New Ideas

I've been very busy generally, and have absorbed a great deal of information and been engaged in planning for the town.

I was privileged to attend a Low Impact Development Conference in Cochrane. It was the best municipal educational opportunity I have had yet because the subject is dear to my heart, and because of the wide variety of attendees. I met developers, builders, planners, municipal staff, environmental experts, and a few politicians. I gained new, or further information about the following: xeriscaping, stormwater control, permeable paving, by-laws to protect wetlands and water courses, natural landscaping by-laws, Natural Step program, Leeds buildings, differential water pricing, suggestions for residential developments, and the use of shale on pathways.

Many of these ideas will remain dreams for a while, but I have brought up our water pricing at council retreat and I am gathering data. The general idea is that heavy residential users of water should pay more. Our present policy punishes the conserver. Look at your water bill, and you will find out what I mean. I am still pushing for low-flow replacements in our public buildings.

Xeriscaping may come naturally as we agree to mow less of the town land. Permeable paving is more expensive that ashphalt, but more environmentally friendly and more attractive.

Council and staff disappeared for our annual retreat. Here we make our business plan which is our general direction for the year. Everyone can bring up their "wish" list, which gets discussed and explained. It will be negotiated when budget is done. Some of the items we discussed were: review of finances and our last business plan, 10-year capital funding strategy (required), a new system of accounting - tangible capital asset accounting - this last will be a bureaucratic nightmare in terms of staff time!!

More lively items were: community development officer, visions of recreation organization when the multiplex comes on stream, staff recruitment and retention, trail development, the daycare crisis, our tree farm, new street lights, water conservation, train station, paving projects, campsite, riverfront (you get the idea.) The process is fascinating and we manage to obtain consensus on all the really important things that keep the town running smoothly and well.

I attended the first joint meeting of the three economic development committees that were formed in 2005. Present were members from the Athabasca Regional, Grassland, and Boyle committees. It was good to share our ideas and some of our frustrations with development issues in our region. Housing, of course, is turning out to be a major problem in our communities.

Daycare is another development issue. I was pleased to meet with the daycare society and encourage them to present to both councils. A delegation approached town last week, and their problems are out in the open. This is a good thing - the more we all know about our community, the more we develop a sense of place. This includes social issues such as family violence which will be the topic of a seminar tonight.