By Kevin J Sabo
For the Advance
In spite of emergency plans being activated, the Town of Stettler is operating “largely business as usual,” according to Town Chief Administrative Officer Greg Switenky.
Public Works remains on the job and Town services are continuing to operate, although the Town office has been closed to the public. The Town is looking for residents of the community to pay their bills either online, or through the banks. If someone does need to pay a bill in person at the office there is a table set up outside the interior door for residents to sign checks, then pass them through the door, without actually entering.
Currently, the Town of Stettler council members continue to meet bi-weekly as normal, however steps are being made to limit the number of people attending the meetings.
CAO Switenky does caution that the situation in the community, and across the province, is very fluid.
“Whatever we say today might not be applicable tomorrow,” he said.
This week’s regular meeting, which had a fairly short agenda, ratified the purchase of a new Cat 140 grader with a snow gate and approved administration to award tech company Box Clever to re-design the Town web site and develop a smartphone app for local residents.
The new Cat 140 and snow gate for the machine are being funded from a restricted surplus for a purchase price of $274,000 to replace the 2010 Volvo grader the Town currently owns. The Volvo, which has over 3,000 hours on it, needs to be replaced due to the inability to get parts for the machine anymore as Volvo has discontinued making the equipment.
The funding for the grader was already allowed as part of the T own’s 2020 budget.
After reviewing the findings of a committee that has been reviewing the web sites of various municipalities, the Town of Stettler council members have awarded a contract to Box Clever, an Edmonton-based web design company to design a new web site and accompanying smartphone application for the Town.
The project will be funded through the 2020 capital budget.
“After completing our research and comparison of different web providers we found that there is a notable gap in functionality, design, and features,” read the Request for Purchase.
“We noted the importance of having a single provider who could run both the web site platform and the app platform. After identifying the content and features necessary for the Town of Stettler’s web site redesign it is the committee’s position that Box Clever is the preferred provider based on review of web sites, reference checks and direct contact with customer service.”
The next Town of Stettler council meeting will be held April 7th at 6:30 p.m.