County Gong Show

[cowman]

After two years and who knows how many thousands spent, the local county can't agree on their land use deal! I find it funny they were giving a presentation to other municipalities last week on how to do it! Emerald mentioned it?
Not just real sure if they can't really agree or if someone is busy playing politics? The councillor they quoted as holding it up has a lot of grievances on a couple of other issues that he wasn't getting much support for! He wanted more money in the budget for brushing in his division and also isn't very happy with how it is going in the elected reeve deal! His division would probably be swallowed up into one where he would be facing a very tough opponent. On the brushing thing, he does have a valid concern but right now all the focus(and money) is going towards developing gasoline alley and fixing the screwup in Springbrook!
When the council has a major screwup like Springbrook to coverup it seems that the old rural roads have to pay the price? Looks like you may have to live with crappy roads for the next few years Linda?

[TOM4CWB]

Cowman the county is GOING to make a presentation at the Action For Agriculture AGM in February 24th, not last week !!!
What is the issue with Springbrook ?

All I have heard is that Red Deer County is planning on creating two new towns .

You referenced the councillor holding up the passing of the Land Use By-Law, the only way he could have done that was to oppose giving it all three readings in one day.

[cakadu]

Gosh, where to begin with Springbrook. Cowman and others can help out here, but the long and the short of it is...once upon a time it used to be the old army barracks that was converted into residential. By the time the county got it, there were major - and I mean major - repairs and infrastructure problems. It has been a sinkhole for money for a number of years now and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight.

I have given up any hope of their being something done to the roads out here cowman.

[cowman]

Well emerald I thought you said it was last week, so thanks for the update.
Don't know all the details of what happened with the land use thing. I think it was a lot more than just this one councillor...but he was the one the paper quoted? He also wasn't very happy about the lack of opportunity for developement in his division? Practically the whole area is designated "Primary Agriculture" which means basically "dogpatch"! The sad part of it is his division was crying for some developement and expressed that idea very strongly at the public input meetings. Their position was ignored.
Springbrook: Airforce base. County took it off the feds hands for $1. Never got anything to upgrade the infrastructure! Only federal base in the country that there wasn't provisions for upgrades! Needs at least $11 million to fix the water and sewers. Part of the land use deal was an effort to expand Springbrook...and thus pay for the screw up! $10.5 million to be spent this year on upgrading by private contractor-EPCOR...with county picking up the tab.
Two new Hamlets: Timber Rock a self contained "village" of 4500 people east of the city of Red Deer...with a controversy of its own...again a council screwup. Resulting from a real ugly fight over a hog barn several years ago. The chickens are now coming home to roost!
Hidden Springs: West of the city of Red Deer. 400 houses...with plans to build a lot more down the road! I know the owner/developer and once he gets that bit in his mouth he won't be held back!

[cowman]

I wonder if the County has applied for any of the grants available for upgrades to sewer and water infrastructure for Springbook. I knew it was the old airbase but didn't realize the county was picking up the tab. Has there been any growth there ?
It will be interesting to hear the County Development officer speak at the Action for Agriculture AGM, and very interesting to hear how he responds to questions from attendees, many of whom will be municipal councillors from across the province.

[cakadu]

emrald I don't think that there has been much in the way of the projected growth at Springbrook because of all the upgrading that needs to be done. It is too close to Red Deer to get built up much beyond a bedroom community.

[cakadu]

If it is under the control of Red Deer County then it must be either a Hamlet or a country residential community. I would think that the City of Red Deer would yell like crazy if there were any significant growth there as it is on their boundary.
Does anyone know what the zoning is on the properties just west of Leons ? I wondered if that land is still zoned Agricultural or if it has been rezoned to country residential or light commercial.

