OUTLOOK - The town council of Outlook met for a regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday night, January 12. Present were Councillors Kyle McLeod, Bob Stephenson, Justin Turton, and Kevin Grotheim, as well as Mayor Maureen Weiterman, Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Trew, and office clerk Crystal Fisher. Councillor Ryan Husband appeared electronically. Absent was Councillor Sharon Bruce.
The meeting was broadcast on the Town of Outlook Facebook page.
A number of topics and items were discussed, including the following highlights.
Bylaws
In discussing Bylaw No. 1 (2022) Utility Services Bylaw, Administrator Trew recommended that Council hold the first reading of the bylaw. After some discussion, the first reading was carried by Council.
Public Works Report
Prepared by Luke Lockhart
Superintendent of Operations
Transportation:
- We have been keeping up with sanding streets as needed, and clearing out drifted in areas around town; we did a full scrape of the highways, and downtown prior to Christmas and will be removing the ridges starting today. Moving forward on snow removal, we will continue to take it as it comes and keep on top of it, including sanding, removal, and “rut control.”
- “Hive” sidewalk – shall we just clear snow as it comes, and invoice accordingly.
Utilities:
- We have started raising the distribution pressure at the water plant as per Associated’s report; it is currently at 56 PSI, with one more increase coming on Thursday to 60 PSI.
Environmental Health:
- The brakes have been repaired on the compactor, we have been going hard on the cell compacting and shaping to try to accommodate consumers better.
- The cold weather we experienced last week, and into this week provided a challenge for garbage pickup, but Darren, Lee, and “Betsy” pulled through, so I would like to publicly acknowledge them for their perseverance… Great work!
General Public Works:
- We will be taking down the remainder of our display in the park this week.
- Pole Christmas decorations will be removed early next week.
- Any slow times we have in the near future will be spent building/fixing barricades, and organizing/cleaning the shop and depot building.
Recreation Report
Prepared by Megan Anthony
Recreation Director
Operations Report:
Over the Christmas Holidays the RecPlex saw a lot of issues.
1. The Curling Rink Ice Plant had major refrigerant leaks and when the refrigerant got too low the plant shut off. When the staff checked the plant the next day the ice had already separated from the pad. We were unable to repair the ice as is so we removed all the ice and will be restarting to make ice the week of January 3rd. My recommendation is to hook the curling ice plant up to our computer program to allow us the opportunity to be notified if there are high temperatures so we can resolve any issues quicker. I have reached out to our Delta Controls company to receive a quote to implement this.
2. We had a water pipe freeze in the Olympia room and could not get a hold of multiple plumbing companies. We had KALM Mechanical in to soder the pipe back together which was successful. My recommendation to prevent this from happening again is to get all of our water lines insulated, add weather stripping to the overhead door and possibly replace our heater with a bigger garage heater if the weather stripping and insulated pipes don’t solve the problem.
3. A pump in our boiler room started sparking and smoking during an ice hawks game. We have Living Skies coming out Tuesday January 4th, 2022 to assess the issue but I foresee us needing a new pump. This should hopefully be covered under insurance.
*Update: Living Skies replaced the motor and it is working great now!
- Adult Recreational Sports have started as of January 3rd. We have Rec Volleyball on Monday and Wednesday nights. Mondays from 8:00-10:00 pm at LCBI and Wednesdays from 7:00-9:00 pm at OHS. Pickleball will start up at OES on Fridays from 7:00-9:00 pm.
There is a $5.00 drop in fee which we will donate back to the Schools.
Management Report:
- I have started staff development with each of my full time employees. We will be working on identifying their strengths and weaknesses as well as their interests so I can better help them be successful in our department. We will continue having staff meetings once every two weeks to discuss all cleaning/maintenance lists, fire protocols and any other topics that may need to be discussed.
- The summer season is right around the corner so I have started organizing staff requirements, to do lists and schedules.
- Grants are starting to open up again so I am preparing to apply for the Parks for All Action Grant, Framework in Action Grant and the Leadership Development Grant. I am working on getting quotes for multiple projects we could potentially do in 2022 funded by grants.
- I am still working on the emergency procedure plan for the Rec Plex and I am hoping to have it done by February. The Fire Procedure plan has been completed and we will be doing a test run with user groups by the end of January to early February. We will do another test run in October prior to the hockey season starting up.
- I will be putting out our summer job ads mid February and will be conducting interviews mid April.
Unfinished Business
Speaking on the status of the Civic Centre renovations, it was described as something of an ongoing "nightmare", as described tongue-in-cheek by Trew.
It was said that the large overhead door located at the southwest corner of the building, which was installed in the Civic Centre's early years, caused some of the structure's integrity to be jeopardized and went undiscovered until contractors removed the interior walls and insulation. The project manager, Walker Projects, did not know of this and once it was discovered, it was said that the general contractor could only do some of the work before this was resolved. By this point, it was now deemed a danger to the public, and the contractors couldn't complete the next phases until the project manager made changes to the structure in order to mitigate the problem, so workers left the site until new drawings were prepared and costing could be established. This was wrapped up in late November and crews are back on the job now.
The Town expects the work to be completed prior to February 28, and they expect to have staff in preparing, cleaning and maintaining prior to the building opening for use on March 1.
The cost of the Civic Centre renovations is still expected to come in under the original budget, as the total costs are now estimated at $475,000. The initial budget and funds allocated to the project included the MEEP grant ($327,557), an accessibility grant ($100,000), and Civic Centre reserves ($65,500), coming to a total of $493,057.
New Business
Discussing Raw Water Supply Recommendations, the following resolution was passed by Council:
That Council approve proceeding with further analysis regarding the viability of Induced Surface Water Infultration Wells within the alluvial sands along the South Saskatchewan River and that we approve Phases 1 and 2 of the Hydrogeological Investigation as presented by Associated Engineering at a cost of $348,700 as well as the purchase and installation of flow monitoring equipment on the Riverview Golf Course Raw Water Main at the cost approval at the discretion of the CAO, within his already established maximum purchasing authority on budgeted items.
It was said that there was speculation that Riverview Golf Course may wish not to be a part of the new raw water intake and that they may wish to be gifted the existing intake facilities. Trew said that the conversation has not been had with either raw water users at this time, however they both wrote letters supporting the application for grant. Trew noted that the Town of Outlook will open discussions with both groups when it is time, and the work being approved at this Council meeting will not be affected by the future plans of Riverview Golf Club or Westside Utility to be a part of the new water source or not. The Town of Outlook has not discussed this with either partner and has plenty of time for discussion in the coming months, he said. It was pointed out that the work approved at this meeting will take a good part of 2022 to complete.
Mayor and Councillor's Forum
Councillor McLeod said that the town's public works staff should be commended, particularly for being out and about doing their jobs in the recent extreme cold snap that gripped Outlook and the surrounding area. Those in the room agreed, and gave special mention to everyone who works for the Town for the effort they've made.
The Town's 2022 Preliminary Operations budget was discussed in-committee and it was said that there is a bit more work to do prior to making a presentation at an open meeting. It's possible that it may come up at the next Council meeting.
