RVs on country residential parcels

Council passed first reading amending the Land Use Bylaw to prohibit the storage of recreation vehicles on Grouped Country Residential parcels.

As per the current bylaw, the municipality has provisions permitting an RV to be stored on country residential lots for no more than 30 cumulative days while the development and building permits are being issued and no principle use has been established. Once all permits are issued, one RV may be stored for the duration of the construction. After that, up to three RVs may be stored on the property.

However, in no case shall a recreational vehicle be used for permanent living or sleeping accommodation.

The proposed bylaw amendment states that no recreational vehicles may be stored on a parcel until a principle use has been established, thereby forbidding the storage of a recreational vehicle for 30 cumulative days during the permitting stage.

A Public Hearing will be scheduled prior to the second and third reading of the bylaw and a mail-out will be sent to country residential parcel owners.

EDO position

Council passed a motion approving the addition of an Economic Development Officer (EDO) in the management hierarchy work chart.
The position will cost the municipality approximately $113,000 annually for salary, benefits, phone and travel.

As the EDO position is not in the 2018 budget, it would be funded out of reserves for the remainder of the year and would be part of 2019 budget discussions.

Council also passed a motion to follow the Purchasing Policy and Procedure to hire a facilitator who would help Council develop an Economic Strategic Plan by August 15, 2018, costing the municipality approximately $5,000. The plan will help guide the EDO job description and responsibilities, and establish a long-term perspective for economic development.

E-bikes update

Council passed a motion that a draft e-bike policy or bylaw comes back to council in November 2018. A public hearing will be held prior to second reading of the bylaw.

The throttles on the five e-bikes purchased by the municipality have been disabled. According to Joey O’Brien, Manager of Community Services, the municipality received the US model by mistake, which is equipped with a throttle, instead of the model that is solely pedal-assist.
The e-bikes are rented out from the Crowsnest Community Pool and riders are advised to ride on the Community Trail or to remain on the green colour-coded trails classified as “easy” on the Pass Powderkeg (PPK) trail system. This recommendation is in line with the municipal insurance policy for renting out the e-bikes.

However, while someone choosing to ride a blue “medium” or a black “difficult” trail on PPK would be disobeying municipal advice, it is virtually impossible to enforce that riders remain on green trails, especially considering that e-bikes and regular bikes look largely similar. O’Brien points out that already, there are riders using e-bikes riding the PPK trails almost every day with their own bikes.

The e-bike rental program will be re-evaluated at the end of each quarterly cycle. Part of the process will look at which trails e-bike users are riding on and will be used to inform policy.

But Council may have more to consider in their bylaw than only e-bikes. Electric transportation technology is evolving and expanding rapidly, with e-tricycles, e-quads even electric unicycles hitting the markets. Castle Parks has jumped on the e-bandwagon as well, supplying a 3,000-watt twist grip throttle Icon Explore e-trike to loan out to people with disabilities.

Expanding Southern Alberta Trade Corridor

Council has passed a motion to contribute a letter of support to the Town of Cardston concerning an expansion of the Southern Alberta Trade Corridor.

The Town of Cardston had two goals they are pushing for. They would like to have the opening hours of the Carway-Piegan border crossing between Canada and the US increased from 16 hours (7 a.m. to 11 p.m.) to being operational 24 hours a day. They would also like to expand the crossing to accommodate commercial truck traffic.

Coleman Revitalization update

The tendering process for the Downtown Coleman Revitalization Project concluded on Friday, July 13, 2018. The municipality is now working to award the construction project to a contractor.

According to Patrick Thomas, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), at this time, the project is still on schedule to be completed by the end of November 2018. A per-day penalty will be imposed starting in May 2019 if the contractor is unable to complete the project this year (no penalty would be imposed between the months December and April because it is physically impossible to conduct any work during the winter weather.

Bellevue Cemetery update

Maintenance on the Bellevue Union Cemetery to mitigate the seasonal flooding has not yet commenced. There is still water flooding the cemetery and, according to Thomas, the municipality is waiting for the water level to recede in order to begin maintenance.

"We’re going to start as soon as we can get in there. Half the material is on-site already. We’re just waiting for the ground to dry up,” he says.

Crowsnest Lake boat dock

Council passed a motion to direct Administration to proceed with repairing the boat dock at Crowsnest Lake, funded from reserves, on the condition that it can be completed by the end of July and that it does not come ahead of performing maintenance on the Bellevue Cemetery.

The cost to repair and install the dock is approximately $4,500 to $6,000. This estimate is for repairing the boat dock only. Repairing the boat launch will come as a separate project.

Councillor Dean Ward said that although he will not support to the project if it causes any delays to the repairs at the Bellevue Cemetery, which floods annually at spring time.

Mayor Blair Painter noted that this is a relatively inexpensive project that would have a really good impact within our community.

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