The town council of Outlook met for a regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday night, August 28.聽 Present was all of council; Donna Smith, Kevin Grotheim, Kyle McLeod, Maureen Applin, Floyd Childerhose, and David Simonson, as well as Mayor Ross Derdall, Acting Administrator Rachel Sillers, Public Works Coordinator Bonnie Pshyk, Recreation Director Jordy Jones, and Superintendent of Municipal Operations Luke Lockhart.
A number of topics and items were discussed, including the following highlights.
Old Business/Business Arising
On the topic of bylaw enforcement in town, Councillor Applin noted that the WaterWolf organization is having a Regional Planning Forum in Strongfield this November that will include information on the Community Safety Officer Program.聽 Applin also passed on information to Rachel on a possible Commissionaire.
Recreation
Fall Registration Night is set to be held on September 11 at the Jim Kook Rec Plex starting at approximately 7:00 pm.
The Town is working on getting involved with the upcoming trade show, and they鈥檙e looking into purchasing new pop-up banners that would feature the updated Town of Outlook logo.聽 A motion was made and carried to approve spending of up to $1000 for two new banners.
Jones noted that the recently held concert put on by SaskExpress at the Civic Centre was 鈥渁mazing鈥�.聽 A total of 330 tickets were sold for the show, and Jones said he would love to look into getting more of that type of entertainment into Outlook, as the show seemed to attract a hefty number of visitors to the community.
Jordy and Councillor Smith met recently to brainstorm about the Potato Festival, discussing committee options.聽 No concrete details about the event are known at this time, other than the summer of 2020 is being explored as a date.
New Business
Discussion related to Bylaw 08/19 鈥� A Bylaw to Establish Water and Sewer Rates was tabled until the next council meeting.
Another item tabled until the next meeting was related to Piccolo Pizza鈥檚 request for a tax abatement, but it was said that granting the request could be seen as 鈥渙pening a can of worms鈥� as there are similar businesses in town who may seek out such a request in the future.
Lagoon Dredging
In the Infrastructure Committee notes, it was said that the recent dredging of the town鈥檚 lagoon did not increase its capacity, and therefore there is no capacity to accommodate those outside of town who wish to access it.聽 Ensuring that the lagoon access is solely for the Town of Outlook ratepayers is vitally important in this situation, it was said.聽 It was recommended that the Town enter into an agreement with Solnicka Septic Services until the end of the year, and a motion was made and carried to move forward on such an agreement.
General
The Town made a motion to file correspondence after receiving a letter from a resident related to concerns over their water pressure.聽 The Town takes such matters seriously, and it was said that in the summertime, low water pressure at times is 鈥渙ne of those things that can just happen鈥� with so much varied usage in the entire community.聽 They suggested that a pressure booster may work, but the resident replied that they shouldn鈥檛 have to invest more money into something that is the Town鈥檚 problem.
Public Works/Transportation
There are several dead trees on Prairie Avenue that need to be removed.聽 As well, there are trees affected by fire blight at the former Quadra building on Progress Avenue, and the Town is set to remove the affected ones, as well as trees that are close to the building鈥檚 foundation.
The temporary pump continues to work fine for the Town鈥檚 raw water intake, and a special algae sample was sent for analyzation.
A motion was made and carried to accept a bid for $5000 from Strait Line Fencing for fencing around the lagoon.
A motion was made and carried to contract ASL Paving Ltd. to pave Chow Crescent.
A motion was made and carried to pay the entirety of a bill related to the dredging of the lagoon.聽 It was said that the Town is already over-budget on initiatives related to the lagoon, with the dredging, construction of a dry bed and fencing to be done.
Council moved into in-camera talks at the end of the regular meeting.聽 The following items were listed on the in-camera agenda:
- Planning & Development
- Land 鈥� Camp Outlook
- Personnel
