside subdivision is progressing nicely,” said Albert.
The planning and development department had as of the end of October processed and issued 28 permits representing a total value of a little more than $6 million, he said.
In operations, Albert said the municipality’s upgrades to the underground infrastructure along the Main Avenue-Highway 27 corridor were on track.
“We’re happy to see that the highway is back open; we’re paused for the winter at the moment,” he said.
The temporary roundabouts installed in 2017 as a pilot project were removed earlier this fall and replaced with four-way stops in the interim until Alberta Transportation completes the overlay project with permanent concrete mini-roundabouts in 2024 and 2025.
Council heard the community peace officer had so far recorded 797 calls for service, including a bump in October that was related to traffic, he said.
The Sundre Fire Department was also anticipating the imminent arrival of a new unit that at the time of council’s meeting was still being assembled, said Albert.
“The new pumper truck is under construction; it’s looking pretty good,” he said, adding the delivery was expected by early December at the latest.
The unit is expected to be used extensively as the fire department had as of the end of October already responded to 285 calls for service, of which 63 were for medical first response with another 80 to provide medical assistance.
The next largest call volume was for motor vehicle collisions at 40 followed by grass or rubbish fires at 21 and no-fire alarms caused by mistaken steam or smoke at 20. The department had logged responding to four fires and five outside fires.
Meanwhile, the community services department has continued preparing the new permanent outdoor rink, although progress has been a bit delayed; not least of which as a result of a warm November.
Responding to a question from Coun. Owen Petersen regarding how the outdoor rink was coming together, Albert said the concrete pads were in place but added the boards would likely not be delivered before some time in early December.
Over at the Sundre Arena, the ice has been “booked solid” for weekend as well as nighttime use, he said.
Petersen informed his council counterparts and administration that he’d also heard some praise about a new playground.
“I got really good feedback about the new playground in Tall Timber,” he said, confessing to his colleagues that while he’d not yet personally seen the new playground, “I got a very happy call from a resident who was quite excited.”
Circling back to one of the departmental report highlights Albert had touched on regarding the fire department, Petersen asked for further elaboration on the distinction between medical first response and medical assist calls.
“If my math is correct, two of those types of calls constitute almost exactly half” of all the 285 calls for service responded to, he said.
“Could you clarify to me what those two things are?”
Albert said he would invite fire Chief Ross Clews to email members of council with a description outlining the difference between the two, but added that to his understanding, medical first response calls involve firefighters being the first emergency responders to arrive at the scene involving injuries when an ambulance crew is not immediately available.
“So they dispatch fire services instead to assess the situation, stabilize,” and provide initial response until EMTs arrive, he said.
Medical assist calls, on the other hand, pertain to situations when paramedics are on the scene but have requested the fire department’s presence to provide support with for example loading up a patient, he said.
Instead of asking the fire chief to email members of council, mayor Richard Warnock requested administration invite Clews to an upcoming meeting.
“I think we need the fire chief here so that he can explain how this works,” said Warnock. “I think he could send an email to all of us and we still would have questions.”
Council accepted the report for information.
