Dear Editor,
As a retired Stettler County shop employee, I would like to respond to the fervent campaign to garner signatures for the anti-county shop petition.
There has been a lot of misinformation spread. The petitioners have been telling ratepayers that the county shop contracts most of its work out. This cannot be further from the truth. There is almost nothing contracted out in regards to repairs done at the shop.
In addition to maintaining an extensive line of pickups, road and construction equipment, Agricultural Services Boards vehicles, spray trucks, water pumps and so on, shop staff also looks after the following: four ambulances stationed in Stettler, a multitude of fire department related trucks and equipment stationed throughout the County, a multitude of light trucks and vehicles belonging to the Shirley McClellan Regional Water Services Commission, and all of Stettler Waste Management equipment including compactors, buggy, dozers, garbage trucks, tractors and pickups.
The repairs on the equipment can range from usual day-to-day servicing to transmission rebuilding, engine work or fabrication of service bodies specific to end use.
Certain members of council, I feel, are at least partly responsible for not providing correct information and possibly making matters worse by fuelling the fire.
I hope common sense prevails and this new building can become a reality. At its present location, it is not sustainable and relocating in inevitable. By delaying the move will only drive costs higher.
Stettler County shop supporter,
David Johnston,
Big Valley, Ab.
