Julie Bertrand / Independent Reporter
County of Stettler notified Town of Stettler council that the county will cease to provide employee safety services to the town in less than one year.
The county is restructuring their designated internal services to the Health and Safety Program and feel that they will not have sufficient time available to provide such services to the Town of Stettler.
Town of Stettler plans to hire someone next winter to fill that position, if council approved the recommendation, as it is mandatory to have a safety program.
“First, we will assess how the position should be structured and make a recommendation to council about whether it is strictly a safety position or if it is safety and other duties like insurance or loss control or something like that,” explained Rob Stoutenberg, town CAO.
“We will address that in the next operating budget.”
The new employee will be in charge of making sure that the town staff operates in accordance with the Occupation Health and Safety Act.
“The employee will put together programs to ensure that we meet the objectives, that the staff operates in a safe manner,” said Stoutenberg.
“The employee will pull together and co-ordinate that whole program.”
Bylaws
Council gave first reading to Bylaw 2016-11 and Bylaw 2017-11.
Both bylaws authorize council to borrow money to pay for the sidewalk local improvement of 51 Street for a total of $43,352.81.
The project‘s total cost is 163,981.44.
“The bylaws are for completing the financing. It has been all agreed to with those businesses,” said Stoutenberg.
“It is just a matter of following the act in order to go out and borrow the money.”
The 51 Street businesses are expected to pay the town back over 20 years, while one business has elected to pay over 10 years.
Weed inspection
Council voted at its regular meeting Aug. 2 to appoint Alberta Animal Services as the town’s contractual agent for the purposes of delivering the town’s inspection and enforcement responsibilities under the Weed Control Act.
Alberta Animal Services employees will enforce and monitor residents’ compliance with the act on behalf of the town.