ECA Review 2022-04-21

10 A pril 21'22 HANNA/CORONATION/STETTLER, AB. ECA REVIEW
BREEDERS’ SECTION
STARLAND COUNTY COUNCIL
Open to taking over Munson cemetery
Terri Huxley
ECA Review
The Village of Munson sent in a
request to the county asking if
Starland would be interested in
acquiring control of the Munson
Cemetery located along Highway 56.
Lyle Cawiezel of the Village of
Munson sent in an email on Fri. April
8 sharing they are the only cemetery
not owned or taken care of in the
county.
If the county chose to take over, he
felt it would provide continuity
throughout.
“Also we are not capable of doing full
burials so the county currently facilitates
this for us,” said Cawiezel.
Plots are $100 each which aligns
with the county’s fees.
Council, at the regular meeting on
Wed. April 13, felt the village should
transfer ownership of the land to the
county and have them purchase a
columbarium like the one they did for
Rumsey.
Council, after discussion, agreed to
consider taking over the cemetery if
the village agrees to purchase the
columbarium.
No motion was made at this time.
Financial statements
Jeff Faupel of Ascend LLP
Chartered Professional Accountants
attended the meeting virtually to
share his findings on the county’s 2021
audit and financial statements.
The audit team was at the county
office for a full three days.
Chief Administrative Officer (CAO)
Shirley Bremer shared in her report
that “We recognized some gains in our
records, mainly due to adjustments
(reductions) made for the liability costs
booked for reclamation of our gravel
pits and from a better tax collection
rate from the oil and gas sectors than
was originally suspected.
“We still have those four delinquent
companies, owing $2.032M, but the
lawyers are working with two of them
to get payment plans in place.
“All in all, we did recognize a surplus
and are recommending that this
surplus be moved to a Capital General
Contingency Fund, pending the establishment
of our new Reserve Policies.
“We anticipate updating and/or
reorganizing the funds in reserves to
“ear-tag” them for future capital projects/purchases.
At that time, we can
then move them into more specific
reserves, as council so decides.”
Council chose to approve the financial
statements as presented by Faupel
following his walk-through of the
material as well as a second motion to
transfer the $2.6M in surplus funds
into the Restricted Capital
Contingency Reserve to be divided out
later as projects surface.
“It was a clean audit and there were
no real issues that were needed to be
brought forward,” said Faupel.
Fire Dept. mugs
The Morrin Fire Department
recently celebrated its 100th anniversary
of service in the community.
It was requested that the county purchase
25 good quality travel mugs with
engraved names of the members in
STETTLER COUNTY COUNCIL
RV parking fee waived
Stu Salkeld
Local journalism initiative reporter
ECA Review
Stettler county council has agreed to
waive the fee for temporary parking of
a recreational vehicle (RV) on a residential
lot. The decision was made at
the April 13 regular meeting of
council.
Councillors discussed bylaw 1678-22,
the fee schedule bylaw about which
Director of Municipal Services
Andrew Brysiuk noted in his report
that councillors needed to make a decision
on whether or not to continue
requiring registration and fees for certain
RV parking.
Readers should note the registration
system and fee schedule were developed
to address complaints about the
growing number of RVs being parked
on residential lots, particularly in the
Buffalo Lake region.
A fee of $25 was included last year
but waived for the entire 2021 season.
“When temporary RV tags were
introduced to regulate the use of RV’s
for a period of less than 21 days,
council implemented a fee of $25 but
waived the fee up until Dec. 31, 2021,”
noted Brysiuk in his report.
“Administration is seeking direction
on whether to continue with the fee,
abolish it, or waive it again.
“The $25 fee may not offset the
increased cost of processing payment.”
Brysiuk explained the county has a
self-serve portal available on its website
for RV owners to register, but the
portal doesn’t accept payment; if
council wanted the fee to kick in, the
portal would require upgrading to that
end.
Coun. Les Stulberg stated he was in
favour of waiving the fee again for
2022, noting it would be difficult to process
and he’d also field a number of
calls over this issue. Apparently some
county residents are concerned about
how these rules apply to events in the
farm community like family reunions.
Coun. Justin Stevens agreed, stating
he’d be in favour of a “...more targeted
approach,” adding he felt the tags
address a more urban problem that
may not exist in the rural area and
that the fee should be waived for 2022.
Stevens stated he felt the rural community
that hosts events like farm
weddings should be protected from
“unintended consequences.”
Coun. James Nibourg agreed that
the fee could be waived but also noted
the tags appear to have had the desired
effect. He noted this approach could
help address “pop-up campgrounds” in
his division.
Nibourg suggested waiving the fee
for 2022 and discussing how this program
could be tweaked to
accommodate the rural community.
Reeve Larry Clarke stated the program
was brought in for a reason, and
questioned whether the tags would
ever really be a problem in the rural
community because the program is
complaint-driven, and he felt an RV or
two on hundreds of acres of farmland
would not receive the complaints an
RV or two on 1.5 acres of land would
receive, for example.
Coun. Ernie Gendre agreed the
bylaw applies more to an urban lifestyle.
He also asked if the 21 day
restriction could be discussed, but staff
noted the current discussion was only
about the $25 fee.
Councillors passed all readings necessary
to bring the bylaw into force
with the amendment that the $25 fee
would be waived for 2022.
celebration of this milestone as a
thank-you.
Council enquired if they wanted
anything else for this special time. The
chief has been in contact with county
staff where a barbecue get-together
was suggested.
The Village of Morrin also supported
the department by holding a
catered dinner for members as well.
Council felt this
was appropriate
and could be done
at the volunteer
appreciation barbecue
already
scheduled for this
summer.
The panel
agreed to purchase
the
personalized
travel mugs for
each current
member of the
department and
have them recognized
at the
annual barbecue.
check us out online
www.ECAreview.com
Maureen Black Ag Sales
Annual
Grazing
Mixes
(403) 578-8185
Silage &
Grazing
Corn
Quality Seed For Your Livestock Feed
Perennial
Forages
One Stop Cattle Financing
B.C. • Alberta • Saskatchewan
Farmers Helping Farmers • 25 Years Old and Still Going Strong!!
Breeders - 15% Down - Finance 100% of Animals
Feeders - 10% Down - Finance 100 % of Animals
FOOTHILLS
Livestock Co-op
Bred Cow Program! Feeder Program!
Toll Free 1-866-848-6669
No Restrictions • Purchase & Marketing • Your Choice
www.foothillslivestock.ca
Fieldmen - Robert Kunnick 780-336-6301
Brad Brenchley 403-740-5967
Rocky Mountain House, Alberta
Taking the guess work out of bull buying!
Valleymere Angus
SPADY
Black Angus
Yearling Bulls
FOR SALE
Priced from $3500 to $5000
Great selection of
low birth-weight heifer bulls
to powerful performance bulls.
780-879-2298
403-740-3652 (cell)
Travis & Halley Spady
Alliance, AB
*Volume discounts available.
Pandemic
Policy Review
An original
motion was carried
in mid
January to make
adjustments to
the sickness
policy due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
which encouraged employees to
stay home if they found they became ill
or displayed symptoms while using
sick days.
This policy was slated to be reviewed
in March but was revisited in April for
council to discuss.
Council agreed to extend this policy
adjustment to the end of June when it
will be re-evaluated at that time.
*Selling all yearling bulls by private treaty off the Ranch*