A new beginning in the Crowsnest Pass.

This time last week the silent majority in the Crowsnest Pass were no longer silent. They spoke very clearly and obviously they were not happy with the path the leadership of the community was on. So your new council looks very different to the previous one, never the less it is time to move forward.

So now the work begins, your elected officials were given a list of all of the committee's of council with their terms of reference and have submitted their preferences to the Mayor.

There will be an organizational meeting of council tomorrow night at 7pm where the committee appointments will be debated by council, there will also be a rotation put in place for the Deputy Mayor position which each councilor is required to sit in for a period of two months.

There will be a short special council meeting after that to deal with upcoming conventions, council orientation, and facility tours, these are done by every new council.

As far as the new council where it goes from here? regular council meeting will start Nov 5, 7pm in council chambers. All of the candidates ran for office based on their own particular platform, will everyone of us get our own way on every issue? I doubt it. Will everything at the municipality and the way we do things change over night? I doubt that to.

What I am sure of; is there will be many questions asked, and there will be a lot of work ahead for all of us.

If you have any concerns my contact information is on this page below, if you would rather talk to a different member of council contact the municipal office at 562 8838 and they will provide you the contact information for the member of council of your choice.

Crowsnest Centre-After many years off debate and millions of dollars wasted common sense has finally prevailed.

In the late 80’s the Alberta government decided that the old hospital in Blairmore was no longer efficient, effective and needed to be replaced. So the Crowsnest Pass got a new hospital the province then gave the old hospital and the seven acres it sat on to the municipality. A prime piece of property along side one of Alberta’s major highways they also provided $150,000 to knock the building down.

Around that time a group of people saw the opportunity to develop in the Crowsnest Pass our very own version of the “Banff Centre” what an opportunity. You can imagine the thinking lets take that money hire a consultant to come in and do a “strategic study” which we can then use to move this community forward.

Well the “study” was done a report provided that said take an old decrepit hospital pour $4-5 million into the building in capital improvements, subsidize for 3-4 years then we will have an attraction that will draw people here for many years to come and pay for itself.

Lots of people jumped on board and decided to move ahead, with several  exceptions to the consultants report they did not put the $4-5 million up front into the building they did not subsidize it for 3-4 years, it ended up being 20 years. Worse of all at the end of that 20 years of trying to do our very own version of a convention centre on a nickel and dime budget, did we end up with a mini version of the Banff Centre or did we just have an old decrepit hospital?

During the last term of council 2007-2010 there was a majority of councilors that had the common sense to see that we could not afford the centre, and that we could not afford to not utilize that space for commercial opportunity. A majority but not all, I can remember the fight waged by Mayor Irwin, Councilors Taje and Mitchell to put a stop to what the vast majority of people in the Pass felt was the right thing to do.

We all heard the out cry the food bank will be out on the street, we will lose our education consortium, where will the people go when the highway is closed.   

Time marched on the education consortium moved to the MDM, the Food Bank is having its Grand Opening tomorrow of a brand new debt free building that will serve our community for many years to come. We had the highway closed just a short while back nobody froze to death, everybody was taken care of and three days later it was like it never happened.

Politically a new council was elected in 2010 with only one carry over from the Crowsnest Centre debate that being Councilor Mitchell an ardent opponent of getting rid of the Centre what impact would he have on this issue with the new council.

Well November 9 at the town hall meeting we got our answer surprisingly Mayor Decoux stood up and stated the following. “We has a community can not afford the Crowsnest Centre and we certainly can not afford to miss the commercial opportunity that site offers”.

What a vindication for myself and the other three councilors that had the intestinal fortitude to work through all the crap, the procedural stone walling, the lies put out to inflame the community, to do the right thing for this municipality.

Finally on Feb 21,2012 the following motion was moved by Councillor Saindon

 “That Administration develop or have developed an Expression of Interest for a hotel development on the Crowsnest Centre property. This document and a

Press Release will be distributed to recognized developers and the public. Both documents will be presented at the March 6, 2012 Council Meeting for Council approval and release”.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

Even Councilor Mitchell an ardent supporter of the Crowsnest Centre who fought every step to get rid of this decrepit old hospital building agreed.   

