The town council of Outlook met for a regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday night, September 22. Present were councillors Justin Turton, Sharon Bruce, Ryan Husband, Kevin Grotheim, and Kyle McLeod, as well as Mayor Maureen Weiterman, Chief Administrator Kevin Trew, and office clerk Crystal Fisher. Absent was Councillor Bob Stephenson.
The meeting was broadcast live on Facebook.
A number of topics and items were discussed, including the following highlights.
Council went in-camera for a discussion on personnel before the meeting.
Bylaws
The second and third readings were held and carried for Bylaw 10(2021) - Joint Protective Services Agreement.
In discussing Bylaw 12(2021) - Municipal Heritage Property, which dealt with declaring the upcoming Veterans Memorial Park property at the corner of McKenzie Street and Saskatchewan Avenue as a Municipal Heritage Property, Councillor Turton and Mayor Weiterman declared a conflict of interest and excused themselves. All three readings were held and carried.
Reports of Administration, Staff and Committees
On the topic of raw water intake, it was said that the town has had troubles with the system lately. A plan with Associated Engineering has been determined and Council will meet with them prior to making a confirmed decision on how to move forward. A motion was made and carried to have Associated Engineering proceed with studies.
In addition, discussion on stormwater outfalls led to the decision to have the town contract with Associated Engineering at a cost of $81,000 to commence on work related to the outfalls, said to be three of them.
Council agreed to the sale of a 2012 Ford Fusion car to Barry Kubashek at a cost of $6,050.
Mayor Weiterman, speaking from her mayoral notes, reminded everyone that she would be sitting in with her weekly Monday morning open house sessions at the town offices for anyone who wished to come and speak with her about any particular issues.
Unfinished Business
On the topic of the railyard subdivision, it was carried that Acadia Construction would begin Phase 1 of the project work at an approximate cost of $793,550 + taxes, to be done by October 31.
In discussing the town's strategic plan, it was determined that staff would come up with a list of goals they'd like to see the town achieve, and Administrator Trew will also be reaching out to other communities to see if there's any interest in a presentation by Doug Griffiths, an Alberta co-author of the book, '13 Ways to Kill Your Community'. A motion was carried to bring Griffiths to Outlook to speak to Council on October 21.
New Business
In discussing an amendment to Policy EMP-005, the topic dealt with how the Town wanted to proceed with September 30, which will be the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The choice to either close for the day or remain open for business has been left to business owners to decide. Administrator Trew questioned whether some would take the point of the day to heart or just treat it "like any other holiday". Council decided that the Town will bring this topic back next year to see if they can perhaps plan some type of notable event to coincide with the day.
A motion was made and carried to provide funds for town employees to undertake any additional training should it be needed.
In discussing the Recreation Committee that will be comprised of members of the public, a motion was carried to appoint Ron Klassen to the committee.
Highlights of Chief Administrator Report
Prepared by CAO Kevin Trew
Policy and Procedural Items:
Strategic Planning – We have received pretty good feedback from the public regarding our strat plan mission and values with 78 people having filled out the survey. There was a little confusion regarding whether we were asking for a rating of the Town on achieving theses values OR we were asking for a rating on these values of how important they were to be on our strat plan. It was the latter – I am confident that most people understood that and there are always a few glitches in surveys. We plan to go to the public with another survey after we have prepared the goals of the plan in late October.
We had put together an aggressive plan for completion of the strategic plan, we will not have it complete for the 2nd meeting of Council in October, however we still expect to have it for the first meeting in November – in time to feed discussions around budget 2022; the next step is to have an all staff brainstorming session in October to come up with goals for all aspects of the Town.
Effective governance – We are pleased that the Clinic bylaw is complete with the RMs of Fertile Valley and Rudy; we expect to begin operating under the new bylaws very soon, the joint protective services bylaw is progressing nicely as well for implementation January 1, 2022; we have met with key staff members to discuss a new landfill bylaw, procedures around operations of the landfill as well as conversations regarding waste pick up in Outlook which will both feed the new bylaw, we are hoping to have a draft bylaw in Council’s hands in October for first reading.
Competent Team – As has recently been pointed out to me by a staff member, competency should be a given and to ask for feedback from the public to this regard has risks; my response is that this is something that we are working on – I am confident that we have a fantastic team that is more than competent, it is valuable to have all of our stakeholders feel as confident.
Successes:
The Railyards Subdivision is finally coming together – with approval from community planning and the majority of the dirt hauled, we proceeded to tendering construction and are hopeful of the work to be done in 2021 for Council to approve purchase prices for private development on the first 13 lots early in 2022.
We are looking for a couple more members at large for the Recreation Committee, while currently the committee is geared mostly toward recreation, we are morphing it toward Community Development including tourism and economic development as well as recreation – we are hoping to find a diverse group of community champions to join this committee.
We met with Highways Minister Bradshaw and MLA Skoropad to discuss the state of Highway 15 as well as the bypass.
Mayor Weiterman and MLA Skoropad have started office hours in room 5 at the Town Hall Complex – Monday Mornings with the Mayor started September 13 and the MLA will be here once per month on Fridays – drop ins are accepted.
Much needed pavement has begun in the Town of Outlook – we did some surface repair on the highway and we expect the residential areas in greatest need to proceed and be completed in late September/early October.
Learning Opportunities/Capacity Development:
The Civic Center renovation is taking quite a bit longer than we expected initially – we have made a few adjustments to the plan to serve the community better, adjustments that have delayed construction but are going to be worth the wait; we are still awaiting costing for the addition of air conditioning in the Civic Center – we expect that the air conditioning quote will be presented to Council shortly for approval – Council has informally stated that this is a priority for the facility to make it useable in the summer months.
The Town has filed a code of ethics violation complaint with the Urban Municipal Administrators Association of Saskatchewan (UMAAS) and we have been informed that the ethics committee has met in late August and they are making contact with the former CAO for her story – we have yet to hear the results of this committee meeting.
Current Unfinished Projects:
The Storm Water Outfalls project has slowed due to delays in engineering, Council will see a quote for the engineering of the remaining 3 outfalls project so that all 4 can be complete in 2022. We will have received the majority of the grant funding from the Canada Community Building Fund(formerly known as the Gas Tax Fund).
Landfill Decommissioning of Old Cell – Council has awarded the engineering of the decommission to Associated Engineering; construction tenders are expected to go out this winter and capping and closing off is expected early in 2022.
Raw Water Intake/ Water Treatment Plant Upgrade Project – Council has requested a water study from Associated Engineering, this is the first step in the process for this project – once Council receives this information, decisions can be made to the supply of water and then an engineer to plan and oversee the project can be selected and then tenders for construction – this project is expected to be complete by June 30, 2024.
Subdivisions Projects
Residential – we are still awaiting concept plans from Urban Systems to the Mann Street subdivision and staff is looking at the feasibility of the College South as a residential development after the development of Mann Street, but before expansion to the east of Mann Street.
Highway Commercial – The drainage plan is part of the Mann Street Residential and the concept plan – this is priority 2 for subdivisions.
Engaging Partnership Agreements
Council is meeting with Chief and Council of Whitecap Dakota First Nation shortly to discuss relationship building and areas of common interest.
Future Projects:
The Civic Address Registry project (Crystal) will update and incorporate all civic addresses in Town of Outlook to support mapping for emergency services providers and an update as well as formal input of condition assessments and asset values as a part of asset management (Zach) are both projects awaiting training/additional software before proceeding.
