Special Council Meeting-managing your money

Appointment of Returning Officer:

Administration recommended that Ms Lisa Sygutek be appointed as the returning Officer for the upcoming election.

Annexation Process with Ranchlands:

Council voted to begin the process of annexing the southern most 870 quarters sections of the MD of Ranchlands.

Few comments MD of Ranchlands has expressed zero interest in working with the CNP.

Riversdale has not completed the purchase of Grassy Mountain at this time.

Fees for annexation are payable at the end of the process (roughly $44,000)

Notice of Intent can be withdrawn or amended at any time.

Linear Assessment value of those properties is unknown at this time. Point was made that most of that land is in the forest reserve so likely hood of linear assessment is very low. Also costs of servicing that area are unknown.

Hotel Development:

Council voted to pay the $50,000 to maintain the rights to the Best Western name for two years with the funds coming out of the municipal land reserves.

Comments- Vachon group paid the $50,000 to get the rights to the Best Western name and franchise for the Crowsnest Pass for the next 24 months. Up until July 26 Vachon Group could with draw it’s application and get the $50,000 back. Municipal council agreed to pay Vachon group the $50,000 to keep the Best Western franchise and name available. Here’s the catch the municipality just used taxpayers dollars to pay for something it does not own. Vachon group owns those rights even though it’s our money that paid for them. New Investors will have to work with Vachon group if they wish to use the Best Western name. Our new EDO offered to go to conferences over the next three months in Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto to find Investors. Brian Gallant spoke about how important it is to support the $50,000 expenditure of taxpayers money to maintain the valuable Best Western name. (Councilors Saje and Saindon were opposed)

Crowsnest Centre Demolition:

Council today decided to re-tender the demolition of the old hospital and nursing home with the cost to be paid for by taking money out of the municipal land reserves and MSI grant funding.

Comments: There were three bids last year on this project Frank Bessinger told us today that the low bid was $577,000 (begs the question why was Medican given credit of $800,000 in there purchase agreement?). He does not know if bids will come in at the same level due to all the work in southern Alberta right now and timing may be an issue.

Note Thanks to my astute reader that sent me the following link to the Alberta Purchasing Connection site
http://vendor.purchasingconnection.ca/Opportunity.aspx?Guid=A13906BC-C7DD-4BA7-90FE-1DF691BDC23C&

Boy no messing around here it almost appears like this was all predetermined the meeting ended at 3pm the job was posted at 13 minutes past 3pm and closes at 3pm on July 30. Are we really going to find the best contractor and price in 7 days.

 Note: Cost of administration $4325 per day

July 16 Council meeting Crowsnest Pass

CAO Report of Activities

Not a lot was reported the CAO just got back from vacation some highlights:

Insurance Underwriters report should be done by the end of the month

Box clever is working on the municipal web site

On July 25 the new Arts and Culture board will have its first meeting

Donna Stelmachovich was appointed to the Seniors Board

Appointment of Returning Officer-Nobody applied for the position under the MGA somebody must be appointed by August 2 administration recommended that Chief Financial Officer Marion Vanoni be appointed. By vote of council it was determined that this issue be put of until the special council meeting of July 23, to see if anybody else who as previously done the job would be interested.

Stephanie Hamilton was appointed to sit on the Municipal Heritage Board

Task Force on Disaster Prevention-Mayor Decoux proposed that a Task Force of local residents, politicians, provincial experts to come together to provide recommendations to prevent future flooding issues. CAO will bring a list of potential members for the August 6 council meeting.

Live streaming of council meetings-Information was provided to council by administration on the process and costs of this ($20,000) it was determined to defer this issue until the next council meeting August 6.

Number of correspondence were presented

Minutes from various meeting were accepted by council

Bylaws 872 to rezone five acres of land across from the high school in Coleman from Non-urban to Drive In Commercial. Lots of discussion above this possibly being another hotel, condo, storage etc.

Public Input: Aggie Mitchell took the opportunity to spend much of her allotted time talking about how she volunteered for the Sinister 7 race, what a great event it was for the community, how many people it brought into the community and how it supported our local businesses. Mrs Mitchell then went on to talk about how she is so disappointed with all the negativity in the community in her opinion it’s time we were all more grateful for all the positive things we have.    

At this point Councilor Gail moved to go In Camera to deal with (3) land and (2) personnel issues.

One minute later Councilor Saje departed the meeting

After coming out of In Camera Councilor Mitchell moved to schedule a Special meeting of Council on July 23 to deal with the issues of the Returning Officer, Annexation and the hotel    

 Note: Cost of administration $4325 per day

July 16 Council Meeting

Due to shortage of time I am posting a couple of quick points from last night's minutes. I will add my own comments later.

DEPARTURE
Councillor Saje departed the meeting at 8:34 pm.


M#6938-13: Councillor Mitchell moved to call a Special Council Meeting on July 23, 2013 at 1:00 pm to discuss the Returning Officer matter, annexation and the hotel situation.
CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY



Note: Cost of administration $4325 per day

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.