Now I turn to my concern on this issue 5-6 years ago administration recommended that council approve a new town shop in Coleman it was going to cost $3-400,000 but it would be financed by using grant money and reserves that would be replenished when the municipality sold the old Coleman shops.

Well as administration provided us with more information on the shop the cost ballooned to $1.3 million I kept pressing for an answer to how we would put the dollars back into reserves, well the theory was that those two old Coleman shops would be sold for $6-700,000 more than enough to build those reserves back up.

Thankfully Council based on the large price of building that shop and the believe that those shops would be up for sale for a long time had the sense to put a stop to the Coleman shop.

I see that administration is suggesting that council take money from reserves to demolish the Old hospital, our reserves are at $1.3 million its going to take a good chunk of that to demolish it. In this economy how long is it going to take to sell that property? It could be a while, do a Google search and see how many hotels are being built in rural Alberta outside of the prime tourism areas or in communities serving the oil and gas industry. Not many, why not offer the land for sale as is, if it costs $600,000 to rip the building down a buyer will just discount the price by that much. Do a conditional sale ABC hotels will buy the land Jan 1^st 2013 subject to the building being gone prior to that date, those are just a couple of suggestions. There are many options that could be negotiated without cleaning out the reserves.

Never the less I do applaud “all” of this council for recognizing and confirming that this community could not afford the old hospital and for moving forward to bring commercial opportunities that will create jobs and pay taxes on that site. Just as I applaud former Councilors Cole, Macleod and Salus for having that same vision and the guts to stand behind it.   

Council Meeting of January 4, 2011

Public Hearing: Bylaw 814, 2010

Regarding the land use bylaw for lots that required a 5’ and 10’ setback on each side of a residence where there is no back lane
No one spoke in favor or opposition

Adoption of Agenda

Councilor Mitchell added an item 3 to other business Office Protocol

Mayor Decoux added an item 4 to other business Thunder in the Valley Policing

Motion to accept Agenda as amended passed unanimously

Adoption of Previous Minutes

1. Regular Council Meeting of December 21 Motion to accept passed unanimously

2. Special Budget Meeting of December 14 Motion to accept passed unanimously

Delegation: None

Administration and Agency Reports: None

Business Arising From the Minutes

1. Advertising Policy-Motion made to accept Option #1 failed (3-4) with Mayor Decoux, Councilors Mitchell, and Londsbury in favor.

2. Consideration for a time extension, Council had previously asked for all resolutions of council for the previous two terms to be reviewed and see which ones were not enforced. Administration requested an extension to have more time to complete this project. Motion to extend until March 15 passed unanimously

Correspondence: Lloyd Bentz regarding Bow Crow Forest Trails Grant

Motion was made to send a letter of thanks passed unanimously

Committee Reports:

1. G + P minutes of December 14 Motion to accept passed unanimously

2. FCSS Minutes of Dec 1 Motion to accept passed unanimously

Bylaws: 814, 2010

Second reading Motion passed unanimously

Third reading Motion passed unanimously

Notices of Motion: None

Other Business

1. Request for a Letter of Support-Bellcrest Community Association Motion passed Unanimously

2. Policy Committee, after a lengthy presentation by the Mayor regarding the definition of and the need for policy. A motion was made to set up a Committee comprised of three permanent members (Mayor, CAO, and Director of legislative services) and ad hoc members from areas that are relevant to the issues at hand. Motion passed Unanimously

3. Office Protocol, Councilor Mitchell raised a concern about members of the public wandering the office, taking up the time of municipal employees. After a puzzled look from everybody else in the room, the CAO committed to look into this issue.

4. Thunder in the Valley Policing, Mayor Decoux requested that the CAO bring back a report to the council regarding the policing at Thunder in the Valley, and inform Council who owns and operates Thunder in the Valley.

Public Input: None

In Camera: Personnel Issue

A lesson as been learnt!

