Last month, Alix resident Louie Humbke came to council asking for utility bill forgiveness for the months of March and April.
Frozen water lines forced the resident to leave for that time period to his other property.
Council ultimately defeated the motion to waive $192.35 in utility bills at their regular meeting on Wed. June 5.
According to the village’s utility bylaw, any utility charges are applied to all premises within the village regardless of whether it is occupied or not.
Following the last meeting, Humbke was advised to pay his outstanding bills to avoid any further penalties and if council were to give the waive, he would have been returned a credit to his account.
As many village bylaws outline, any pipework that is under private property is the responsibility of the owner while anything underneath public property is the village’s responsibility.
In this case, it was under village property.
Mutual Aid Agreement
The village has officially entered into a water and wastewater operator mutual aid agreement with Lacombe County.
During Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework (ICF) discussions, the two municipalities found that an agreement might be beneficial in forming service delivery partnerships.
They found that the village has three Certified Level 1 operators for water and wastewater services.
The agreement outlines that if there is a need for either party to access one or more of these skilled operators from the other for their water and wastewater services they can access them and then subsequently be charged for the services.
Services like testing, daily inspections and equipment maintenance are included in this agreement and are meant to be for short term use.
Public Participation Plan
A public participation plan is meant to engage the public in future community goals by gathering input.
From June 12 to July 12, the village will be seeking an array of opinions to relevant topics via survey.
All demographics are encouraged to share their thoughts to help guide council in a direction that would be beneficial for all residents in the immediate and long-term future.
On this list, residents should find questions about infrastructure, communication, activities, village identity, affordability, services and government among other topics.
Terri Huxley
ECA Review
