Council Meeting Highlights for Feb. 21, 2012

Click here for Information on all of the background reports and minutes.

Webcast

To get the full flavour of how decisions are made tune into the webcast. The webcast is timed and titled so that you can refer immediately to your topic of interest.

RCMP 2011 Annual Report

Superintendent Steinke presented the annual statistical report. In order to balance the enforcement time between urban streets, school and playground zones and the higher volume collector and arterial roads, two photo radar units were working double time in the last half of 2011. 

Residents will have to be vigilant and increase reporting where they find speeding an issue in residential areas – as the mobile photo radar will cease in September 2012. Five new officers will have to take the place of the mobile units. 41,309 tickets were written in 2011 compared to 17,513 the year prior. 

Domestic and family violence are under reported and growing (up 31% over last year). In response to this, dedicated police resources are being added this year to coordinate investigations and drive an integrated domestic violence program in our community.

Criminal checks for volunteering with nonprofits who work with vulnerable people currently take in the range of 3 months to obtain – creating concern and frustration on the part of agencies and volunteers alike. New technology is scheduled to be in place by April to slash that wait time to a few weeks.     

Roundabouts Information Session

Modern Roundabouts are gaining popularity for their ability to move traffic in a safe free flow manner- so much so that Alberta has developed a new policy (bulletin #68/2010) requiring engineering consultants to review and access roundabouts as the first option for improvements in any existing or new intersections. I highly recommend residents review this presentation – especially slides #11 to 18: advantages and disadvantages.

Having said that, I found it frustrating to listen to provincial rationale to remove a stop sign on Josephburg Hwy 830 and add one to Twp Rd 550 this summer. Over 75 residents came out on February 22^nd to air their concerns over local traffic tie ups and fears of decreased safety.

Q4 Financial Report

The final report for 2011 reflected the significant activity residents saw throughout the year. 26 million dollars of capital spending was approved and put to good use in major projects such as Ardrossan Recreation Centre and Millennium Place. Roadwork included $4 million for Baseline improvements and another $3 million for residential roadways. The full report is available here.  

Net operating surpluses are reported at $6 million for municipal and $1.7 million for utility. Council approved allocation of these surpluses to reserves. An additional $0.6 million of library operating reserves was approved as allocated to library reserves.

E News Bulletin

I send out an E News Bulletin four times a month to residents. It is an opportunity for me to inform you of events and matters of interest to your family and neighbours in a timely manner. These electronic news flashes also help me to get your input and touch base with you. You are welcome to sign up at carr@strathcona.ab.ca

Council Meeting Highlights from Feb. 7, 2012

Feb. 7, 2012 was a relatively short day for Council with a two hour in-camera meeting prior to a four hour public meeting. Information on all of the background reports and minutes.

Webcast

To get the full flavour of how decisions are made tune into the webcast. The webcast is timed and titled so that you can refer immediately to your topic of interest.

Taxi Cab Service

Councillor Bidzinski brought forward residents concerns on taxi cab quality of service to both administration and Council. He referred to information from several Alberta municipalities. Council unanimously supported the concerns by directing administration to look further into options on improving conditions in the service available to Strathcona County.

I asked Administration to broaden the scope to look at innovative ways to improve safety, quality of service, increased numbers of wheel chair accessible vans, and fuel efficient vehicles. 

If we are going to create regulations, let’s ensure this fits well under our social, economic, environmental and economic sustainability framework. There are so many low cost improvements we could encourage to increase safety and quality of service. Putting a mileage or age limit on vehicles, creating a mandatory course for drivers on local road and tourism addresses and English as a second language, as well as limiting the number of consecutive hours of driving. I would also like to see consideration of a tiered lease system or P3 initiative to encourage use of fuel efficient and wheel chair accessible vehicles.

Snow Clearance Bylaw

For the sixth time in three years Council discussed the merits of a snow clearance bylaw. A lengthy discussion thoroughly covered, I believe, the residents issues. 

It is a complex issue with residents split 45:55 on any given day! The newly worded bylaw, while still complaint based, was by far, in my opinion the best attempt at a fair and just regulation. 

Excerpts include ‘Owners shall be responsible to remove all snow and ice from sidewalk ...within eight days following the initial deposit. Snow and ice will be considered removed when the sidewalk is cleaned for the entire width to the surface as completely and reasonably as possible.’ 

Councillors Bidzinski, Gariepy and Wlodarczak voted for first reading. Myself and Councillors Botterill, Fenske, Delainey, Riddell voted against.

So why did I vote against a reasonably worded bylaw? for a couple of solid reasons.

Currently, the County will act on your complaints about a negligent property owner by sending a notice.  How successful is this? Eighteen test locations are accessed for depth of snow and area sidewalk clearing compliance. In these test areas, 89% of sidewalks were clear in record snow falls last year. So out of the 11% of owners that did not clean their sidewalks – 7% responded to notices sent out (as a result of neighbour complaints). That means that only 4% were truly negligent. How much of your tax payer’s dollars do you want policing this?

I believe we should continue promoting the good neighbour policy and the Snow Busters program – a volunteer driven effort to help our physically challenged residents who do have difficulty clearing their walks.  

I believe that, in this case a bylaw would be an unnecessary example of over regulation. The additional concern I have is that it would raise public expectations beyond reality in respect to Strathcona County cleaning public walkways. The County takes about 15 days to clear the hundreds of kilometres of public sidewalks, trails and pathways. Our modern machinery cannot clear to the standard that you and I can with our shovels and small but mighty snow blowers! I cannot support a double standard of snow clearing – one for resident and one for the County!

Councillor Reports

Thanks to Councillor Delainey who asked to see a removal of age limit to increase the accessibility of the Snow Busters program to those who need it most.

Councillors Riddell and Wlodarczak updated Council on the drafts of new policy on meeting procedures and transparency.

Councillor Fenske talked about a number of fun activities going on in Good Hope, Brookville Hall this weekend. 

I reported on a planned meeting of the newly forming Bicycle Safety Citizens Group – please contact me if you would like to connect to the organizers and attend. All are welcome.

Residents who live in condos and co-ops share common issues. A new group has formed to share issues and solutions. Condo representatives are welcome to contact me for the contact information.

International Women’s Day Awards has launched its second year of celebrating the mentors and champions in our community. If you have seen the film documentary Miss Representation or are aware of the dismal statistics of women in leadership positions – you will know why it is so important for both women and men to acknowledge and applaud women who built our world and show the way to our younger generation. Please nominate those special individuals by February 17^th. 

E News Bulletin

I send out an E News Bulletin four times a month to residents. It is an opportunity for me to inform you of events and matters of interest to your family and neighbours in a timely manner. These electronic news flashes also help me to get your input and touch base with you. You are welcome to sign up at carr@strathcona.ab.ca