County of Stettler council passed first reading of two new bylaws before sending them for public consultation during the Sept. 14 meeting.
The first bylaw presented to council was an updated animal control bylaw.
Stettler County currently has a Dog Control Bylaw in place, however it is limited in its ability to enforce on other varieties of animals according to county protective services manager Clint Sime.
“This bylaw is needed to address this lack of scope,” said Sime.
In preparing the bylaw, Sime noted that he reviewed 15 or 16 other animal control bylaws from around the province and based this bylaw on those.
Some of the fines in the bylaw are a direct carry-over from the Dog Control Bylaw and begin at $250 for failure to comply with an order all the way up to a mandatory court appearance if an aggressive dog attempts to bite, bark at or chase livestock or people.
Sime did note that the new bylaw will allow Protective Services members more flexibility in working with someone when a complaint is received and that while tickets are always an option they are not normally the first thing they go to.
“Normally, we don’t write tickets on first offences,” said Sime.
Coun. Ernie Gendre moved to pass first reading of the bylaw, while sending it for public engagement.
The second bylaw introduced was the General Traffic Bylaw.
An updated version of an existing bylaw, the bylaw featured a change on Range Road 18-5 leaving Donalda where a nearly one kilometre section of road was being dropped to 30 km/h at the request of a Donalda resident.
Andrew Brysiuk, director of municipal services for the county, said in the meeting that after doing some research there was enough residences on the road to justify “keeping it a little slower.”
Coun. James Nibourg leveled sharp criticism of the change.
“I’m hestitant that we go ahead with this at the request of another ratepayer,” said Nibourg.
“You can make any rule you want, is it going to be followed? I’m going to lean towards this being a speed trap.”
Ultimately, Coun. Paul McKay motioned to move the speed zone to 60 km/h where it leaves town before accepting a friendly amendment from Nibourg to also send the bylaw for consultation.
“We get grief all the time about not engaging,” said Nibourg.
“At least we can say we did it.”