After much deliberation and hard bargaining, County of Stettler council decided to move ahead with the project to construct a new shop and to fund the project through reserves and provincial grants yet to come after a plebiscite resulted in the rejection of any borrowing plans for the initiative.
At the Wednesday, July 13 meeting of the council, three motions were made with all being passed by a vote of six to one with councillor Ernie Gendre opposing all three.
The first motion was made by councillor Les Stulberg to award the contract to the general contractors of the project, Scott Builders of Red Deer, who awarded the site preparation tender to local contractor North Star Trucking with site work expected to begin immediately.
The second motion was tabled by councillor James Nibourg to transfer an amount of $3 million from reserves to enable the start the construction project.
And finally, a third motion was made by councillor Nibourg to commit the council to allocate the MSI capital funding for 2016, 2017 and 2018 to the county shop project.
A partial amount of $1 million from the 2016 MSI funding will be allocated to the project, while full amounts of $2.5 million from the 2017 and 2018 MSI funding will be directed to the construction of the new shop.
According to the county administration, with the existing county shop too close to a senior resident facility, sports parks and other residential buildings, the safety concerns are too great to ignore. Besides, the roads on which the graders are operated in winter are considered unsafe because of the heavy weight the vehicles impose on the infrastructure.
Moreover, the shop having been built in 1969, almost 46 years ago, is said to be in despereate need of upgrades to bring it to current government safety standards, which necessitates a whole different gamut of engineering.
The new shop footprint will be 38,000 square feet and will have more modern amenities that in the long run will save the county money, such as under-floor heating, which will be more economical than the 12 furnaces that are run in winter to keep current facilities operational.
Erskine residents to be involved in the naming of new road in the subdivision
The County of Stettler has decided to engage Erskine residents and get their feedback in the naming of a new road in the subdivision at the regular county meeting on Wednesday, July 13.
The motion was made by councillor James Nibourg and was unanimously passed by the council.
The road is located to the north of and runs parallel to Prospect Avenue in Erskine.
County will be mailing post cards out to Erskine residents in the next few weeks to get their opinion and feedback on what the road should be named.
The contest will run throughout the month of August and ideas for street names will be presented and submitted to the council for consideration in September.