[cowman]

emerald: Springbrook is a hamlet and it has expanded, but very little. There is a plan in place to develop the whole area. The land west of Leons is zoned industrial I believe? Some construction there last fall? I went to an open house last spring on what the plans are for these areas and it is pretty wild!
Right now there is a vicious battle taking place between Red Deer County and the city of Red Deer over where the city intends to grow. They do have some sort of ageement but the new mayor and council of Red Deer think they need a different deal! Red Deer County has basically said gasoline alley south is a no go area for Red Deer.
The airport at Springbrook is jointly owned by RD County and the city of Red Deer. The city has dragged its feet on doing the necessary expansion and upgrades so it could become an international airport! This might have something to do with the county buying up much of the land around the airport for light industry?
The current administration of the city of Red Deer is not the sharpest knife in the drawer! A proposed 12% tax hike this year!...and they wonder why they are losing business to the county?
Harry Harker is the developement guy at Red Deer County and is a pretty sharp cookie? He might be a little to much "out there" and ahead of his time but he knows how to sell an idea!

[cowman]

cowman, Red Deer city and county aren't the only areas that are at logger heads over expansion. The City of Grande Prairie and the county are heading into a battle if things don't simmer down up there. I have heard that the county has put a million dollars in the budget to fight annexation.
For the life of me I cannot understand why urban centres seem to think that growth should only occur within their boundaries.
There is no reason why places like Gasoline Alley can't stay within the rural municipality.
My reason for asking about the land west of Leons is that whenever I head out of Red Deer I take that road and I noticed some small ag holdings in there and wondered how long before they would be forced out or surrounded by box type development.
The county is going to have to address the volume of traffic on the service road between Costco and the one heading past Leon's. If you are trying to get on that road anywhere along gasoline alley from places like Glenns it can be quite a wait. I imagine that fairly soon there will be lights by Costo.

Red Deer and area is really growing, and with it come the growing pains.

[cakadu]

Emrald, the lights finally went in there at the beginning of December. Better late than never I guess. They also took some pressure off of that road by opening up another side road just past the new Toyota.

On the other hand, when it comes to urban centres expanding, they have the right to grow as per the Municipal Government Act. There are going to be some very interesting battles going on as we continue with this red hot growth.

Interestingly enough, companies are finding it cheaper to fly people in to places like Fort McMurray than to have people try and get established up there. The costs are horrendous up there and even with high wages, you're not necessarily that much further ahead because you are paying a lot more.

Cowman, the development credits that are being proposed work in theory, but so far, they aren't working in principle as the growth will be occuring on the corridor. If you're off of it, then you're pretty much out of luck.

[cowman]

Not too sure about these developement credits? Don't think they mention them in the update they sent out with the County news?
I think I know what you are talking about though as one of the "enlightened councillors" who went to the seminar in the states, liked to go on about them?
Actually I'm only 4 miles from #2 but in fact even right down to #2, in my area, we are "primary agriculture". One mile north it is a different story!
If I was serious about developement I'd get a big bag of money and go "visiting" the proper people? It is amazing what a healthy bribe can do!

[cowman]

developing in Fort Mac. or in the Special Municipality of Wood Buffalo is going to be difficult as it is surrounded by Crown Land and likely some first nations land.

Development credits are a tool that the county may be talking about but there is nothing in the Municipal Government Act that pertains to it to my knowledge.

I think that many counties are deciding that they need to go further afield to garner information on development etc. EG: the biodigestor trip .

My own municipality just gave the union staff a 19% salary increase over 3 years which is well above the provincial level.....the CEO asked for the increase and the council which are mainly new felt they needed to go along with it because it was difficult to keep staff. Most of the public works staff are older than the hills and have been there forever so they are close to pension age anyway and its doubtful if they would want to work in the resource industry which would mean working weekends, nights etc.

When I was on council I can remember being taken to task at a public meeting because I had flown to Calgary for a conference, and in actual fact the flight cost less than paying my mileage would have !!! Nowdays councillors are flying all over the place !!

I don't have a problem with one member of council going to a conference on land use planning outside the province as long as the administration in planning attends as well, but I have always had a problem with several members of council heading off to a conference when they may not even get re-elected the next election and anything they learn will be redundant.

In my time on council two members of council accepted a free trip to Chicago to tour the Catepillar plant. It had been discussed at council and the majority were adamant that the council should not accept the gift of the trip from a firm that submitted tenders for supplying equipment for the county.
The two that went didn't tell anybody but when the list of councillors that attended was made public, lo and behold there were the names of two of our councillors !! The both got the boot in the last election so anything they learned in that tour about manufacturing graders will go to the grave with them I suspect !!!!!

