Clearwater County Council Meeting Notes

by Helge Nome

All councillors except Kurt Maki were present at the February 14 County Council meeting where a major decision regarding Nordegg development was made:  Based on a presentation and recommendation from West Country Manager Rick Emmons, Council gave the green light to the development of a 29 lot mobile home park in the vicinity of the municipal building in Nordegg at a cost of $2.55 million. 

Council also approved 5.2 km grading and other work to the Northfork Road. A bid from Netook Construction Ltd. for a total of $1.354 million was accepted.

Councillor Theresa Laing brought a concern over Town of Rocky Mountain House lagoon use to the attention of Council. It has been suggested that county based sewage trucks may have exceeded the capacity of the sewage treatment plant when dumping their loads resulting in raw sewage being discharged into the North Saskatchewan River. CAO Leaf was asked to look into the matter by Council.

A decision by the Clearwater County Council on December 13, 2016 to amend an agreement with the Sundre Fire Department to provide fire suppression and rescue services to the southern part of Clearwater County has generated a negative response from the Sundre area: Based on a rationale of cost savings, it was decided that the Caroline Fire Station should be the first responder in this area, rather than Sundre.

Clearwater Regional Fire Rescue Services Chief Jesse Kurtz made a presentation to Council in response to this unexpected development. CAO Leaf is scheduled to meet with the Town of Sundre CAO to deal with the matter. For the time being, the Sundre Fire Department will continue to be the fire service provider for the area south of Highway 587 and west of Sundre.

An "In Camera" session at the end of the meeting was labelled "Third Party Interest" in the agenda. Judging by the group present in the council chamber at that time it is assumed that the "third party" is the Clearwater Broadband Foundation as represented by its board.