Eddie Shepple of Specter Systems visited Coronation town council chambers on Mon. March 28 to speak to some former paving projects done within Coronation.
Shepple and crew came to Coronation four years ago on various paving jobs within the town including spaces such as in front of the public works shop.
Shepple shared his side of the story with council and administration and felt that he wanted to ensure his work was up to standard and offer to fix anything that needed to be redone as his reputation in this line of work depends on it.
He noted he has reference letters from other municipalities in the east central region such as Hardisty, Chauvin, Provost and Czar but not one from Coronation which he wanted to change.
Some sections the company used a type of asphalt that isn’t aesthetically pleasing but is strong in its makeup which could have fed into the problem.
“If I can’t get you to sign off on a reference letter for me I wasted my time. Our reputation is everything,” he said. “I can’t afford it.”
The contractor offered to come down and walk with members of council, administration and public works this spring on these projects to see about any changes that could be made if needed.
Council agreed they would set up a time with Shepple to do so.
Council accepted his presentation as information.
Funding requests
A number of funding requests came in from various community organizations for council to consider.
The first came from the Coronation and District Seniors Housing Society asking for a temporary loan of approximately $14,000 in legal fees as the Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GIC) provided by the government do not come in until July.
The legal fees are attributed to lawyer’s looking over and ensuring the society’s bylaws, goals and policies are in compliance.
Council agreed to loan them the funding, expecting it to be returned within the calendar year.
The second request came from Paintearth Economic Partnership Society (PEPS) as they asked for permission to spend $14,000 for Project One and Project Two of the Regional Connectivity Strategy as all member municipalities must sign off before any money over $10,000 can be spent as per their bylaw.
The first project requires $14,000 on hiring experts to help establish the best possible solution to this quite complex and detailed issue while the second would allow PEPS to develop a local investment co-op to help local and regional businesses to create perspective local jobs, invigorating communities and creating stronger healthier local economies.
This project is projected to be approximately $50,000.
Council agreed to support both projects as long as the funding comes out of PEPS’ reserves.
Lastly, two local C3s Coyote hockey teams approached administration requesting funding to support them as they play off at provincials.
Administration noted the local team doesn’t often reach this level of play.
Council requested administration create a policy so these types of requests don’t need to go through council approval all the time but administration recommended the opposite as a policy could set precedent for all sports where an overwhelming amount of requests could come in, signalling a change in budgetary measures.
Council agreed they would give $300 to the U15 and U18 teams for their provincial success and discuss the creation of a policy at another meeting.
Education property tax update
As an informational item, council became apprised of the decision on education properyy tax.
An email form the provincial government came in explaining the 2022 mill rates and requisitioned amounts were not yet be finalized by March 15.
In accordance with Section 162(4) of the Education Act, if a municipality has not received the requisition by this date, the requisition will be based on the prior year amounts.
As such the March 2022 invoices are based on the 2021 requisitions.
The provincial equalized assessment base used to determine education property taxes this year reflects 2020 property values.
In 2022, municipalities will be billed at a rate of $2.65 per $1,000 of their total residential/farmland equalized assessment value.
The non-residential rate will be set at $3.90 per $1,000 of equalized assessment value. Individual properties are taxed based on the local education property tax rate set by the municipality.
This applied to the taxable assessment value determined by the municipality.
Council accepted this as information.
Terri Huxley
ECA Review