[cowman]

emerald: Red Deer county gave their staff a 6% increase for one year, this past year. No unionized staff as the operations are all privately contracted out. The claim is they save $1.5 million a year by contracting out operation services. Unfortunately they have decided not to contract out the rest of the services...for what reason I don't know? I know several councillors had ideological problems dealing with a union(Operations only unionized shortly before they scrapped it and went private!).
It would seem to make sense if you are saving $1.5 million in one department that the smart thing to do would to be continue with privatization...or did they just want to get rid of the union?
I was a little disgusted that they decided not to privatize ag services(specifically spraying and grass seeding) as I had a good look at it and was interested in bidding on the contract. Instead they have ordered another high priced chem application truck at $140,000!
One thing about the county...they seldom do anything cheap! I have been talking to their ag foreman and I think he is going to come work for me. He wasn't being paid one heck of a lot(maybe just cheap with some employees!) and it will be nice to have someone who is experienced. The two kids I had last summer were okay but you had to sort of babysit them. The old guy I have is very sick and won't be able to do much this summer.

[cowman]

One other thing emerald: The biodigester trip?
RD County sent three councillors and two staff to Germany/Austria for the bio digester trip. Part of the bill was picked up by the feds but not all of it?
Many people are a little pissed off at this?
The Ag fieldman has been working on this for close to two years and is very close to getting one built? He wasn't included in the trip! He probably knows more about the economics and feasability of building a plant in Alberta than anybody? Instead they send 5 clowns who wouldn't know a bio digester if it bit them in the butt!
On top of that the local MP(Mills) had spent prctically the whole summer in Europe visiting bio plants and had given a detailed report to the RD County council? The realities of a bio plant in Germany are not the same as one on the prairies? There are two state of the art facilities here...at Vegreville and at Cudworth Saskatchewan...guess those aren't exotic enough?
Most people see this little fiasco as nothing more than what it was...a little pleasure jaunt on the taxpayers dime!

[cowman]

cowman it would just boggle your mind if you attended conferences where municipal councillors are out in full force. I have been attending them for many many years and I can assure you the free booze runs like water, and the actual meat and potatoes of the conferences are poorly attended unless they afford an opportunity for some councillors to get up and grandstand.

We have one loose cannon on council he loves his booze and if its free he loves it even more. His first convention after being elected was in Edmonton a year ago last fall. I was at the Municipal Affairs Ministers reception and the councillor came in looking for the free bar !!! Actually I think there was only wine but he made a bee line for it.
At any given evening function he usually has a dozen empty beer cans in front of him, and his mouth gets in gear along with the booze.
He is the first guy at the mike when there is a question period, many times he makes very good sense but other times he isn't clear on the issue but of course, needs to be heard !!

Two members of council have already taken him aside and had a friendly chat with him to get him to back off on the booze. They asked the Reeve to do it but he didn't 'feel comfortable' discussing such things so the two real leaders on council took it on .

One thing I can say for our new council is that they aren't running off out of the province on trips. They attend most conferences, and take the farmer reps on the ASB plus the Chairman of the new watershed group to any environmental conferences which I think is a good thing.

The chair of the watershed is a very introverted fellow, very smart but shy when it comes to speaking in public. He allows the ag fieldman to control all their meetings. I am going to get involved in the watershed group, I think its a good thing given that our area has several rivers and a million creeks running everywhere, plus a significant cattle industry.

Did you have any dealings with Maurice Moore when he was the fieldman in Red Deer ? I always felt he was a very solid individual. He was on council in Ponoka County and knew his stuff, and certainly contributed a lot to the county. It was unfortunate that he was defeated by a very small margin in the last election.

Our Ag fieldman has only been here a couple of years. The former one went to work as the environmental specialist for EXH. He was an awesome fieldman, smart as a whip and set up some excellent ag programs.

The riparian co-ordinator here is a great kid, she used to work for me, and although she doesn't really have much post secondary education she is doing a heck of a job. Nice to see a local youngster getting the opportunity .