Highlights from the March 4 meeting
Foothills Lodge sale concern
In reviewing and approving correspondence to the municipality, Coun. Cheri Funke expressed a concern regarding an update on the sale of the former Foothills Lodge, a provincially-owned building that was operated by Mountain View Seniors' Housing, which will continue to act as caretaker until the structure is sold.
“When they first started the discussions about selling it, it was stated that the proceeds would stay within our community,” said Funke.
“Now, the majority of the funds, they say, will stay in Sundre, but not all. They can use them for other facilities in the region. Why is that changed, and why did we allow it?”
Coun. Richard Warnock said that suggestion stemmed from the notion that all of the municipalities had supported Sundre’s new seniors' lodge in the southwest, and that the proceeds should in turn be spread back out.
“It was spoken that when the funds do become available, that there will be a plan put together through the Mountain View Seniors' Housing administration to the board, and we’ll definitely be able to speak for or against at that time,” he elaborated.
Council carried a motion to accept the correspondence for information.
Land sale process initiated
The municipality was approached with a request to purchase a roughly 0.03-acre parcel of town-owned land near Prairie Creek. The land, located immediately west of Third Street southwest just south of the back lane, would be subdivided and consolidated with an adjacent lot for development purposes.
The request was initiated by Bemoco Land Surveying Ltd. on behalf of Strathmore Lakes Estates, according to documents in council's agenda package.
As prescribed under the Municipal Government Act, council directed administration to begin with a legal process that includes an appraisal to determine the property's fair market value, said Linda Nelson, chief administrative officer.
CAO goals approved
Council carried a motion setting goals for the municipality’s chief administrative officer for 2019 and beyond.
Included among the eight priorities outlined are to: work with engineers on initiating a grant process for the sewage lagoon; continue working on sub-agreements in the inter-municipal collaboration framework; collaborate with emergency management to ensure the completion of a Community Emergency Management Program by 2020; as well as continue working with the Eagle Ridge developer; research historical information on the Aquaplex to facilitate discussions moving forward; and to pursue deployment of broadband infrastructure in tandem with the economic development department.
Funding donation requests
Nelson told council the municipality receives several funding requests every year. With the impending creation of the grants review committee, Nelson recommended forwarding three submitted funding requests once the new committee is officially formed.
“All requests for funding of any type should go to the committee before being approved by council,” she said.
Council unanimously carried a motion to that effect.
Board and committee changes
Nelson informed council that due to overburdened life schedules, two members of the Downtown Area Revitalization Committee — Leonna Bennett and Cindy Orr — submitted resignation letters with regret. Council unanimously approved administration’s recommendation to accept the resignations.
Nelson also said the Sundre Municipal Library Board’s chair, Anton Walker, sought council’s approval to appoint a new member. Council unanimously carried a motion appointing Wendy Botheras as a library trustee for a three-year term.
Highlights from the Feb. 19 meeting
Gas and carbon monoxide
As a requirement of being a member of the Federation of Alberta Gas Co-ops Ltd., the Town of Sundre’s gas distribution utility must approve and adopt the organization’s operations and maintenance guidelines, integrity management program and Alberta Agriculture and Forestry’s rural utilities branch quality management plan.
Jim Hall, operations manager, said a 2015 operation and maintenance audit passed with flying colours “due to the hard work of my gas guys.” Four years later, he said the online “living document” required re-approval.
“The review board constantly makes revisions from training and what have you departments. So we have to stay on top of that,” he said.
Coun. Todd Dalke moved for council to approve the municipality’s integrity management plan as well as the rural utilities branch quality management plan as presented, which following some discussion unanimously carried.
Coun. Cheri Funke inquired whether the Town of Sundre, as the local gas distributor, responds — as per regulations — to every gas leak call, or whether the Sundre Fire Department is called out.
“Depends on how 9-11 goes out,” said Hall.
“We are trained in carbon monoxide investigations,” he said, adding the gas department has the equipment needed to detect such leaks.
“We’ve had some close calls in this town,” he told council, adding there has also been the odd gas leak.
“The fire department does respond to these. However, they typically go in and ‘make safe’,” he said, adding firefighters are equipped with personal monitors that beep when carbon monoxide is detected as well as indicate the number of parts per million in the air.
“But they have no idea where it is,” he said, adding the gas department has been attempting to work in tandem with the fire department to coordinate on such calls.
“I have had to go into the curling rink when they had 400 PPM of CO and kick all the kids off of the ice,” he said.
“It’s not fun, but we have to do that,” he said, later adding, “I’ve got to make sure that the fire department and the gas department and on-call services is working together.”
Funke asked how many gas calls are reported on average every year.
“We get 50 to 75,” he said.
“We’re getting better, we’ve done a lot of education.”
Hall said efforts to raise awareness are always ongoing to talk to people about issues such as not only buying a carbon monoxide monitor but also placing it properly.
“It’s not just getting one, it’s where you put them. And we are responding to less of them because people are pretty cognizant about carbon monoxide,” he said, adding his crew receives 10-40 carbon monoxide calls every year.
“Usually, they’re batteries. But our equipment will tell us exactly where the problem is.”
Related land use bylaws amended
Council approved a boundary adjustment to a part of the IGA parking lot’s southern portion as well as its re-zoning to central commercial district from public service district to rectify an encroachment on municipal land.
First readings of the two related land use bylaw amendments were granted during the Feb. 5 meeting.
Council heard that all required notifications were issued and that no concerns or opposition had been expressed. Additionally, no one spoke against either of the two ammendments during the public hearing.
“The bylaw is required to remove lands from environmental reserve that have been sold to the adjacent landowner,” said Mike Marko, director of planning and development. He described the change as a housekeeping correction remedying a previously carried motion that was not in a format considered acceptable by the land titles office.
“The effect of the bylaw will allow the completion of this land transaction and correct the encroachment issue,” he said.
The creek immediately adjacent to the south of the parcel will not be compromised, he said, “as there is additional environmental reserve land maintained for this purpose between this area and the creek.”
