The County of Stettler will not be borrowing $5.2 million to build a new shop facility after the no vote narrowly won at the plebiscite held on Monday, June 27.
With 54 per cent of the 1,047 voters saying "no" to borrowing the money, county councillors will be required to vote down the bylaw at the next county meeting, on Wednesday, July 13.
The plebiscite is the latest twist in a divisive discussion about the new county shop facility, which has been ongoing for several months. The existing county shop, too small for the county's equipment, workspace deemed unsafe for use and with mold and electrical problems just forming the tip of the iceberg of safety code violations, would require a minimum of $2 million to bring it up to acceptable standards. That doesn't include enlarging bays or any problems discovered during upgrading and repairs.
Further to that, the county shop, while originally built in an undeveloped area of the county, has since been annexed by the Town of Stettler. The surrounding area is wholly residential, and the road is not rated for the weight of the county's equipment.
All of these factors contributed to a county decision that was overwhelmingly in favour of building a new shop facility, but was divided over when the county should build.
County resident Brad Mappin filed three petitions with the county, the first calling for a plebiscite on a borrowing bylaw that county councillors decided to vote down.
After introducing a new borrowing bylaw with new amounts, Mappin filed another petition against the bylaw, as well as a third calling on the county to table the shop discussion until after the next municipal election. That third petition was found not sufficient as the wording was vague and the petition's request couldn't be formed into a bylaw, but the second petition resulted in Monday's plebiscite.
With the fate of the borrowing bylaw set in stone by the Municipal Government Act, "council will now need to decide how to proceed, because doing nothing was never one of our options," county Reeve Wayne Nixon said in a press release.
Councillor James Nibourg, one of the most vocal proponents of building a new shop facility, said he was "thouroughly disappointed" in the results of the plebiscite, adding that he didn't think the county saw more than 600 people come to the information sessions and open houses held in the past months and prior to the plebiscite.
"I spent 16 days in meetings, getting information and reports," he said. "I spent countless hours collecting facts before making a decision. How do I share all of that with people at a two-hour information session?"
For Mappin, the plebiscite was the end-goal, but he's also pleased with the results. Firmly in favour of building a new shop, just not in the current economic climate, he ventured deeper into politics for the first time to file the petitions as he thought councillors did not listen to their constituents.
"I'm just glad we got to participate in democracy," he said. "It will be interesting to see where they'll (councillors) will go from here."
His involvement with politics opened his eyes, he said.
"It makes you question things a lot more," he explained, adding that his future involvement in politics will depend on what council decides to do in the future.
Note: This story originally stated the next meeting was on Wednesday, July 10. It is actually held Wednesday, July 13 and has been corrected to indicate the correct date.