Pandora's Box is opened

Coming Tuesday night on the Council Agenda is this years version of Spring Cleanup.
Support or oppose that's your choice but after the discussion of last week's G+P meeting nothing but confusion reigning now.
First of all Council and administration can't agree on the numbers for last year's cost administration brings forth a total of $66,000, Councilor Saindon who manages the Land fill and receives all of the cleanup materials believes the cost are in excess of $120,000 he claims it cost us $409 a tonne to bring that material in.
Next the debate turns to the issue of time frame, Administration claims nine days will be sufficient, some members of council are very skeptical to say the least. History in the last six years as shown cleanups takes anywhere up to six months.
Then we go back to cost for this year, administration is allowing $25,000 based on the nine days Councilor Saindon's math comes up with at least $35,000 who's right more confusion.
Now back to the debate on who gets garbage picked up, after much debate from the picking up of three items, to there is a private business that will pick it up, to the original intent was to help out people who can't get to the landfill themselves. (Who really remembers when, why or how this started)
The confusion (debate) seems to end with maybe we look at doing it or not doing it. Maybe we do it for the handicapped, maybe we do it for the elderly? those that are retired, maybe we do it for everybody for one more year. 
Lets add to the confusion how does the municipality determine handicapped or the elderly?:
The handicapped would that be the municipality requiring you to provide a Doctor's note, would you have to be on AISH, maybe CPP Disability.
The elderly what criteria will be used, over 55, 60, 65?
Retired maybe that's the answer must one be on CPP because that can be anywhere from 60-70. I know residents that are in their late fifties and retired other residents that are in their late sixties and still working.


Maybe the municipality will look at income levels, qualify for the Alberta Seniors assistance you get three items picked up.

Then lets look at the numbers (2006 census) out of our population of 5745, the number of people over the age of 19 are 4615 of those  2115 are over 55. Assuming that another 5% of the adult population are on either AISH or CPP that's another 231 people add them together there is a total of 2346 or in simple terms 50% of our population.
If you are going to pick up 50% why would you not just do a 100%.

The point I am trying to make here is this whole (proposed) cleanup besides the confusion above is going to be a logistical nightmare, for two weeks the office is going to be inundated with phone calls. When you phone you have to book your three items, so as I stated previously the crew is coming up my street do they ignore the third house that didn't call but puts stuff out because everybody else is? What happens when they get to my neighbours house and see that he's put out a rocking chair, that was not on his list.
If we go with the route of only picking up the handicapped and the elderly will the municipality be expecting all of these good folks to becoming into the municipality to prove their eligibility? Wow

Maybe its time to take Councilor Londsbury approach, "we are all responsible for the mess we make maybe we should all be responsible for cleaning it up ourselves, there is a local business available that will take it away for you".

Crowsnest Pass Council Meeting March 15, 2011

Council Meeting of March 15,2011

Adoption of Agenda:

No additions
Motion to accept the Agenda was passed unanimously

Adoption of previous minutes.

1. Council meeting of March 1, 2011. Motion to accept the minutes was accepted unanimously.

Delegations: None

Administrative and Agency Reports:

CAO Clifford gave a verbal report that information on the Sawback Ridge development will be presented at the next Council Meeting

Director of Public Works Myron Thompson gave a verbal presentation on the issue of Spring Cleanup. Intention to start May 24th, Residents will be allowed to place out three items from a list of eligible items to be communicated prior. Residents will be expected to call the municipal office the two weeks prior to May 24th to book their pickup.

Councilors made the following comments:
Should the municipality look at picking large items up more than once a year.
Electronic recycling should also be done more than once a year
Fridges can be dropped of at Devlins any time of the year
Concern over the cost of this type of pickup being no cheaper than previous cleanups. Cleanup last year cost $442 per tonne, also Councilor Saindon stated that 80-90% of residents have the ability to take their own garbage to the landfill.

Business arising from the Minutes:

1.Outstanding Action Items from Motions of Council (2004-2010) Administration requested more time for this process, council granted until May 3

Correspondence: None

1. Hector Goudreau, Minister of Municipal Affairs-2011 MSI Funding municipality to receive approximately $1.9million from the province, $1.7 for capital and $200,000 for operational.

2. Hector Goudreau, Minister of Municipal Affairs-Clarification Letter sent to the wrong person a second time, Mayor Decoux asked administration to ensure this does not happen again.

3. Office of the Prime Minister-Receipt of Correspondence, Municipality had sent the Prime Ministers office a thank you letter, they sent the municipality a letter thanking them for thanking them.

Committee Reports:

1.Minutes of March 8, 2011 Goverance and Priorities Committee. Councilor Mitchell pointed out that the minutes stated that council members “will” attend the Mayors Prayer Breakfast it should have stated “may”. Motion to accept minutes as amended passed unanimously.

Bylaws:

1.Bylaw 819, Borrowing Bylaw-Grader & Hydraulic Excavator. At this point confusion set in, council started to question administration. Councilor Londsbury was surprised with the 5 year term he was under the impression that the items were to be paid off in this budget. Councilor Saje also stated that he knew the Municipality was doing short term financing but thought they would be paying it off in 3-4 months when the property tax dollars came in. Administration stated that it out been clearly shown in the budget that there would be a payment of $116,000 a year for the next five years. Mayor Decoux and several other councilors indicated that was there interpretation also. Motion to pass first reading passed unanimously.

