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Home My WebLink About2023-01-16 Committee of the Whole (Regular) MinutesCounty of Newell Meeting Minutes Committee of the Whole January 16, 2023 - 09:00 AM The Committee of the Whole Meeting of the County of Newell was held in the County Office in Room 154/156 on Monday, January 16, 2023 commencing at 9:00 a.m. Notice was posted at the front entrance advising the public of the meeting. No members of the public were present at this meeting. CHAIR: A. Skanderup COUNCILLORS: A. Doerksen, Reeve D. Short L. Kopp H. Johnson G. Skriver K. Christman E. Unruh A. Philpott N. Johnson STAFF: M. Fenske, Chief Administrative Officer L. Johnson, Director of Corporate Services M. Harbicht, Director of Municipal Services M. Jackson, Supervisor of Planning and Development Z. Forest, Municipal Intern - Planning K. Halsted, Senior Assessor A. Nielsen, Executive Assistant 1. CALL TO ORDER Councillor A. Skanderup called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. 2. EXCUSED FROM MEETING All members were in attendance at this meeting. 3. ADOPTION OF MINUTES 3.1 Minutes - Committee of the Whole (October 17, 2022) W-01/23 MOVED BY REEVE ARNO DOERKSEN that the October 17, 2022 Committee of the Whole Meeting minutes be adopted as presented. MOTION CARRIED 4. ADOPTION OF AGENDA W-02/23 MOVED BY COUNCILLOR HOLLY JOHNSON that the agenda be adopted as presented. MOTION CARRIED Committee of the Whole January 16, 2023 5. BUSINESS FROM MINUTES 5.1 Strategic Priorities Update The Chief Administrative Officer provided an update on Strategic Priorities. items that will be included in Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework (ICF) agreement updates have been added Reeve A. Doerksen will provide an update on the Crop Diversification Centre South during the in camera portion of this meeting completed items will be included in the Strategic Priorities Chart for future Council agendas 6. NEW BUSINESS 6.1 Paving Plan & Priorities Review (M. Harbicht) The Director of Municipal Services provided background information on this item. • transportation -related goals are referenced in the Municipal Development Plan • should the County define its own criteria for setting paving priorities or align with Alberta Transportation's criteria? • criteria based on traffic counts would likely result in paving being done around the City of Brooks • should paving priorities be determined by staff recommendations or a Council -driven initiative based on ratepayer requests? • challenges associated with landowners opposed to road construction ARRIVED AT MEETING Councillor N. Johnson arrived at 9:13 a.m. Council was given the opportunity to ask questions. Discussion followed regarding specific roads as follows: revisit paving RR145 from City of Brooks Limits north to existing end of pavement, approximately 1.10 km improving access to the Bow Slope Shipping Yard and Auction Mart o east side landowner was previously opposed o the southern 1.60 km of the road is the City's jurisdiction new access road from Lake Newell Resort west to Highway 36 as part of a solar array development west of Lake Newell Resort o would require a bridge over the EID main canal, very expensive 0 opportunity to require the solar array developer to construct the road, very costly and possibly risk the development from proceeding because of the additional cost o Alberta Transportation approval required for access improvements to Hwy 36 TR182 from Hwy 873 east to RR145 o was removed from the priority list by previous Council due to lack of landowner cooperation Page 2 of 5 Committee of the Whole January 16, 2023 o consider expropriation North/South truck route remains a priority to connect Cassils to Silver Sage o consider expropriation o if installing one rail crossing, another rail crossing must be removed, likely RR151 RR155 from the Cassits grain elevator to Highway 1 RR142 from old Highway 1 to the Aqueduct Trout Pond, approximately 2.30 km and included further discussion on extending all the way north to Highway 1, an additional 1.65 km The Director of Municipal Services provided an overview of the paving priorities list. If the roads are not included in the 10 Year Paving Plan, funding is not currently available. All Paving Priorities are listed on the County website. Council indicated that growth hamlets identified in the Municipal Development Plan should be considered for paving before the rural hamlets. Discussion followed regarding adding RR142 to the Aqueduct Trout Ponds to the paving priority list. The Chief Administrative Officer provided additional information, indicating that Council reviews the paving plan during every budget cycle. He indicated that Silver Sage Road will receive an overlay in 2023. Further discussion followed. Council indicated no changes to the paving priority list will occur unless funding becomes available. Expropriation will be considered if there are strong economic benefits associated with paving a road. The Director of Municipal Services reported that no new paving is planned until 2028 unless a new funding source appears. He provided a rough cost estimate for constructing RR142. RECESS The Committee of the Whole meeting RECESSED at 10:21 a.m. and RECONVENED at 10:28 a.m. ARRIVED AT MEETING M. Jackson and Z. Forest arrived at 10:28 a.m. 6.2 Reserve Land Policy (G. Tiffin & Z. Forest) The Municipal Intern - Planning provided background information on this item, indicating that land values have been updated. He gave an overview of the options for Environmental and Conservation reserves and pointed out seven Environmental Reserves that currently exist in the County of Newell. The Supervisor of Planning & Development explained the difference between the three types of reserve land and the legislated rules involved with establishing reserves. ARRIVED AT MEETING K. Halsted arrived at 10:36 a.m. Page 3 of 5 Committee of the Whole January 16, 2023 The Supervisor of Planning & Development and the Municipal Intern - Planning responded to questions from Council. Council suggested amendments to the policy as follows: article 4.7 - change "holds the right to require" to "should require" remove articles 4.18 and 4.19 LEFT THE MEETING M. Harbicht, M. Jackson, Z. Forest, and K. Halsted left the meeting at 11:01 a.m. 6.3 Recreation (M. Fenske & L. Johnson) The Chief Administrative Officer provided background information on this item. • Recreation Review completed in 2016, resulting in an inventory of all recreation facilities in the region, their estimated remaining useful life, and cost to replace • starting in 2017, half a mill was allocated to a dedicated recreation reserve account to be used for upgrading existing recreation facilities o cannot currently replace all recreation facilities in the region o not a huge appetite to answer the question of which facilities will not be replaced • usage statistics requested to determine the value per hour for recreation services o currently there is no formal requirement to provide that information to receive recreation funding from the County • standardized recreation fees have been discussed Discussion followed. The Chief Administrative Officer responded to questions from Council. Council acknowledged a need for user statistics including where users are coming from to determine funding levels. The Chief Administrative Officer indicated that recreation funding requests to Agricultural Societies do include detailed breakdowns and quotes for specific projects. The Chief Administrative Officer provided an overview of the City of Brooks Recreation & Parks Comprehensive Master Plan and noted some specific new capital items. He indicated the County declined an invitation to participate in the development of this plan and suggested involvement in the next iteration which should include the entire region. 7. IN CAMERA W-03/23 MOVED BY COUNCILLOR AMANDA PHILPOTT that we move in camera at 11:55 p.m. to discuss the following matters: • Intergovernmental Relations — FOIPP Act Section 21. MOTION CARRIED Page 4 of 5 Committee of the Whole January 16, 2023 W-04/23 MOVED BY COUNCILLOR HOLLY JOHNSON that we move out of camera at 12:00 p.m. MOTION CARRIED 8. DATE OF NEXT MEETING The next meeting will be held on Monday, April 17, 2023, The Chairman will be Councillor Lynette Kopp (Division 3). 9. ADJOURN Being that the agenda matters have been concluded, the meeting adjourned at 12:00 p.m. Signed this I -Tay of 12023 'A'u� Reeve County Adrbinistrator Page 5 of 5