Forestburg council learned at their regular April 10 council meeting that Municipal Affairs has chosen Hardisty to participate in a Municipal Accountability Program (MAP) review.
Municipalities with a population of 5,000 or fewer will participate in the program.
A municipal accountability advisor will do an onsite visit and review municipal documents, observe a council meeting and discuss policies and procedures with the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO)
There is no cost for participating in the MAP review, and it will provide municipalities with a better understanding of mandatory legislative requirements.
Cemetery Columbaria
A new columbarium is needed, and council will request $16,776 from the Sirko Trust Fund to be granted to the Hardisty Cemetery for the erection of a new one.
When Joseph Sirko passed away in 1986, a trust fund was started. Since then money from the fund has been used for care and maintenance of the Sirko family plots, continuous maintenance of the cemetery as well as providing funds for the Hardisty Community Hall.
Fire department assessments
Coun. Roger Gatezman attended the Flagstaff Regional Emergency Service Committee meeting and informed council they are getting a Fire Underwriters insurance to do an assessment of each towns fire department.
They will check deficiencies in the fire station, see if everything is up to code, review the fire fighters training records and see if each town has a large enough water supply to respond properly to all different types of fires. They will give an unbiased report on which fire departments are viable.
Regional Governance Project
Bob Coutts chair of the Flagstaff Intermunicipal Partnership (FIP) attended the April 10 council meeting to give an update on where the Regional Governance project is at and to have an open dialogue with the council on their thoughts on the project.
Waste management, FCSS, Sports teams, Churches, Flagstaff Initiative for Relationship and Spousal Trauma (FIRST) are some of the ways that the Flagstaff region is already working together.
Decreasing populations, businesses closures, infrastructure needing to be replaced and limited reserves and savings are just some of the issues facing the communities in the region.
FIP is exploring the possibility of a Regional Governance to help solves these problems.
“Working as a region there are hopefully going to be some cost savings.” stated Coutts.
FIP is planning on having some open houses in the fall with more concrete plans to present to the public with the hope of getting some feedback.
In the following weeks and months, all the councils in the region will research the risks and the benefits of whether a regional municipality is a sound idea.
FIP includes the Flagstaff County, Towns of Daysland, Hardisty, Killam, Sedgewick and the Villages of Alliance, Forestburg, Galahad, Heisler, Lougheed and Strome.
It was created in 2003 so that all these communities could work as one region and focus on using their tax dollars in ways that would benefit everyone.
Emily Wheller
ECA Review
