Stettler Town Council had some questions for Habitat for Humanity’s executive director Brian Brake at their regular meeting held Oct 18.
Brake had made a presentation to Stettler County Council last month which a couple of town councillors had attended. The town requested that Brake attend a council meeting to provide more information about the housing Habitat constructs.
According to Brake, communities benefit from Habitat homes by addressing long term affordable housing needs.
Typically, a family will remain in a home for between five to seven years. When they move on, the home is sold back to Habitat for use for a new family in need.
“Habitat homes remain a part of the community’s housing strategy forever.”
Duplexes or triplexes are the norm for Habitat homes with a typical unit being 1200 square feet.
“We don’t build single homes anymore,” stated Brake, owing to the need to maximize the use of a lot to house more families.
Generally, the land for a Habitat home is donated by the municipality or by private donors. The municipality also donates approximately $110,000 in cash or kind with the remainder coming from local and national donors.
“There are many different corporate sponsors that help us with the cost of that home.”
Habitat began in 1985 in Canada and has since constructed 2800 homes, 25 per cent of those in Alberta.
Bids come under budget
The town received five bids to provide a wheeled excavator with attachments. Melissa Robbins, Director of Operational Services, presented the information to council.
According to Robbins, of the five models submitted which were Hitachi, Volvo, John DeereBRRG;, Cat, Hyundai and Doosan, staff were provided with three test models. Only Volvo and Cat were unavailable for testing.
The Hitachi loader was the most expensive at $323,400 and the Doosan was the cheapest at $256,185.
After field testing the models and considering the attachments included, the staff recommendation was to accept the $258,100 bid from C.E.M Heavy Equipment for the Hyundai model.
Council accepted the recommendation and also opted to purchase an additional five-year, 5000-hour full machine warranty for $8,390.
The total amount of $266,490, excluding tax, comes under the approved budget of $300,000.
Roof repairs approved
Despite following all the bidding protocols, such as newspaper advertising, the town received only one bid for the Stettler Community Hall Roof Replacement, explained CAO Greg Switenky.
The 20-year old structure requires several upgrades to the interior, exterior and the air conditioning system, all to be completed in phases. Phase I includes a budget of $80,000 for new shingles.
Greg Boxma of Halkirk provided the town with a bid for either metal ribbed roof at $57,400 or asphalt shingles at $61,400.
Council awarded the bid to Boxma for the shingles option. They also approved that the remainder of the $80,000 go towards engineering costs for upgrading the air conditioning for the hall.
Council approves Parkland budget
Parkland Regional Library’s requisition of $46,213.92 from Stettler town for the 2017 budget was approved by council. The amount represents an overall two per cent increase, or $919.68, over last year’s requisition.
The per capita amount for 2017 goes to $8.04 from $7.88 in 2016.