After my crushing defeat at the hands of the voters on October 18. I decided that I was going to take some time, to figure out why, analyze the positions I had taken over the last six years. Take the three year break handed to me, watch what the new council does, learn from the mistakes that I made and hopefully in 2013 take another run at council offering the public a wiser and more experienced candidate.
Therefore, I toiled from Oct 19 to Nov 2, thinking a lot about the last six years. I thought to myself obviously I upset some people with the Crowsnest Centre, some people with the elimination of ice in the Albert Stella, some were upset about the Community Standards Bylaw, the River Run project, the changes in management, even last weeks paper somebody was upset about us not hiring “more” municipal employees.
Then I went to a Council meeting the night of November 2, Ms Lisa Sygutek made a presentation to Council regarding the issue of advertising in both local papers. To my surprise near the end of her presentation she went on a little rant about how the voters in the Crowsnest Pass had sent a clear message to the new council that they were not happy with the previous council, and this was due to the fact that they had chosen not to “communicate” with the public by refusing to place municipal advertising in both papers.
My first reaction was this is nuts, I lost the election because I refused to spend taxpayers money advertising in both papers.
Then I said to myself I should think about this, maybe it’s not nuts. Maybe the last three years of all those articles written with a slight negative slant, all those editorials attacking every thing the majority of the previous council supported, maybe that little ad on the key page of the paper with the 45 weeks to the next election did have an impact, so I decide I need to think about this a little more, maybe just maybe there is a lesson to be learnt here.
In the meantime, I go back to Council for their Committee meeting on November 9, on the agenda is the issue of advertising I am looking forward to the debate.
About three minutes in I realize these new councilors are obviously much smarter than the previous council, (despite the comments presented, which I will address later), they have already learnt the lesson above. They want the positive headlines, the glowing editorials; they do not want to see the countdown to the next election under the Bricks and Bouquets.
An old politician once said the moment an election is over the campaign for the next one begins.
I tip my hat to the quick learners.

Crowsnest Pass, First Council Meeting Oct 26 2010

It was sure different after six years and probably somewhere between 2-300 meetings in Council Chambers to sit on the other side of the room. But never the less I did and will attempt to attend when I can because this community and what happens to it is very important to me.

The meeting started with the Organizational Meeting, the swearing in and introduction of the new council members, then the various committee appointments were made which the public was not provided a copy of, but I imagine will be available soon.
That meeting was adjourned then the Mayor went on to the regular meeting of council.

Very light agenda (normal for the first meeting).

CAO Lundy spoke about the following:
Highway 3 and the need to meet with Darrel Camplin from Alberta Transportation
Meeting with senior RCMP regarding enhanced policing for events such as Thunder in the Valley
Repairs Off Road Vehicle Trails
Lack of program for Pine Beetle issues on private lands

Each department head then did a short speech to introduce themselves and their departments.

Other Business Included:

Mayor Decoux will be bringing forth a motion to strike up his Task Force.
Council Workshop and Tours week of November 29th
George Cuff will be doing an orientation with council on November 2
Alberta Southwest Information Session on November 3
Chamber of Commerce AGM on November 4
Mayors and Reeves Meeting on November 5
Remembrance Day Services on Nov 11
AAMDC convention Nov 15-17 in Edmonton
AUMA convention Nov 23-25 in Edmonton

Shortly after the meeting was adjourned.

Real meeting start next week.

The Mayor handled himself in what appeared to me to be a very professional manner, due to the lightness of the agenda none of the councilors really had the opportunity to be very involved.

Looking for historical information on Crowsnest Pass Councils

I was asked the following by one of my readers can anybody help, I know some of the details but not all.

"Different question I was reading the various Corporate reviews available on the Municipal Site.
Came accross the following comments from the Review of May 17,2000.
"There is currently a perception of block voting by the Mayor and councillors, with many items receiving the same spilt vote.
"Which Mayor was this, who were the councillors and what was the spilt?
None of these people would be sitting on the present council would they?
I think I know the answer and the word hypocrit, is flowing through my mind."
Jerry

River Run Project Crowsnest Pass (52 Acre property)

Tuesday April 6th at the council meeting the issue of the River Run project was discussed by council this is the land know as the 52 acre site in the Crowsnest Pass. The municipality never received security deposits on this property. The local residents in addition to the approximately 12000 vehicles that travel on Highway 3 everyday get to enjoy the view of a number of large piles of dirt and a large amount of exposed coal dust. We have no idea when this project will move forward but as of Tuesday night, security as been demanded by council and it will be made clear from the motion of council that no further development will proceed without that security being in place.