Wheatland County year in review

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Wheatland County saw some productive steps forward in 2014 and hope to continue them into 2015.
Reeve Glenn Koester could not have been any happier with the tireless workers who worked the extra-long winter days earlier this year to make the county roads safer.
“In my perspective, we had a pretty rough spring for snow, and I know a lot of people thought we had too much snow,” said Koester. “I really appreciated our crews putting in extra time and they really worked hard to keep the roads open.
“For the most part we’re blessed with some really good staff at the county.”
Koester is optimistic, after a heavy snow removal year in 2014, that 2015 will be somewhat easier on the snow clearing staff.
“Well I think we packed them harder this year, (with) it being an unreal snow event year, so they met the challenge and succeeded. Hopefully this year (2015) is a lot easier on them and so far it has been,” said Koester.
He thought that council meetings in 2014 were very productive and county plans that had been passed are a step in the right direction in the future.
“I thought we had a pretty productive council year. We got our municipal development plan passed, we had some turnover in staff in the planning departments (and) our land use bylaw had fallen,” said Koester.
“I was hoping that would be getting close to being done, but I think they should be starting that now. It seemed to be we got some good staff there, hopefully they stay.”
One of the major highlights was the Alberta Government providing the county with a grant to help with costs of the water project.
“We got $9 million from the provincial government for our water project that we’re partnered with Rockyford, Standard and Hussar. It’s not enough money to finish it, but it’s a start and they seem committed to the project as money becomes available,” said Koester.
As a result of the grant, 2015 will be off to constructive start with the continuation of the water project and the other developments of the Wheatland area.
“(In) 2015, we’re looking to contract out some roads for comparison purposes, (and) build them. We have some reserves that we’ve been saving some money for these projects for a while,” said Koester. “It’s going to look like we’re spending a lot of extra money, but it’s money that’s been put aside for these projects. It’s going to be a high expenditure year, but it’s going (towards) doing lots of work we don’t usually do.”