Town council voted against running water and sewage utility lines under Athabasca’s coming bridge at their meeting June 20.
Coun. Tim Verhaeghe put forward the motion after an in-camera discussion, calling the $800,000 price tag “too rich for our blood.”
Alberta Transportation had offered to design the Highway 813 bridge over the Athabasca River to accommodate utility lines running across it. The town and the county would have to foot the bill for the lines together.
Councillors had previously been provided with an engineer’s report that compared the proposed method of transporting utilities with horizontal directional drilling. In this method, contractors run pipes under the river rather than over it.
The report stated that directional drilling is the more sustainable option, as the piping would not be as exposed to the elements. It said that installing lines with the bridge comes with the added difficulty of accommodating for a naturally-shifting river bank. The estimated cost of directional drilling is $1,000,000.
Coun. Tanu Evans said that it is an option when, and if, the town decides to transport utilities across the bridge.
He also said town council will decline to pay for a sidewalk that would lead to the bridge.
Maier also presented the report to county council June 13. They decided to hold off on a decision until their next meeting.
Town council voted to disband the Community Grant Committee, which processes applications for the town’s $500 community grants.
The grant program will continue to function, with applications coming before council for review.
Coun. Tanu Evans said the grant committee has not met in two years, with each request coming before council anyway.
He suggested this is the result of a decision made by council two years ago, when they decided to turn the grant committee into an advisory group.
“In my mind that dissolved the purpose of event, having a grant committee council,” said Evans. “I mean, why talk it over if your decision at the committee level will be just overruled?”
Council also discussed the criteria by which they decide the grant and motioned for information on the program. Evans said the council often approves grants to groups that have not matched criteria.
“I believe the original purpose of setting up the community grant was for seed money for certain start-up festivals and community programs,” he said. “However, it’s slowly turned into a dedicated source of funding.”
Coun. Steven Schafer voiced his support for the program.
“I believe in this program. I believe this is a wonderful opportunity for, particularly new for startups,” he said. “But I would certainly suggest that this council consider feedback into it going forward.”
Interim chief administrative officer Doug Topinka said the program has gone over budget “pretty much every year.”
Coun. Steven Schafer made a motion – which failed – to publicly release the in-camera legal opinion on the motion to disqualify Mayor Roger Morrill and Coun. Tim Verhaeghe.
Morrill raised the idea with Verhaeghe’s consent.
“I think this community deserves to know what information was gathered against the mayor and councillor,” Morrill said.
“The community paid for this report; they deserve to hear and read it for themselves,” he added.
Coun. Shelly Gurba said the council should wait until the town could see the big picture.
“I think we should wait until the Municipal Affairs report comes out, because it’s going to deal with that and many more issues,” she said.
The motion was defeated on a tie, with Coun. Joanne Peckham, Evans and Gurba voting against the reveal.
In a later interview, Evans said that the mayor should stop raising the issue.
“We’ve been trying to get over this for years,” he said. “If you notice, I don’t constantly bring up the motions against me to disqualify me. I see no reason why they’re constantly harping on this. It’s just bringing up an old wound and picking at the scab. Let’s move on, let’s finish the rest of our term and let’s grow up and act like adults for at least five months.”
