Crowsnest Pass G + P meeting Dec 14, 2010

Governance and Priorities Committee Meeting Dec 14, 2010

Call to order @ 7:10pm

Adoption of agenda
Councilor Mitchell added two items under Topics for Discussion
#4 Absenteeism on Committees of members at large
#5 Municipal Liability Insurance for Councilors traveling out of town

Motion to accept amended agenda accepted Unanimously

Delegations:

1. Allied Arts Overview
Good presentation by Jean Bailey on behalf of our Art Gallery in Frank, everybody should check this out, a lot of rural communities do not have this luxury.

2. Lethbridge College Overview
Kathy Brown gave a short presentation on what the College is doing at the MDM, the types of courses they have to offer, and how happy they are with their new location

3. Mohawk Excavating
Bill Ogertschnig owner of Mohawk Excavating leased a piece of land from the municipality on the MDM property to park his equipment on. The lease was only for one year, he requested that council renew the agreement for one more year. One neighbor spoke in opposition to this, feeling that this was not an area to park industrial equipment.

Topics for Discussion:

Business Appreciation Certificate
Councilor Gallant raised the issue of giving businesses a Appreciation Certificate that do upgrades to their present properties, Administration did not feel this would creat a substantial work load increase so the Committee accept the motion to recommend this to council Unanimously.

Stake out Policy
Administration recommended that this come back to council when the revisions to the land use bylaw are brought back to council at a later date. Accepted Unanimously

Pending Conferences-2011
Determined that Mayor Decoux, Councilors Mitchell and Gail would attend the AAMDC Convention in Edmonton March 21-23 2011
Mayor Decoux and Councilor Saje will be attending the FCM Convention in Halifax June 2-6 2011

Absenteeism on committee’s members at large.: Councilor Mitchell raised the issue of a member on the Subdivision Board missing several meeting to go down south every winter, was asking if the municipality had a policy regarding this, Mayor Decoux requested that it be discussed further during the In Camera session.

Municipal Liability Insurance: This issue was raised by Councilor Mitchell are Councilors covered by Municipal Insurance when traveling out of town on municipal business, Administration stated that they are.

Note: Councilor Saindon was not present.

Committee went to "In Camera" after a short break.

Crowsnest Pass Adult Education

Had a chance today to tour the 2nd floor of the MD McEachern School for the Crowsnest Pass Adult Education component of the facility.
What a great job has been done by our staff and the good folks that moved over there, the rooms are bright, clean and well laid out.
Spoke to some of the people running the various programs they are very happy with the facility, the staff are treating them well, the facility is great and they have all of the technology they require.
Everybody when they get the opportunity should take a ride up to Bellevue check out the facility and see what courses these great groups have to offer.

I can still remember when I said to council "imagine placing an education facility in a school".

Highlights of August 3 Council Meeting Crowsnest Pass

Lethbridge College is in the process of moving the Education Consortium to the MDM community centre, the lease on the relocation as now been signed by all parties.

The grant funding for our Infrastructure projects is starting to flow in last week we received $850,000 of our MSI grant. To this point the line of credit as not been used.

Council by a vote of 4-2 awarded the engineering for the Sentinel bridge to Stantec.

Two Notices of Motion were brought forth the first by Councilor Taje, requesting that council oppose the relocation of the power lines to the base of the valley going through the Frank area.

The second Notice of Motion was by Councilor Ward to bring forth a policy that no development agreements will be approved or developments allowed to proceed in the future without adequate security agreements being in place.

We also received an appraisal of the Crowsnest Centre which came in at a value of $1.4 million if the land was vacant, and between $1.75 to $2.3 million for the land and buildings. (depreciated replacement value)

Council also set the date for the advance poll at October 13 10am to 8pm at the Elks Hall in Blairmore

Council also selected August Kollee to be the returning officer.