County council authorizes the sign-off on a one-year lease for the Walsh Visitors Information Centre

By Justin Seward

Commentator/Courier

Cypress County councillors voted in favour of authorizing the sign off of a one-year lease for the Walsh Visitors Information Centre at their Dec. 1 meeting. The province has offered to lease the Centre to the county for a one-year term for an annual rent of $1 through a direct pay lease. This means the county would pay for direct costs of running the facility and or providing services.
The province had co-shared the operating costs for one year previously and totalled $60,000.
The province vacated the centre back in the spring.
Master Rates Bylaw
First reading of the annual Master Rates Bylaw was passed by council. The bylaw states “Cypress County to establish fees for information, goods, and services provided by or on behalf of the County.”
“The County provides information, goods, and services that are necessary and desirable in all or parts of the County. This information, goods, and services may be provided upon the payment of a reasonable fee.”
The utility rates have been set in line with the five -year water and sewer plan. Other rate changes are based on current costs of products and services.
Proposed changes can be viewed at http://cypress.ab.ca/p/bylaw-services and click on Master Rates.
Undeveloped road maintenance requests
Council voted in favour of deputy reeve Richard Oster’s motion to approve 15 undeveloped road maintenance requests in at a cost of $216,900. In the second table there was a quarter section that touches a developed road between Range Road 75 and 71 at a project estimate of $2,800.
Furthermore, council approved the request to do upgrades to Range Road 74 and the old Trans-Canada Highway at a cost of $34,000.
Municipal Operating Support Transfer (MOST)
Council approved to allocate $5,000 to each community association outlined in Policy REC 2 Recreation Annual Grants from the MOST and bring forward larger requests for council’s consideration.

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