Council unable to agree on dog limit

Times Reporter

 

At the Dec. 1 council meeting, council had directed administration to amend the animal control bylaw to allow residents to have three dogs per household. The amendments were brought back to council at the Dec. 15 meeting. It was once again met with disagreement among council as to what the limit should be. 

“Opening this up to another 4,500 animals in Strathmore is unacceptable to me and therefore I can’t accept the motion,” said Councillor John Rempel. 

Councillor Earl Best said that it wasn’t very long ago that they brought it down to two dogs and he questioned when it is going to change again.

“I can’t go with this, I think the limitation of two dogs is more than enough.”

Councillor Bob Sobol said he is trying to look at it reasonably and said there are a lot of households with three dogs already; illegally. 

“This covers the ability for people to have three dogs but let’s be reasonable here, there’s not going to be 4,500 extra dogs in (town). I don’t know how many extra dogs there are here now.” 

Sobol said that there are obviously irresponsible dog owners, but it is a fact of life that there are going to be dog owners who don’t pick up after their dogs at the park or whatnot. He believes the bylaw people will be dealing with that. 

“Whether it’s two dogs or three dogs, it’s not the fault of anybody. It’s just something that’s very hard to police and I don’t think it’s going to create a big problem,” said Mayor Steve Grajczyk. 

Rempel clarified that he doesn’t believe that everyone will run out and suddenly own three dogs, but that people need to be aware of the fact that the bylaw allows the possibility. 

Best argued that changing the law to three would be like changing the speed limit on George Freeman Trail back to 80 km/h because more people would rather see it at 80.

“I don’t think we need to change this to stop people from breaking the law. I think we have to enforce our bylaws to stop people from breaking the law,” said Best. 

A motion was made for council to give unanimous consent for third and final reading of the bylaw. Because Rempel and Best both opposed the amendments to the bylaw, council was not able to give it third reading. The bylaw will have to be brought back to the next council meeting.  

Bulk water rate increase 

Administration did analysis among other towns to see what their rates were for water, and they found Strathmore was the lowest. It was recommended by administration to increase the rate from $2 per cubic meter, to $4. 

Councillor Fule questioned if it would bring financial hardship to businesses in town. Chief Administrative Officer Dwight Stanford said no, he doesn’t see that becoming an issue because the cost would still be cheap here. The motion was passed.

Street Name Change

Council approved a motion to rename the existing East Ridge Road, east from Centre Street to the most easterly boundary of the town limits, to Archie Klaiber Trail.  The motion had been brought forth previously but council had been looking for clarification as to what the Names Advisory Committee wanted. 

2014 Alberta Winter Games 

Council decided at the Dec. 15 meeting to create a committee to look into making a bid for Strathmore to host the 2014 Alberta Winter Games. Sobol said it is something the town should look into co-hosting with other communities around Strathmore. All of council strongly agreed that it is something that should be looked into. There will be grant funding available to the hosting community. Council has until March 31 to submit a letter of intent and a council resolution. Completed bids must be submitted to Albert Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation by June 30, 2011.