Rural addressing program questioned
Sharon McLeay
Times Contributor
Councillor Rex Harwood brought a resident’s concern about the rural addressing process to the attention of Wheatland County council on July 7. He said the resident had a property adjacent to a rural village and did not yet have an address designation. CAO Alan Parkin clarified how the process worked. Wheatland staff are working on the project and it is anticipated that the process with be complete in about one-and-a-half years.
“We are not going to focus on individual cases. We will do all the communities at once,” said Parkin.
In the past, addressing had been taken from utility company designations, but then the province stepped in to regulate a comprehensive addressing system that helps emergency response.
There are policies that dictate to the type of designation given to an acreage or farm adjacent to villages and hamlets. Parkin said the address is taken from the main access point on the property.
Dumping dilemma
Illegal dumping at transfer sites is an ongoing issue experienced throughout the county. Councillor Rex Harwood suggested council look at the usage card utilized by Camrose for its residents. County staff have set up a survey system at the various sites within Wheatland County, to document where the garbage is coming from. They have found urban residents are indeed utilizing the rural sites. However they are not pushing restrictions at this time.
“We found when we tightened up the site, people began dumping in the ditches,” said Councillor Don Vander Velde about the Carseland site.
Councillor Ben Armstrong said there is sometimes confusion about who can utilize the sites. For more information on hours operation and materials accepted from rural residents, check out the county website www.wheatlandcounty.com
WADEMSA 911 updates tracking system
Councillor Berniece Bland, in her report to council, indicated WADEMSA is required to have an upgraded 9-1-1 response program in place by 2016. The system will improve the crew’s information on call location and incorporate a tracking mechanism that can map the caller’s location. It can even be accessed by crew cell phones. One company proposed to supply the program at a cost of $1 million, but an alternate company can supply the service for $100,000. WADEMSA is hoping to get financing in place for the service and expects it will improve response to emergency situations.
WADEMSA responded to 1,708 calls in 2014.
Checkbook update
County spending remains steady this month with $4.9 million in financial reconciliations. Sandy Johal-Watt, Wheatland County Finance Manager, updated council on the monthly finances at the July 7 council meeting. She said investments were averaging about a 1.9 per cent return.
Johal-Watt said that there were 60 outstanding delinquent tax notices, which were delivered by hand by county officers, to ensure residents received the notices. She said there were about 5.6 per cent of taxes uncollected to date.
She also asked for a decision about credit cards used for business purchasing, as the current purchase program doesn’t have the module software that directly downloads amounts spent to accounting programs. The appropriate system would cut time spent on record keeping and increase efficiency.
“In 2013, Chinook thought they could meet our goals, however they are not there yet,” said CAO Alan Parkin.
He said department purchases can be larger amounts than the current credit card limits of $25,000. It was suggested the use of a purchasing card would be a better alternative. The county is currently using MasterCard for purchases and will continue the practise until a new tender can be found for the desired software/financial supplier. As per council’s wishes, Chinook and ATB will be the County of Wheatland’s overall financial services providers. Reeve Glenn Koester said although the purchasing cards make more funds available, if due diligence is paid to spending and all the checks and balances are in place, there shouldn’t be any problem with departments using the purchasing cards.