By Carson Ellis
Stettler town council held its most recent meeting on Feb. 21.
Carrying a fairly light agenda, Coun. Kurt Baker motioned to accept it, which was was carried.
First on the agenda, Chief administrative officer (CAO) Greg Switenky addressed the recommendations from the recent Committee of the Whole meeting and the draft of their Strategic Plan. Doctor Accessibility and an initial inhouse committee to learn about some of the barriers people may have when accessing doctors in the community were addressed. Spray Park upgrades were also discussed and a local service committee is involved to help the project. The planned upgrades are being forwarded to the Parks Advisory Committee.
With CAO Switenky’s last working day being September, the Strategic Plan also included succession planning. Meetings with council will be held to assess his exit will go and the transition ofhis ongoing work to his replacement. There will also be housekeeping issues to be dealt with including bylaws, contracts, and other various tasks.
The committee also addressed advocating for funding for large-ticket items for the local hospital. The equipment they are looking to acquire is a CT scanner and MRI machine. Switenky says that would be a long-term project and they will be establishing federal support, and assessing what else needs to be done to acquire the million-dollar items.
Something else the committee reviewed was the possibility of stepping up local signage in the community; particularly distance signs to local attractions at various locations in town. This includes signage to parks and other points of interest.
This will be forwarded to the corporate branding committee to keep the look and general branding of the new signs in line with existing signage. It will also be up to the committee to determine a timeline for the additional signage, and the costs and budgeting for it to happen.
Switenky did note that the report was a living document and the priorities of topics discussed could change and possibly even disappear, depending on ongoing situations.