City status research discontinued

Times Reporter

 

The idea of going from town to city status has been met with negativity since it was first proposed. 

At the April 4 regular council meeting the proposal was taken off the table. Councillor Pat Fule made a motion to council to discontinue any efforts in moving towards city status at this time, and cancel the May 10 open house. 

Councillor Earl Best said there have also been comments in favour of city status. Best would like to see the issue still brought to the public in order to gain a better understanding of what the community does think of the potential status change. 

Mayor Steve Grajczyk was a big advocate of city status, and still is, but thinks the citizens themselves should take a look at it and bring council any pros and cons to changing.

“I think it’s a good thing but I think there’s other issues to work on first, and I would be in favour to just let it sit for awhile and then go from there,” said Grajczyk. 

The motion was passed, with Councillor Best opposed to it. 

“The reason I voted against going to city status is simply that the I think the public needs more time to digest the good reasons for going city status, the pros and the cons, and I respect their opinion,” said Grajczyk.   

 

Water Treatment Plant 

On March 7 at the regular council meeting EPCOR attended with a schedule on how they wanted to go about decommissioning the former Water Treatment Plant (WTP). EPCOR had a recommendation for the trucking portion of the contract. Council decided at that meeting that the trucking portion of the work should be tendered out. 

The tenders were sent out, and Chief Administrative Officer Dwight Stanford began receiving calls about the tender. Included on the Internet package of the March 7 meeting on the town’s website it shows the recommended business details for the project including materials used and prices. With the information available on the website, it gives competitors creating a tender an unfair advantage over the initial company recommended. 

After discussion with the town lawyer a recommendation was finally drawn up for the April 4 council meeting. 

Stanford and administration put together a recommendation for council to approve a 2012 capital project for the WTP alum bed disposal in the amount of $319,042. Funds are to be drawn from the financial stabilization reserve, and Gray’s Limited will provide the trucking portion of the contract. 

 

Minor Hockey 

Wayne Hansen, President of Strathmore Minor Hockey, asked the town for a letter of support from the town for their bid with Hockey Alberta to host the Alberta Cup in April of 2013 and 2014. 

The Alberta Cup is a five-day hockey tournament for bantam aged players. In order to make a bid to host the event, Hansen needed the letter of support signed by the Mayor and Chief Administrative Officer before April 13. 

Councillor Blokland stated that Hansen had told him that minor hockey was looking for support other than financial. Minor hockey would need the arena to keep the ice in for a few extra weeks and they would like to rent the Civic Centre for the same time frame for open house forums for the kids and teams at no charge. 

The letter of support was given stating council will support Strathmore Minor Hockey’s efforts in hosting the Alberta Cup for 2013 and 2014. 

 

Financial Statements 

The Town has accumulated a surplus of $169 million in 2011. Though the number sounds high approximately $154 million is equity that has already been spent on tangible capital assets. 

The debt limit that the Municipal Government Act sets out for each municipality is calculated based on total revenues. Strathmore’s debt limit is calculated at just over $30 million and the actual debt the town owes is just over $15 million. At year end only 50 per cent of the Town’s debt capacity had been reached.