A vote of the electorate was held after a petition was received opposing Bylaw 1564-16 and 54 per cent of county residents said no to the bylaw on Mon., June 27, with the advance vote being held Thur., June 23, 2016.
The vote posed a question to County of Stettler residents, “Are you in favour of council passing Bylaw 1564-16 authorizing the borrowing of $5,261,000 for the construction of a new county public works shop facility?”.
Exactly 1047 eligible voters weighed in on the issue at voting stations throughout the county, with 54 per cent of voters saying no to a new shop facility and 46 per cent of the voters saying yes.
Council chose to take the question to voters after receiving a petition of 527 eligible voters opposing the Borrowing Bylaw 1564-16.
“We are pleased with the turn-out of voters in this vote of the electorate,” said Reeve Wayne Nixon, “and know that the majority of voters do not wish for council to borrow $5.2 million dollars to build a new county shop facility.”
“Council will now need to decide how to proceed, because doing nothing was never one of our options,” Reeve Nixon added.
A recent intrusive study on the existing shop, ordered by council and carried out by WSP Canada Inc., concluded the current 47 year-old shop no longer meets the needs of county operations by uncovering a growing list of required building code upgrades and health and safety obstacles which must be addressed in order to continue with current operations.
