M.D. gets look at Strategic Plan

By Cole Parkinson
Vauxhall Advance
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

After three days of strategic planning at the beginning of the month, the Municipal District of Taber was presented with an action list of 29 items.

With the meetings held from Oct. 31 until Nov. 2, council got a look at the action list compiled by administration at their regular meeting on Nov. 13.

“I took the 29 action items from the strategic planning session and sketched out what I believed to be council’s objective, assigned some internal responsible parties to undertake the action item, the budget and a potential timeline. I put it on today’s agenda to get council feedback and see if those items were appropriately characterized. I believe the next step would be to undertake further evaluation to see if certain action items could be grouped together and then provide a request for decision for each item back to council at a further date,” explained Krizsan.

In terms of coming timelines, there are six items that are expected to be tackled this year and they have a timeline of Dec. 1, 2018.

“Basically the timeline is specifying when we would have the appropriate information for a request for decision so some of these items such as calcium, that one is pretty cut and dry,” added Krizsan.

Those six items include examining costs related to hamlet sidewalk snow removal, amending the calcium policy to increase cost recovery, examining the community peace officer contract with the Village of Barnwell on an ongoing basis to ensure full cost recovery, reviewing council meeting event management, reviewing the Coyote Reduction Incentive Program and reviewing the addition of the Vauxhall Truck Park to the 2019 municipal budget.

Action item one around hamlet snow removal will determine if hamlet sidewalk snow removal will continue and responsible divisions in the M.D. will be hamlets and utilities, payroll, and finance.

Calcium policy revolves around amending the policy to increase the cost of calcium to $1.25 per linear foot and to reduce the distance for cost share from 1,000 to 750 feet with public works and finance responsible.

In terms of examining the CPO contract with Barnwell, they are looking at monthly and annual reports detailing total time spent in the village.

Reviews on council meeting event management has an objective of establishing a policy for council event meeting management. Adding money to the 2019 budget year to assist local fish and game associations to operate the Coyote Reduction Incentive Program to the tune of $340 per year, per association, is another focus for council. Lastly, they will be reviewing the Vauxhall Truck Park addition in the 2019 municipal budget as they look to take advantage of provincial funding to participate in a partnership with Alberta Transportation to develop a truck park and commercial property near Vauxhall.

“Behind the scenes, our staff is accumulating information regarding costs,” said Krizsan on the upcoming action items and future projects related to the strategic planning meetings.

The further 23 items have timelines ranging from February to November 2019.

Coun. Brian Brewin also pointed out some of the items may need to be held off if an organizational review were to take place which was listed on the action item list with a timeline of November 2019.

“Some of the items are going to take some time. If council is intending to do an organizational review, I would suggest a lot of these items be held off on because you would be re-doing the work,” added Krizsan.

Other items listed include examining additional revenues that may be found in municipally-owned land, providing options for extending hours of operation for road graders, options for more efficient grading and gravelling.

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