2.Bylaw 822, Operating Line of Credit- authorizes the Municipality to borrow up to $1 million for an operating line. Motion to passed first reading passed unanimously

3.Bylaw 823, Discharge of Septage into Municipal Owned Septage Disposable Facility. Motion to passed first reading passed unanimously


Notices of Motion: None

Other Business:

1. Capital Equipment and Project Tendering update, this was a presentation by Myron Thompson relevant to the purchase of new equipment and the tendering process to demolish the Maplevue Hall. Motion to accept passed unanimously.

2. 10 Year Capital Infrastructure Plan, Continuation of Previous plans for Infrastructure, with the need for the Municipality to spend $42 milion over the next ten years. The major project being the upgrading of the Frank Sewer Plant, most of these costs will be covered by grants with the exception of approximately $430,000 a year which the municipality will have to provide, the Director of Public Works suggested that this amount should be placed in reserves each year for that purpose. Motion to accept passed unanimously.

3. Pinkest Town in the West. Motion to accept passed unanimously

4. Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast. Motion to accept passed unanimously

5. Reschedule the March 22 G+P meeting to March 29 if there is enough agenda items to deal with. Motion to accept passed unanimously

6. Volunteer Directory-Administration informed council that Director of Community Services will be bringing forth information on this to Council at a later date.

7.Community Enhancement-Mayor Decoux announced that he had been approached by Frank Loseth who as a group of volunteers that are ready and willing to help clean up the community, Mayor Decoux suggested that Mr Loseth be invited to a meeting of council to present his ideas.

Council Member reports: None

Public Input: Resident Joe Mahieux came to present to council his concerns about Bylaw 798 (Community Standards) specifically Part #3, Section 5. This bans the parking of Campers, Trailers etc on municipal boulevards. Asked that council take another look at this, which they agreed to and stated they would respond to him in a timely fashion.

Motion to go In Camera: Passed Unanimously

Crowsnest Pass, Budget will spur debate? Maybe

Well so far local politics have been fairly mellow and laid back since the election. I don't say that in a critical way because that's normal, new councilors getting familiar with the job, what administration does, the various programs and services the municipality provides it all takes time.

Ultimately unless you are going to have seven people sit in a room for three years and just play follow the leader, debate will come its bound to. Take any group of seven people you are going to have different goals, objectives, agendas etc. If you are not going to have debate over various issues then you may as well leave six people at home and let one person make all the decisions.

So anyway to the point of my post, I feel that debate is coming especially after reading Councilor Saindon's blog. Then refreshing my memory with what the various councilors had to say during the election campaign, this leads me to believe that their are indeed some issues that are going to create quite a lot of debate over the next month or so, in both council chambers, and out in the public.

Three issues I would like to discuss at this point that I feel are very pressing and relevant based on the various positions taken during the election.

1. Duplication of services.
Previous council had to deal with this issue regarding the duplication of Community centres and arenas. Maybe this council will take a different position than we did and restart the Crowsnest Centre, or put ice back in the Albert Stella? We shall see.

But if they are going to deal with this issue, they will at some point have to look at Town Shops, Fire Departments, Equipment Fleets, even arms lengths groups. Everyone of them very political contentious issues.

2. Water Meters, tough issue 560 meters a year for the next five years. Is the municipality going to charge two rates for water based on having a meter or not? Would that be fair, somebody that wastes water with a meter pays extra, somebody without a meter could waste water for free for up to the next five years. What about commercial users, will they be metered? tough on a business like a car wash? etc.

Cost $500 a meter paid by the owner of the residence over one year, half our taxpayers are seniors, administration as already proposed to increase utility bills. Now seniors are going to have to pay an additional $80 on every utility bill that's tough on a fixed income.

There is no question that we use a lot of water in the Pass, three times the provincial average.
Something as to be done from a conservation point of view, but I believe that by the time this issue makes it through the local coffee shops it will become too hot of a political potato and probably put aside for future review.

3. Spring cleanup, I read with much interest Councilor Saindon's comments on this issue, from what I have seen over the last six years, he is right this is the kind of luxury service this community can not afford. What will be interesting is to see where the rest of council stands on this issue, especially Councilor Mitchell every time this debate came up in the last three years he supported our former Mayor in maintaining this service, in fact if my memory is serving me well he even supported maintaining two cleanups. (Spring and Fall).

Three things that I hope are considered during the debate on the cleanup, Public Works are requesting an additional 1.5 positions in the workforce. If you took the man hours that are used on cleanup it would come to more than those 1.5 positions even in the most efficient years.
Second in the last six years on I was on council I would estimate that well in excess of a million dollars as been spent on cleanups, money that should have been used to buy new equipment that administration is now recommending that the municipality go $550,000 in debt for.
Third how many other jobs were put aside while our public works crew was busy on cleanup, and how much overtime was incurred to get those jobs completed in a timely fashion.

Anyway I think budget will spur some lively debate, lets keep in mind these are only the tip of the iceberg.

Crowsnest Pass Proposed Budget Increases 2011

This is only proposed at this point:

Taxes 5.5%
Water + Sewer 10%
Water Meters to be placed in 560 homes a year for the next five years, to be paid for by the resident $500 to be paid over one year, $40 per month.
Debt of $540,000 to purchase a Grader and an Excavator
Almost all the new employee positions that previous council rejected are back.
Spring Clean up will be drastically reduced.
Reductions in FCSS funding for external groups

Added Dec 16th Policing costs for Rummer Runner Days weekend administration was notified by the province that this will be increasing from $10,000 to $40,000

Funding for external groups from the FCSS will drop from $100,000 to $90,000.