Results of straw poll received
Council accepted for information a letter from Dave Karroll regarding a straw poll advertised in the Rimbey Review. In his letter Karroll said 81 per cent of the callers wanted an official referendum on the town office/library issue, 71 per cent wanted a new council, 88 per cent supported leaving the town office where it is, and 66 per cent supported restoring economic development of tax credits.
Auditor’s report received
Mike Seniuk, senior partner for Seniuk & Company presented the auditor’s report to council. The report showed council has ended the year 2012 with just over a million in surplus funding, of which $677,000 is budgeted for operations.
In his report, Seniuk gave credit to staff for a job well done.
“You are in a better financial position that you were the year before. All in all, it was a good year,” he said.
Tender awarded
The tender for the construction of 53rd Ave. has been awarded to M. Pidherney’s Trucking at a cost of $681,671.88.
Project cancelled
Council agreed to cancel a project for renovations to the community centre washroom as tenders received far exceeded the $60,000 budgeted for the project. Council may look at the project next year.
MSI funding finalized
Doug Griffiths, Minister of Municipal Affairs said in a letter to CAO Tony Goode that the town’s municipal sustainability initiative funding for 2013 is to be $544,632, which includes capital project funding of $496,774 and conditional operating funding of $47,858. Allocations are based on the formula established for the long-term program and are calculated annually using updated data to reflect municipalities’’ changing circumstances.
The MSI operating funding was $896 million this year. It will decrease to $30 million in 2014, $15 million in 2015 and be eliminated in 2016.