STARS update at Coalhurst Council

Posted on April 12, 2023 by Sunny South News

By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South News

The following are selected briefs from the regular April 3 meeting of Coalhurst town council.

CAO report

Highlights of the CAO report include:

• Shawn Patience will be Coalhurst’s new CAO. He will be taking over from the interim CAO, Jeffrey Coffman.

• A member of the Coaldale RCMP hosted a Community Safety Meeting presentation and answered questions from the public. A reminder that if you experience crime, to call the RCMP information line before turning to social media.

• Feedback was received from a recent Public Open House around The Wetlands. Those who stopped in provided great information and feedback. An online survey on the topic closed on April 1, and the survey results will be presented to council at their regular April 18 meeting.

• The Town has been approved for a Fire Services Training Grant, which will offset firefighter costs associated with NFPA 1001 Level 1, NFPA 1031 Fire Inspector Levels 1 & 2, and NFPA 1072 Hazmat training sessions.

• In regards to investigating the CAPTURE program for the town, Cst. Marentette of the Coaldale RCMP had reached out and advised that he is working on getting Coalhurst added to the current system of cameras, and is hoping to have more information by the end of April.

STARS presentation

Glenda Farnden and Martin Ebel from STARS Air Ambulance appeared before council.

In addition to statistics of their missions flown for the past five years, Farden said that they were in high-level discussions with the Alberta government to get another long-term service agreement. Their previous one expired in 2020, and they went year-to-year since then. Last spring, the Alberta government announced they were looking at 50 per cent funding, which would align with the funding they receive from the Saskatchewan government, and at the end of the year, STARS received a top-up in funding.

Their ask to council is to give them $1 per capita a year, in conjunction with their council term.

Council passed a motion to accept the STARS update as information.

BEW-FCSS Requisition

During council’s regular March 21 meeting, a letter from BEW FCSS was received, informing council of the board-approved two per cent per capita increase in the municipal requisitions for BEW FCSS. Council has raised questions about how this would effect the town’s budget and when this would come into effect.

The report stated that FCSS continues to see an increased need for supports, and in order to address the costs associated with the rising need, the BEW FCSS Board unanimously approved a two per cent increase to the requisition. Member municipalities voted on the increase, which was approved.

The 2023 Annual Funding Contribution for FCSS is $22,272 – a two per cent increase over the 2022 requisition amount of $21,826.56. The additional $445.44 cost can be absorbed within the current budget estimates and through efficiencies created by the Director of Corporate Services.

Council passed a motion to accept for information the FCSS Requisition report and the administrative response as a result of it.