Clearwater County Council Meeting Notes

by Helge Nome

There was discussion right from the outset at the first regular meeting in 2017 on Tuesday, January 10: Councillor Vandermeer pointed to a discrepancy in the minutes from the December 13 regular meeting pertaining to a motion from Vandermeer for the county to go ahead with a broadband demonstration program in 2017. The minutes, as presented to council for ratification, did not reflect this intent and the minutes, as amended by Vandermeer, were adopted by council.

Detailed information on the 2017 winter gravel program was presented by Public Works, where it was noted that the amount of gravelling done would depend on weather conditions.

Alberta Municipal Affairs’ recommendation for Council to hire a consultant to carry out a review of county operations was turned down unanimously on a motion from Councillor Duncan. The sentiment was that Council already had a good idea of where there are shortcomings, notably in its communications with the public strategy, as identified in the municipal inspection of the Town of Rocky Mountain House where improvements were recommended. Also, Councillor Vandermeer believed that $75,000 could be better spent elsewhere.

Based on a recommendation from Regional Fire/Rescue, Council decided to go ahead with the purchase of a replacement fire engine for the one that was written off following a rollover in October. The cost to the County will be $163,851, the remainder of the total purchase price of $588,851 being covered by insurance.

A delegation from the “Clearwater Regional Tourism Working Group” presented the newly designed logo to be used to promote the region. The logo depicts voyageurs in a canoe and asks the visitor to David Thompson Country to ”challenge your inner explorer”.