Council Debrief: Nearing the Home Stretch

This week’s Town Council meeting dove headlong into some public works issues that have been on almost everyone’s mind. Director of Operations Denis Saquet updates us on the progress of cleaning up last week’s blizzard, and the limitations of what the town can do with that type of heavy, wet snowfall. He also offers the statistic that in the average year the town will spend $40–60 thousand on snow removal. This year they have already spent $160 thousand, and with another storm forecast for this weekend, it’s not over yet.

As well, with the new reservoir at the water treatment plant nearing completion, Saquet wants to give the residents of Neepawa some advance warning about the process that will take place when the new reservoir is connected into the water system. At that time, the entire community will be placed on a planned boil water advisory. This is required when that disruption happens and does not mean that the water is contaminated. It is a precautionary measure that will be lifted as soon as the water can be tested again.

Saquet stresses that the community will be given plenty of notice when this is going to happen. He estimates that the disruption to the water supply itself will last a few hours, and the boil water advisory will be lifted within 3–4 days as long as there are no problems.
 
CAO Colleen Synchyshyn covers a few other matters of correspondence and community interest. The first is a Ukraine Humanitarian Fundraiser being run by the Grade 7 class in partnership with Neepawa-Gladstone Co-op. Synchyshyn also briefed council on the RCMP’s narrative report, which includes information on such things as traffic enforcement actions but also warnings about fraud reports and crimes to watch out for such as theft of gasoline.

While the 2022 Financial Plan public hearing took place outside of Council’s regular meeting, it came back to Council in the form of two actions including first reading of the motion to pass the budget as well as first reading of the bylaw to allow for the levying of taxes and related enforcement measures in 2022.

Councillor Parrott had a couple of final thoughts to close the meeting. One was to note that his term with Prairie Mountain Health is now complete, but the legacy of that term is the new hospital to be constructed in Neepawa. The other is a note that the Association of Manitoba Municipalities convention is this week, including a special announcement by the Premier.

That announcement turned out to be an investment of $25 million into the Building Sustainable Communities Program, more than doubling the previous contribution. The program supports planning activities, organizational capacity, building projects, community and regional initiatives, and capital infrastructure for public-use facilities and spaces.

Also covered were subdivision bylaws which had previously been discussed, a grant covering a portion of Dutch Elm Disease mandated tree removal, a new economic development website, and the purchase of a new loader.