Town completes numerous projects in 2011
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
Seeing growth and new development is essential to any community, and according to the year-end economic development report for 2011 Strathmore accomplished a lot.
“The town had a good year, we achieved a lot through work and cooperation with management, staff and council and with consultants helping us on certain items we were able to achieve lots,” said Chief Administrative Officer for the Town, Dwight Stanford.
“Future development is phenomenal, if you look at all of those Area Structure Plans coming forward each subdivision, depending, may have over 3,000 people in each of them. It will take years to fill them all but we’re looking at a lot of growth in the next 30 years.”
This past year was a good year for Strathmore, which saw 208 building permits issued, 32 of which were for single-family dwellings. The total construction value of the permits was $20,728,171. By the end of 2011 there had been 744 business licenses issued.
Affordable housing projects
The town’s affordable housing market project, Bayside Villas, is well underway. There is one more eight-plex scheduled to be built in 2012, and 16 units are currently under construction. Many of the homes waiting completion have already been purchased. Of the 24 units already completed, 21 of them are occupied.
The affordable rental units are also doing well with 42 of the 56 units complete.
Phase 2 construction for Sagewood
Last month MLA Arno Doerkson made an announcement that Sagewood Seniors Community had been granted $7.6 million to begin work on phase 2 of the project. The second phase will include 70 assisted living beds and 30 long-term care beds.
This phase will include a day care with a grand friends program, which is an interactive, or inter-generational, program, which brings kids and older adults together in supervised activities.
Current and upcoming Area Structure Plans
There were three major Area Structure Plans (ASP) approved, which include Wildflower, Westcreek and recently the Prairies. There are two additional ASPs being reviewed, one of the which, the Edgefield ASP, will see 325 acres converted into a mix of low and medium density residential and commercial uses.
The ASP will be a continuation of the Ranch Market-style development east across George Freeman Trail to the boundary. The second ASP is for Lakeview Meadows located on the old town reservoir site. The concept the developer is presenting is to reshape the existing reservoir and plan for predominately large lot residential single-family dwellings. The plan is to also keep 40 acres of the reservoir as a public utility lot for storm water.
Parks, pathways and playgrounds
There have been numerous pathways which have been paved and beautified. There have also been a number of esthetic improvements made to roadways within the town, including the removal of old fences along major roadways.
New playground equipment has been purchased and installed in parks around town and old playground equipment was replaced in a few existing parks.
Strathmore Lakes Estates residents have improved their area esthetically and installed two new playgrounds at their own cost.
The town bought 10-acres of land east of Kinsmen Park, which will continue to be used for recreational purposes.
The tree-planting program continued strong this year, and there were additional trees planted along Centennial Drive, formerly East Lake Road, which had not originally been in this year’s program.
Industrial lands
Promoting the industrial land south of the highway remains a forefront issue on council’s mind. There are currently several service businesses interested in the land. There were 583 acres of land south of the highway which were re-designated for light, medium and heavy industrial uses. Additional lands are available for commercial and industrial development through private developers. A majority of the lands are already subdivided, serviced and ready for development.
Emergency equipment
Late in 2011 a HAZMAT Response Trailer was purchased for a very reasonable cost. There were also upgrades made to the Strathmore Fire Department (SFD) rescue and recovery boat. The side sonar and noise cancelling headphones were bought thanks to generous donation from a local developer. The new equipment will give the SFD a bit of an upper hand while searching for someone in the water, and will hopefully allow for more rescues than recoveries.
Centennial
A number of centennial projects and events took place to commemorate Strathmore being 100 years young. Councillor Bob Sobol stated at the Jan. 4 council meeting that thanks to the support of the community, both financially and through volunteers, there was a surplus of $12,997.99 from all of the events.
Ridge road
Ridge Road was in rough shape early last year and construction began just after Heritage Days. Everything was complete on time. The new work included widening the road and adding sidewalks to the north side, in front of the businesses.
Bio solids contracts
Strathmore will be saving money this year after completing the prep work and approvals for hauling bio-solids to International Compost Ltd. located north of town. A Memorandum of Understanding with Earth Renew was signed for the long-term disposal of organics.
Wildflower reservoir
The engineering and design assessment on the new Wildflower water Reservoir was awarded to Associated Engineering in September and is already 50 per cent complete. The construction of the project is expected to cost approximately $10 million, and on Jan. 5 an open house was held to hear residents concerns.
Other projects around town
Last year the Town had a brochure made up to promote Strathmore. Of the 5,000 copies, there are only 300 left and there are plans to soon begin drafting a new brochure.
Though the roads haven’t really needed it this winter, when the snow does come Strathmore will be better prepared. Last year a five-ton truck with a plow and sandbox was purchased.
The electronic community events sign located on the south and west side of town will be upgraded by the end of January. There will be new software used, and it should be running by the end of the month.
Council and administration are currently negotiating the installation of a major sewer line with developers and landowners on the north and east sides of town.
The BNR Waste Water Treatment Plant has been completed.
Council and administration have been very involved in discussions on various options for the highway bypass.
Phase 2,3 and 4 of the Aquatic Centre was completed early in 2011. The centre now has a leisure pool, hot tub, water slide, and multi-purpose rooms.
A majority of the costs incurred by the Town of Strathmore, WADEMSA and Wheatland County during last January’s severe storm have been recovered.
The garbage contract has been renegotiated and signed for another three-year term.
There was a renegotiation of a major contract with EPCOR.
The tertiary effluent line to the Bow River has been extended.
Assistance was offered for the Slave Lake disaster and there have been numerous other small contracts and projects completed in 2011.