Council Debrief -- Still Business As Usual While the Mayor’s Away

For just the third time in his tenure on Council, Deputy Mayor Hedley chaired this week’s town council meeting while Mayor McCutcheon was out of town.

At the meeting we saw updates on a couple of ongoing projects, including the local Handivan and the revitalisation of Park Lake. The Handivan will be introducing new rates for usage going forward, and Council also addressed a question regarding the position of operator, clarifying that the current operator is on a temporary contract while the review of the Handivan operations is completed and the position will be posted publicly following that.

While Manager of Operations Denis Saquet did not report at this meeting, Council accepted a tender for the replacement of Park Lake bridge, to the tune of about $1.181 million dollars. That amount is fully funded by the Disaster Financial Assistance that Neepawa is receiving from the provincial government.

A concern was raised from the public about the speed limit on Davidson Street near the public pool and park, where particularly during the summer months there are several children in the area. Council discussed which options were viable and which weren’t for that section of street, including speed bumps or signage, but no action will be taken until it can be discussed with the Manager of Operations.

On the good news front, Council announced they received funding to support their Canada Day celebrations this year, which will go towards the fireworks display.

As well, we had a couple of other quick business items, including the passing of a zoning bylaw that was necessary for the applicant to begin the process with the regional planning board, and the second and third readings of the elections bylaw that was introduced at the last meeting. Council also passed a motion to apply 10 outstanding utilities amounts to the outgoing tax bills, as permitted under section 252 of The Municipal Act.

Finally, Councillor Parrott shared a private members statement about Neepawa that  our MLA Eileen Clarke read in the legislature on March 9.