County of 40 Mile Council briefs from Feb. 14

By Brylan Span
Commentator/Courier

The following are selected briefs from the County of 40 Mile Council meeting on February 14.

Starbrite Colony

Nathan Ogden of development and planning for County of 40 Mile brought plans for Starbrite Colony to split their colony in two to the attention of Council. Starbrite was looking for thoughts and comments from Council regarding this idea. The plan is for the new portion of the colony, which will be home to 100 people, to be located four miles south and two miles west of Foremost, roughly six miles from their current colony.

Burdett Post Office

A proposal to continue on with the current rent of $150 for the Burdett Post Office was carried, as the previous agreement had come to an end. Council members noted that it is important for post offices to remain in the county, as once they are gone they won’t be coming back. Don Drake, Councillor for Division 6 Burdett remarked that it is a busy post office, and that it is pretty much full.

Manyberries Coffee with Council

Council discussed their Coffee with Council event in Manyberries. While they were happy with the turnout, they are looking to change the format. In Manyberries, Council members were seated at tables with a select group of people. While they were able to answer questions from those at their tables, they were unable to hear the questions and concerns of residents and other tables. For future events, Council plans to have the tables set up in more of a large square in order to be able to hear and answer all questions and concerns.

One specific topic that was discussed and brought up by Division 2 Etzikom & Manyberries Councillor Diane Harty was road shape and crowns in the roads. Harty explained the difficulty of hauling cattle out of yards caused by crowns, stating that haulers were facing challenges of almost becoming high-centred. Reeve Stacey Barrows stated her interest in doing some “road tours” in order to see the conditions that haulers are facing.

RCMP looking for support

Council discussed the RCMP coming to municipalities looking for support as they ask the government for $80 million. The RCMP is hoping to hire 400 new officers to the force. Council decided on no action, as they were concerned about the funds coming back to the municipalities and needing to be paid off. They were also hesitant to support the RCMP, as they were without a detachment for many years until recently.

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