WESTLOCK — A Westlock County councillor wants to see a task cleanup on the county’s to do list since some items are getting close to two years old.
At the June 22 meeting, Coun. Lou Hall said she was “concerned” about some of the resolutions that date back to 2019 and have not been completed. She asked that they be brought closer into the present.
“It would be nice to have them cleaned off or updated to a more recent date or something, because some of these are two years old and it would be nice to get them moving so that we’re at least in 2020. I know you guys are doing everything you can do in administration, but I just think we need to get these moving,” Hall said.
It wasn’t clear if Hall was asking that they be resolved, concluded or if admin should just drop them off the list.
“So then maybe there’s a way to bring them forward so that they’re not caught back in a year time, like maybe they can be brought forward. If a new letter goes out, then maybe they can be moved up to a newer date. I don’t know, ... it might take years for this to happen, so why do we have them on here?”
Two of the oldest resolutions date back to Aug. 13, 2019 and Sept. 10, 2019. The first, according to Coun. Dennis Primeau, is a plot of land the county offered to the province for sale. No details are available on the price or why it was put up for sale, but the parcel is located at NE 31-59-25-W4.
Councillors decided on two options for the sale in-camera at the August 2019 meeting, and according to the council follow up report, admin hasn’t received any communication from the province.
To Primeau, it’s because the offer wasn’t good enough: “The offer that the county made the province was pretty uncompelling. So it’s understandable that they did not respond or are not responding.”
The September 2019 resolution refers to an attempt made by the county to reclaim a gravel stockpile site. Known as Joliffe Stockpile, the three-acre site hadn’t been used since 2013, which prompted the province to withdraw the county’s tenancy.
Councillors decided not to retain it because it already had an extensive stockpile near Jarvie and the county shop. To reclaim it, admin estimated it would cost $25,000 and involve removing piles of overburden, pit run and salvage clay, and grading and leveling the site.
After reclaiming it, the site would’ve been returned to the provincial government, but the progress report on that item also notes that no further communication was received.
