OUTLOOK - The town council of Outlook met for a regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday night, August 21. Present was all of Council; Bob Stephenson, Sharon Bruce, Kyle McLeod, Justin Turton, Ryan Husband, and Kevin Grotheim, as well as Mayor Maureen Weiterman, CAO Kevin Trew, and Assistant Administrator Rachel Sillers.
The meeting was broadcast on the Town of Outlook's official Facebook page.
A number of topics and items were discussed, including the following highlights.
Bylaws
Council discussed old bylaws related to the Official Community Plan and Zoning, dated from 2014 and having been operated from during the last decade. CAO Trew stated that a number of amendments have been made to the Zoning bylaw since that time, as well as there having been a number of inconsistencies related to both the Zoning and Official Community Plan; namely, that both can be restrictive at times and hinder the intended community development of the town of Outlook.
Furthermore, a number of errors found in the updated versions of the bylaws and corrections that had to be made saw Council rescind the 2nd and 3rd readings of both updated bylaws before officially holding another pair of both 2nd and 3rd readings. All the necessary passing and carrying of the rescinded bylaws, followed by the passing and carrying of the updated bylaws were then carried out by Council.
Communications Requiring Action or Decision
Next, Council discussed a petition that the town had received regarding the wish to see a public meeting held in Outlook. Local resident Matthew Lawless was the lead petitioner, and Trew provided some information on the process of presenting a petition, and also shared that as part of the upcoming open house to be held at the Civic Centre on September 4, a portion of the evening will be dedicated to a public meeting.
Trew said the petition filed by Mr. Lawless on August 7 was found to be insufficient. It was signed by 149 eligible voters of the Town of Outlook, which is 6.4% of the population and a sufficient number that eclipsed past the required 5% that a petition needs. However, the petition failed to provide a specific topic or subject matter for such a meeting to be centered on, which is the other requirement for a sufficient petition.
Trew suggested that the people who signed the petition be contacted and notified of the upcoming public meeting on September 4.
Council is looking forward to the meeting, hopeful that it sheds light on a number of topics and answers questions that some residents may have about things going on in their community.
Delegations
Three delegates appeared before Council; Con Hammer, Sandra Anderson, and Susan Robertson, who spoke on the SkyTrail walking bridge from the viewpoint of their newly-created group, the SkyTrail Trailblazer Committee. The group spoke to Council about their proposal for operating the bridge.
The group's proposal was a simple one - seeing the SkyTrail reopen for use 24 hours a day at no charge to would-be users. However, Hammer did mention that a donation box would be situated at the trail entrance, should anyone wish to contribute to the maintenance of the bridge.
"SkyTrail is a focal point for tourism and enjoyed by residents of Outlook, surrounding communities and visitors at no charge, and supported by donations and grants," said Con, reading from the group's proposal.
The committee's mission is to "provide safe access to people to work and enjoy the natural beauty and scenery from SkyTrail", and they feel there is an opportunity to see outdoor activities heighten in the community, should the bridge be reopened to the public. As well, partnerships with the local museum and the regional park may prove beneficial for the amenity and the committee, with a handful of people already attached, is always looking for more people to join their group and cause.
Robertson pointed out that at a recent meeting she'd attended with the Dakota Dunes Community Development Corporation, she learned that there's a third-level granting opportunity that equates to $25,000 plus multi-year potential, so there could be the potential for a funding partner to come onboard as it relates to the SkyTrail. Of course, such a venture requires a significant proposal to be put together, and the thought process from the committee's perspective is that they'd like to know the Town's direction with the bridge before committing themselves to venturing down the path of hopeful funding.
After the group left, it was said that after Robertson gets some more paperwork to the Town, it'll be discussed further at the next Council meeting.
Reports of Administration, Staff and/or Committees Requiring Decision
On the topic of the new fire hall, Trew shared that a cost estimate came in for building the new facility at a cost of $1-$1.2 million, and that as of this meeting, cash and committed funds totalled $726,000.
