Hamilton to continue as reeve, County approves library budget

Posted on October 26, 2023 by Ryan Dahlman

By Anna Smith
Commentator/Courier

With another year under their belts, Cypress County marked this mid-October meeting with their organizational meeting.

With nothing broken, the County saw little need for changes on Oct. 17. Reeve Dan Hamilton was sworn in for another year, alongside his Deputy Reeve Richard Oster.

Many of the board placements remain the same, with notable exceptions including Oster resuming his place on the Community Futures board after a mandatory year long absence.

Post-organizational, a motion was made and passed to allow a delegation from Indygen, or GreenCells.

A request was submitted for a dust abatement to be applied between the hamlet of Schuler and the nearby transfer site, due to issues with dust being kicked up in the dry conditions over the course of the summer. After some discussion, it was decided that traffic counts were required on the county’s transfer sites before any direct action was taken, and a motion was passed for the traffic counts.

Council received a delegation in regards to the ongoing discussion surrounding confined feedlot operations from an NRCB representative to discuss concerns and next steps in regards to proposed changes to mandatory setbacks.

An information brief on a previously passed land use bylaw was received for information, in regards to a personal greenhouse. The structure is over the allotment for building sizes in the hamlet residential district and administration is in discussion with a consultant.

A motion was passed to direct Administration to submit nine bridge file structures for A.T. STIP grant funding consideration.

Cypress County Council approved the year’s Shortgrass Library budget, with a rate of $4.97 per capita in 2023, and $5.08 per capita in 2024, using the 2016 Alberta Municipal Affairs population figures of 7,662.