Once again a disagreement between Town of Sundre council and Mountain View County council on water and wastewater servicing has sparked mediation.
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 Sundre council nor county council can agree on the cost-sharing portion the county owes the town.
Both councils have been debating back and forth for several years 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.
During last week's Sundre council meeting, council passed a motion to seek assistance of a mediator to resolve the dispute. Council also passed a motion to present that motion to county officials during an upcoming meeting on Dec. 16.
Mayor Terry Leslie was hesitant to take the next step in mediation with the county, as having a working relationship with the county is important to him.
“I don't necessarily take the same position as some of my council colleagues because I didn't go through four years of this,” he said.
“But we're now at a point where we've re-examined things and we've looked at them in as logical and rational a method as we can find and we're trying to adhere to agreements that we have,” he explained.
“And so respectfully if we are at an impasse, and I think we are, we have in that Memorandum of Agreement a dispute mechanism that we go to and that's what we're saying we're doing.”
Chief administrative officer Dave Dubauskas recommended council take the next step in mediation with the county.
He believes the county is responsible for a certain percentage of the east side servicing project.
“If we went ahead and built it just for the town it would cost X amount of dollars, but because we oversized it in anticipation of the county hooking up to it, that increases the cost,” noted Dubauskas.
County reeve Bruce Beattie believes the county was not part of the decision making process when Sundre council went through with the project. He says mediation is not necessary because there was never an agreement in place.
“If either of our councils start down the road of making decisions according to our beliefs rather than the carefully considered terms of our agreement, we will do disservice to all ratepayers we represent,” Leslie wrote in a letter to Beattie in September.
“Do our councils want ratepayers to miss another construction season because our councils wallow in red tape discussions, interpretations and indecision? Or can we agree unconditionally to terms requested based on a long-standing agreement between our councils?”
County council passed a motion in September 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, which town officials are requesting.
The Memorandum of Agreement between the town and the county states: “the county will be responsible for all costs associated with the infrastructure and over sizing required to connect into the town water and wastewater systems”.
“Sundre council interprets ‘will be responsible for all costs associated with the infrastructure and over sizing' to mean all costs – not just those eligible for Building Canada Funding,” said Leslie.
The Memorandum of Agreement also 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”.
The county 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 mayor Annette Clews wrote in a letter to Beattie.
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 and town were also in mediation in 2010 regarding the same issue.
