The waiting is almost over, the time to step up is very soon.

Only eighteen days to nomination day (Sept 23 by noon), nomination forms will be made available to anybody that is interested starting Monday morning (Sept 9) at the Municipal Office. There are only three council meetings left prior to the election (Sept 17, Oct 1 and Oct 15) so if you want to get a sense of how the process works your opportunities are becoming fewer. I have not seen anybody show up with a note pad in the last couple of meetings. Maybe that is an indication that there are not a lot of people interested or maybe some potential candidates have made up their minds and do not see a value to attending council meetings.  

This election is going to be a big one for the Crowsnest Pass, first of the next council’s  term is four years, so if we make the wrong choices we are stuck with them for that extra twelve months.

Much larger issue in my mind is like it or not Decoux and his group promised change (unfortunately very few people asked what kind of change) but they did deliver change. Today we have the largest administration we have ever had, we have the most regulation we have ever seen in the Crowsnest Pass, more bylaws, policies and procedures than even the most avid bean counter would care to count. We enjoyed a council that promised us a mere 2.5% mill rate increases over the last three years, then attempted to fool us all by slapping on franchise fee increases that today would equate to an extra 5-6% tax increase annually. We saw changes that tore this community apart and led to 2500 plus people signing a petition in what appeared to be record time. At that point you would think a government at any level would have realized it was time to hear the people. Instead the taxpayers of this community got an attitude of “do your investigation you will not find anything illegal here” And a Mayor that used a monthly municipal newsletter to attack anybody that dared to disagree with his direction.  

Now on the eve of the election we see a desperate attempt to buy votes by spending $600,000 of our own money to demolish a building that could have been tore down three years ago long before we spent $70,000 buying a Best Western Name for a consultant, redundant studies and legal fees.

      

We the voters get a choice in forty six short days,  I am sure most of the present council will put their names forth, I am also sure we will have quite a number of other candidates to look at.

My hope for this election is that the public asks questions lots of them when somebody talks about “change” ask them what they mean by that. Do not wait for the public forums each candidate will be lucky if they get five minutes to speak. Seek out the candidates ask them where they stand on the issues important to you. If a candidate is serious, he/she will make their phones numbers, emails and mostly themselves available to address your concerns and questions.  

Do not be easily fooled if a candidate promises you no tax increases for the next four years he is a liar, if he promises you tax decreases he is not only a liar he is a fool.

Remember a candidate can promise you the world but unless he can convince a majority of council to vote his way the promises really mean nothing. So if there is a particular direction you would like to see the municipality head in then you better make sure that there are enough potential councilors that have those common beliefs.

I hope the public does not get fooled by the politicians that attempt to please everybody, it is not possible and those types of people end up not taking a position on anything.

I have often been asked what kind of commitment is required to be a councilor? Time, it is not just showing up every second Tuesday raising your hand 25 times and going home. You will put in an average of 20 hours per week you will attend numerous meeting, and events. You will receive calls, you will be approached by the public where ever you go. If you want to be knowledgeable about issues you will spend a lot of time doing research. You will have to make a lot of tough decisions, some that affect people’s livelihoods and some that involve issues that people have been very passionate about for a long time.

You will get paid for doing this but if you are in this purely for the money you will be disappointed over the last ten years councilors have made somewhere around  $12-14,000 a year and the Mayor $22-25,000 a year.

Lastly make sure you have thick skin there will be times where those calls you get will not be so pleasant, and yes it should never be personal but there are a very small minority out there that like to make it that way.

Kudos  to everybody that decides to put their name up for a very difficult job ahead.  

    

Tuesday night time to spend our money.

In the midst of these dark dreary days of August nothing better than to bring a ray of sunlight into our life’s by attending the regular meeting of council Tuesday night August 6, obviously Council and administration are doing everything possible to get their ducks in a row prior to the commencement of the election campaign.

For your information this is a recap of the meeting the issues dealt with, I look forward to the comments flowing in on the issues, council and administrations performance.

CAO Report

Its official Albert Headrick Director of Protective and Community Services is leaving the Pass on August 16.

Community Peace Officers Report great joy in announcing that almost $200,000 in fines have been written after one year in place.

Fire Rescues had 12, 911 calls in the month of July

New banners were installed around town administration received lots of positive response.

Ice is now ready in the Coleman complex

Trans Rockies race took place last week

Devon has donated an air compressor to the community, which will save us having to purchase one in 2015 (savings of up to $50,000)

Uroc is looking for contractors to build mountain bike trails of the ski hill.

Temporary surface repairs will be made at the Coleman drug store area.

Asphalt Paving projects delayed until the end August

Recreation Feasibility study is under way.

Culture and Heritage Board had its first meeting July 26

Tenders for SCADA project came in $200,000 to high will be looking to the province for additional funding.

Municipal Elections

Advance Poll approved for Oct 15

Institutional vote will be done the same as the last election

Voting subdivisions and voting stations will also be the same as last election

Crowsnest Centre Demolition

Four bids received range of $585 to $800K

Dakota Reclamators out of Calgary was the low bidder

CAO informed council that municipal lawyers had reviewed the tender and it was ironclad.

Project to be funded by taking $250k out of MSI capital funding and $350K out of the Mill rate stabilization reserve.

Councilor Saindon was concerned that the municipality was not getting a full priced bid, administration had asked for quotes on back filling the centre foundation once the building was removed this was not brought back to council. He felt the potential cost of this job was more in the range of $700,000.

He was also concerned due to Gene Conklin (Regional Director of Development at Best Western had advised the municipality that to make the land the most attractive to potential buyers it should be fully remediated.

Councilor Gallant stated every hotel has a basement, maybe it will not need back filling.

Councilor Saindon asked if the hotel does not come for three years are we just going to leave an 8-16 foot hole there. He also stated that the hotel was projected to go on the east end of the property the old hospital was on the west end. He also stated clay would have to be brought in and trucked at least 30-40km very expensive.

Councilor Londsbury asked if there was a basement under the entire building, the CAO did not know.

CAO Thompson felt that we should demolish the building then figure out our options of what to do with the hole at that point.

Councilor Gallant felt we did not know where the hotel would eventually go.

Motion to proceed with the demolition at a cost of $585,000 was passed by a vote of 4-2 (Saindon, Sage opposed Gail was not present for the vote)

Hotel Application Fee ($50,000 for Vachon group)

Administration recommended funds be taken out of municipal land reserve.

Councilor Saje referred to a conversation he had with Jeff Carlson CAO of Clay cup developers who apparently working with Medican prior to Group Vachon coming on board.
He stated that Mr Carlson told him municipalities do not put up the funding for the rights to a hotel. He also stated that the Best Western could have been done by Clay cup and that if Vachon group with draws somebody else could pick up the rights contrary to what the CAO had informed council at the special meeting. CAO stated that he had received that information from the head of marketing at Best Western.
Councilor Gallant agreed that it was not normal for municipalities to put up the funding, but Mr Carlsons words did not carry a lot of weight with council due to the fact that they were fired by Medican in November.
Councilor Saje informed council that he did not know Clay Cup was fired in November and that Vachon Group did not come on board until spring.
Mayor Decoux stated that the rest of council was aware that Clay Cup was released by Medican.

Motion to take $50,000 out of Municipal land reserves was passed by a vote of 4-2 (Saindon, Saje opposed Gail not present)

     

NOTE: MORE TO FOLLOW