Public engagement plans get cold shoulder for now
Toques and coats were the order of the day for Tuesday's Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting, as the heater in Council Chambers wasn't working on one of the coldest nights of the year.
Time spent struggling to get some heat in the room cut down the already abbreviated meeting time, due to the scheduling of a second, Special Meeting, to address the still-stalled Lions Bay Beach Park (LBBP) project.
As a result, discussion in the COW meeting centred almost entirely around the budget, with the agenda items calling for reports outlining a potential resident satisfaction survey and a proposed public engagement program set aside for consideration another time.
Financial Officer Joe Chirkoff noted that the most recent version of the draft budget (page 15 on the evening's first agenda) includes the year-to-date numbers to the end of December, 2024.
Chirkoff also pointed to page 28, which offers a summary of salaries of Village staff members.
Capital expenditures (found beginning on page 53) were again the focus, with general agreement as to the necessity of the CUBB.3 project, which would entail replacing 400 metres of watermain from Alberta Creek down to Centre Avenue at a cost of $1.3 million.
Director of Operations Karl Buhr noted that a watermain failure in Lions Bay could be even more catastrophic than the one faced in Calgary last year, stressing the importance of this project over others for that reason.
Discussion arose around the source of the money for this project, with a general leaning toward debt financing, which is offered to the Village at a favourable rate, rather than taking money from Village reserves. Buhr noted the potential for a federal grant exists, which could mean a larger scope to the project with lower costs.
There was also discussion of increasing the budget for dangerous tree-cutting, as Buhr noted there are a number of dangerous trees that need to be brought down safely. He added that this item should be considered an operational rather than a capital expense.
Fire Chief Barret Germscheid appeared to make a pitch for increasing the salary for on-call firefighters, noting that the current wage of $18 per hour is just over minimum wage, and far below the average within local departments, which hovers closer to $33 per hour. Germscheid reminded Council that the high-turnover for new recruits continues, as larger 'career departments' continue to hire these recruits away. He said a higher hourly salary for on-call personnel could attract more potential applicants.
When discussion turned to the reduction in the number of home-owner volunteers over the years, Germscheid noted that standards for volunteers have changed, and that to meet the minimum standard, a resident would have to attend weekly Wednesday call-outs for two to three years without fail.
"New recruits are coming to us with a minimum of 300 hours of training these days," he said, adding that many have paid for courses through the Justice Institute and similar organizations out of their own pockets before applying.
After leaping through a number of procedural hoops, the special council meeting convened and attention turned to the current state of the Lions Bay Beach Park project.
Councillor Michael Broughton said that he and Abbott had asked for the special meeting in order to find clarity regarding the direction council will take with the project, and get it moving forward.
Blackwell summarized events for this round of the LBBP, and offered the new information that the pre-summer construction window has been missed. He added that if a direction is decided upon by council, it might be possible to get the new playground equipment installed before summer, but that it is still under negotiation.
Whether the kayak storage (now called the watercraft rack) can remain a part of the project, while being outside of the scope of Nick Bray Architect's design, is still a matter of contention.
When the topic arose of building the new washroom facility on leased land versus land owned by the Village arose, Council opted to go into a closed session, but did not choose to report any information out when they returned to re-open the special meeting.
In regard to potential tariffs related to the playground equipment, Blackwell said that the equipment is already paid for, and therefore will not be subject to tariffs, should they be imposed.
Councillor Abbott said it's clear that the project is already well over budget, and asked that Council gain a greater understanding of where the capital costs are going before moving forward.
The meeting closed with a motion supporting Blackwell's recommendation that Council agree to an additional surcharge from the architect to make the requested design changes to the project, and that council will meet with him before they agree to move forward. The motion passed, with Abbott opposed.
The next regular meeting of council is scheduled for February 18 at 6 p.m.
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