The council meeting for the town of Carlyle received welcome news from the RCMP, as well as plans for further residential expansions at the April 4 council meeting.
The council received two delegations at their most recent meeting, the first being a presentation from Bullee Consulting engineer, Lawrence Lukey.
Lukey arrived early to deliver updates on the proposed sewer and lagoon projects, as well as news about the water treatment plant.
Lukey also had with him four initial plans for the phase III residential development on the south side of town.
In reference to the lagoon and sewer, Lukey was quizzed by council members regarding his expectations for how long between tendering for the projects and ground-breaking would be.
"I think it would be about four months between when we started looking for a contractor, and the work actually getting underway," Lukey said. "Three months at the short side, but definitely three to four months."
The town of Carlyle is presently seeking permission from the provincial government to borrow for the project, which would see a new sewer line laid on the east side of town, running west, as well as an addition of another cell on the town's waste lagoon.
Regarding the water treatment plant, Lukey reported that Bullee was withholding payment to one contractor which was involved with the construction of the water treatment plant due to questionable workmanship.
The amount being withheld is in excess of $30,000.
Finally Lukey presented to council four proposals that Bullee Consulting had developed for the phase III residential development.
The properties to be developed are south and west of the phase II development, on Carlyle's south side, east of Main Street, south of Carlyle Avenue.
The four plans all held municipal reserve land between 11 and 16 percent, and featured around 60 lots, ranging from small lots with 30 feet of frontage to lots of considerably larger sizes.
The plan which seemed to draw the most attention from councillors saw the inclusion of a cul-de-sac which featured very large lots.
Following Lukey's presentation to council, the second delegation was welcomed to the chamber.
Attending to deliver the RCMP's quarterly report to council was Cpl. Kelly Guider of the Carlyle RCMP detachment.
Overall, the report was extremely positive for the town, with crime statistics showing a considerable drop since the last quarter, with 208 events reported, compared to 274 in the previous quarter.
Cpl. Guider did acknowledge that the winter season, especially around Christmas, did tend to be a higher period of reports than other times of the year, but even compared to the same quarter last year, there was a perceptible drop in reported incidents, with 216 events reported last year during the same quarter.
These reported events are only those that saw members of the RCMP responding to complaints within the town limits of Carlyle, and does not include events responded to by the RCMP in any other municipal jurisdiction.
"The overall drop year-over-year is in the five percent range," Cpl. Guider said after his presentation to council. "But the drop in criminal code offences committed within the town limits, especially thefts and mischief, are down considerably."
Following the RCMP quarterly report, the council moved on to further matters, with discussions pausing during the Chief Administrative Officer's Report to discuss election planning.
This autumn there will be a new round of municipal elections throughout the province, with the new four-year terms for municipal council positions coming into effect.
Municipal positions had previously been three-year terms.
One of the issues that had come up in the report was the composition of the ballots.
Council was asked to consider whether they would like the ballots to be done in alphabetical order, or in a random or rotational order.
The reason for the concern is if people just select the first six names on the ballot, it would allow for an unfair advantage for some candidates.
Council in the end decided to move to a random ordering of names on the ballot.
The final issue of concern included discussion regarding Bylaw 2012-06, a bylaw to address fire and refuse burning within town limits.
Highlights of the bylaw include a demand that a spark-arrestor mesh or screen be used on all fires.
That fires be within a pit or structure especially built for the purpose which is constructed of brick, stone, metal, or some other non-combustible material.
Further stipulations are that fires be doused if any complaint be received, and that fines are now applicable to the bylaw for the purposes of enforcement.