Unfinished Business
Staying on the topic of the new fire hall, discussion moved over to the lot subdivision of the area. It was said that the RM of Rudy has made an offer to pay the Town of Outlook for 50% ownership of the property. After providing some dollar figure amounts, the recommendation was made that the town council authorize the sale of 50% share of the fire hall lot to the RM of Rudy for $32,441.10, cost of water/sewer and service lines, and the full cost of subdivision included. The motion was made to follow through with the sale, and it was carried.
New Business
The Riverbank Rodeo in town, which just had another successful weekend over August 16 & 17, wraps up its three-year lease agreement with the town on December 31 of this year. It was said that the current location, just south of LCBI High School in the northwest part of town, was always going to be a temporary spot for the event and organizers knew that, and now there's a desire to have a permanent home for the summertime event.
The rodeo committee has expressed interest in setting up future events on the sportsgrounds of the Jim Kook Rec Plex location; specifically, at the south end of the property in what's currently known as the nursery. Trew said that such a plan for that space fits well with the town, and the logistics are currently being worked out between the town's community development team and the rodeo committee, with the intention to produce a draft lease agreement for Council's approval in September.
Assistant Administrator Report
Prepared by Rachel Sillers
Administration has undertaken the change to providing our pre-authorized debit (PAD) program through our integrated Munisoft software. The extension has been installed on our network and we have taken the preliminary training to convert our current subscribers from manual to automatic payments through the system. While we do not anticipate any service disruption during the change, we are waiting until August is closed to take the first payments in the month of September. We currently have over 300 monthly PADs being processed with more being added on a regular basis.
During the week of July 7th our corporate credit card was compromised by outside sources. Due to diligent monitoring by our Admin team the fraudulent charges were identified right away and I was able to cancel the card immediately. BMO has opened up an investigation and will keep us abreast of information as it becomes available. Any charges not made by the Town or its officers/employees will be reversed. While we don’t anticipate any financial repercussions from this event beyond not have access to credit for approximately 10 days, we do feel it prudent to revisit our current credit card handling procedure and update it accordingly. We will implement the changes upon the receipt of our replacement card. *Update: the investigation has been conducted and we have been credited for all disputed charges, the file is now closed.
We have reached the point in the year where we need to draw on our reserve funds for capital projects. During budget planning we had planned to borrow from our internal reserves as a part of our capital plan and sources of funding. We are making final payments to Accurate HD for the Stormwater Outfalls and continue to make progress payments to Strike Construction and Brunner’s Construction for Water and Sewer infrastructure projects, both of which were to be partially self-funded. We will be asking Council’s permission to close the Gas Tax Reserve (no longer required) and make transfers by project at the August 21st meeting.
Community Development Report
Prepared by Megan Anthony
Completed Projects:
- Summer Programs will be completed August 23rd. Both were very successful and had great turnouts and great feedback!
- Community Summer Programs will be wrapping up by August 30th.
- Communities in Bloom 2024 is completed - waiting for the full results! Thank you to our community members who participated in our local contests. Bank of Montreal won the Storefront Beautification and Storefront Window Art Contests. Kirsten Mertz won the Residential Beautification contest.
Ongoing Projects:
- HAF housing profiles & staying connected with involved stakeholders
- Re-visiting the Community Safety and Well-Being plan
- Pool Insurance Claim
- SUMA Golf planning for 2025
- Community Programs for fall/winter
- Advertisements
Upcoming Projects:
- Fall 2024 Hiring & Training
- Ice Making for 2024-2025 season
- Flower Order for 2025
- Budget/Capital Plan planning
- Open House information
- Website Revitalization
Successes and Challenges:
- Both summer programs were a success this year! The staff did an excellent job planning, organizing and implementing their activities.
- Fitness Classes with Laura were successful
- Parent and Tot Drop in programs were well attended - thank you to the Gymnastics club for partnering with us for the month of August
- Flowers were a bit of a challenge again this year for us - we have found and will be implementing further resources to improve our flower game for 2025.
- Swimming Pool Insurance Claim is still a bit of a challenge but we are moving forward.
