Council Debrief: Concerning What’s In The Ground

Council starts out, and ends, this month on a celebratory note, marking the return of the town’s annual Canada Day festivities - the first since 2019 - and noting some national observances this month. June is Filipino Heritage Month as well as Indigenous History Month in Canada. The very day of the meeting, June 21, is National Indigenous Peoples Day with events across the Country. Council recognizes these, and notes the huge local celebration of Filipino Heritage Month this past weekend, as well as congratulating the graduating class of 2022.

Manager of Operations Denis Saquet has a brief but important update for the Council this month. Water continues to be a huge problem in the area, both for town operations and for private residents, with record waterflows running through the wastewater station. While the town is dealing with road washouts, Saquet recommends that people check their basements for water, even if they’ve never had it before, and to avoid draining their sump pumps into the town sewer system. The water table is extremely high and there is yet more moisture on the way. Despite the challenges, the town has seen no wide-scale system failures during this time. Ironically, dust suppression has been an issue in town on roads that are due to be repaved this summer.

There was a petition to Council this month to reopen a pet cemetery that had been located on land later assumed by the town north of Highway 16 and next to the Kingdom Hall. It has not been used in some time, but the location is still known and unused for other purposes. The original pet cemetery was an understanding between the landowner and local residents and no official documentation of its use was recorded.

In other cemetery news, Council also discusses the ordering of new columbaria for the cemetery. Demand for interment in columbaria has been steadily increasing, and it is more time and cost effective to order and install more than one at a time.

While the town has not yet assessed their damage from this year’s flooding, they pass a resolution requesting disaster financial assistance from the province. A full assessment will be made later regarding what repairs the town will have to make, which will certainly include actions to protect the culvert system at park lake, but in the meantime, this resolution is required so that private citizens who have already recorded significant damage can begin to apply for assistance.

We see the second reading for the new bylaw regarding regulations for vehicles for hire, however thanks to a motion by Counsellor Kostenchuk, the third reading of the bylaw was tabled in a split vote to the July 19th meeting. This is to allow for a delegation to come and speak to Council on the issue before they take a final vote.

On Tuesday, June 28th an important presentation will be taking place at the town office regarding the upcoming Municipal Election and the process for running for council as well as the expectations for the position. Everyone is welcome at this event, not just people interested in running for Council, and it promises to be very educational on the operations of municipal government.

Also covered were the region library report, thanks to the Men’s Shed for the new planters at the clinic, a call for participants in the FoodCycler program, and the regular financial statements.

As we head into summer, Council will be reducing their number of monthly meetings from two to one for the months of July and August.