With the recent departure of the Gadsby village council, the County of Stettler has taken over administrative duties.
Municipal Affairs has requested that Gadsby enter into an administration contract with the County of Stettler which council agreed to at their monthly meeting on Wed. June 12.
The Village of Gadsby council resigned with no Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) on May 8, 2019.
Municipal Affairs has appointed an “Official Administrator” to act with all the powers of the Village of Gadsby council, but the Village still required to have a CAO.
The Village of Gadsby’s Official Administrator has already passed a motion accepting the agreement as presented.
Yvette Cassidy, the County CAO has been appointed.
Municipal Affairs continues to review Gadsby’s viability and has indicated they will undertake an expedited tabletop review.
With the county appointment, they will be taking over administrative duties from June 1 until Dec. 31, 2019 so Municipal Affairs can complete the viability review first.
The financial review portion of the study has been completed and filed but the infrastructure review is still in progress.
The county is also being paid $35,000 by the ‘smallest village in Alberta’ to do this job for seven months.
“The contract is very similar to what we had with Botha,” said CAO Cassidy.
Once the review is done, CAO Cassidy expects there to be public meetings with municipal affairs to give community members a sense of what life would be like under the county.
Anyone can attend the public meetings but for the final decision as to whether the village remains a village is up to its residents.
If all is positive, the county will resume control on Jan. 1, 2020.
Tax bylaw and tax notices have not been done which has added an extra workload to county staff but the public works department has done the heaviest lifting in terms of getting current infrastructure projects done properly and up to standard.
“This is a good opportunity for us to make sure we get things pointed in the right direction,” said CAO Cassidy.
At this time, the village has not dissolved into the county.
Ag Service Board Bursary given
Eight applicants sent in forms to the Agricultural Service Board (ASB) for their annual bursary.
After careful consideration by the bursary committee, top candidate Shaylyn McNeil of Erskine, Alta. was selected to receive $1,000 towards her education.
The ASB recognizes high school graduates who are enrolled in postsecondary education and who have made a contribution to their community.
The bursary helps provide assistance to a graduate who demonstrates an interest and awareness about the importance of agriculture to the survival of rural communities.
“There were excellent applications and there was a number of them that were very very worthy of this award,” said Coun. Les Stulberg and vice chairman of the ASB bursary committee.
Public Hearing rescheduled
A public hearing for amendments to the Land Use Bylaw was postponed to council’s next meeting on Wed. July 10 in order to give an affected party more time to gather information and prepare comments.
Terri Huxley
ECA Review
