Town Council Convenes

Council met at its regular date and time this past Monday, June 17, at 6p.m., with all five members of council returning to their seats.
Councillor Hutchison returned from a much deserved vacation to join with the rest of the council in discussing the past meeting’s agenda.
The council session started off with a presentation from the Chestermere cadet’s corps.
Captain Allan Schaber and his group present the Mayor and the council a plaque, thanking them for their tour of Town Hall a few weeks ago, as well as for being so supportive of the cadets over the past year.
The mayor in turn thanked the cadets for being such an integral part of the Chestermere community, and for all their hard work at the various festivals and events throughout the year. Council was very grateful for the gift from the corps.
Following a presentation from a private citizen, Darryl Schak of Associated Engineering made a presentation to the council about the state of two roads in Chestermere.
Range Road 281 and Township Road 241 are both in need of patching up, which almost anyone can tell just by driving on them. Associated Engineering assessed the damage, on January 25 of this year, to the roads and what steps should be taken to fix them.
Associated Engineering is choosing to tackle the project, should it be approved, by dividing the two roads into three sections. Range Road 281 is a section on its own, as the damage there was fairly extensive and could cost up to $132,000 to repair.
Township Road 241 was split into two section, west and east of the intersection at Range Road 281.
The east side of Township Road 241 was in fairly good shape, and was only estimated to cost about $22,000 to fix. The west side was another story.
West Township Road 241 had the most damage out of all the roads, and the estimated cost to fix it was around $280,000.
The most consistent ailment in all the roads was cracks in the asphalt, and organic matter underneath the roads from when they were initially conceived decades ago.
The concern of the council about the project is judging by the photos of the damaged roads, the high costs don’t seem to make sense. The roads are obviously in need of repair, but the costs don’t seem to add up. Council plans to look more into the issue in the future.
In addition to the roads presentation, council addressed the growing need to maintain the roads within town, which is estimated to cost around $25,000.
Wellness Alberta also had a proposal for council, regarding a highly specialized form of health care strictly for chronic illness. It would be an annual grant for preventative health care, and separate from province health care.
The money for such a program would be made through higher taxes on tobacco and liquor.
Council unanimously decided to oppose this new health care option, as the health care taxes in town are high enough, and the current system is doing its job.
Additionally, the multiple bids on an addition to the current Emergency Services (Mainly RCMP) building in town has led to the contract being handed out to Hughes Construction. The addition to the building should be completed by spring of 2015.
The mayor also noted that the 2015 Alberta 55+ games are taking place in the Town of Strathmore in the coming year, and encouraged residents to head out and support the games in the future.
In the closing minutes of council before the in-camera session, council touched on the recent and negatively received education tax hikes.
The Chestermere town council did everything in their power to both avoid the tax hike to begin with, and educate the citizens of its arrival.
The province made the decision to hike the education taxes, and there wasn’t anything the council could do about it, despite their tireless efforts.