The Outlook town council held a regularly-scheduled meeting on the night of Wednesday, October 11.
A number of topics and issues were discussed, including the following highlights:
- On the topic of notable donations that are made to the town, Councillor Dave Simonson said he would like all of council to be notified of such transactions as they occur in order to keep the public informed and be able to answer questions on such matters, as it may not make council look good when a citizen appears to know about a donation before any councillor does.
- A report is expected from the Machibroda engineering firm out of Saskatoon in relation to the slope stability study that was done for the town, and it’s possible that dewatering may not be an option.
- The demolition of the building at 228 Franklin Street in town is slated to be done after the natural gas is removed from the premises.
- At the Rec Plex, the ice has been installed and is ready to go for another hockey and skating season.
- AED machines have been upgraded in town facilities.
- Construction of the town’s new swimming pool facility continues to be coming together nicely, but the project may be facing some uphill battles ahead as there are questions that still require answers. A representative of the community of Foam Lake, consulting on Outlook’s project, apparently feels that Outlook may be unprepared for what it’s getting into, citing issues at Foam Lake such as staffing and a number of other factors that come with opening such a facility. The Foam Lake committee worked for upwards of 6-7 years on all facets of their project before it came together, and members of Outlook’s pool committee visited the facility along with this reporter to ask questions and explore the possibilities just before it opened in the summer of 2014.
- As it relates to staffing the future pool, it was said that there are over a dozen students at Outlook High School that could be hired as possible lifeguards.
- A meeting may need to happen soon to establish a logo for the pool, as well as talks surrounding naming rights and sponsorship branding.
- As well, an idea came up about the town hosting a “pool preview” event that would be open to the public and highlight the progress of the project, as well as seek additional donors if need be. Such an event would take place next spring, likely in late April after the water slides are scheduled to be installed.
- After the drinking water advisory that affected all of Outlook two weeks ago, there was concern related to the timeliness of the delivery of notices, with a number of people voicing their concerns and opinions on social media. While it was countered that the notices were in fact delivered in as quick a manner as possible, Councillor Maureen Applin brought up a service known as NotifyNOW, a mass-notification system being used by Saskatoon, Regina and Warman that could be explored in the future for Outlook.
- The town is looking to honor and recognize Outlook’s firefighters with a banquet event in the near future, including the distribution of exemplary service medals. This is seen as being overdue, particularly after the busy 2017 that the fire department has had.
- The town approved the request of the Outlook Arts Council to explore naming rights for the art gallery, with the organization looking to raise their profile and generate more funding for the local arts sector. Council had no issue with the request, but as long as the town still had use of the gallery space when needed, and they would also prefer to have prior approval of any major naming decisions.
- The town approved the introduction of a debit machine for use at the Outlook landfill to collect fees, and in the future, they may look at implementing the use of debit in the town offices.
