RM Lumsden Meeting Feb. 4th. Kent Farago was also in attendace, not pictured.
Little Church Bridge Update, Development Applications
February saw the council for the RM of Lumsden meet via Zoom on the 4th. Council made a motion to add OptionPay to their roster of ways ratepayers can make payments to the RM. OptionPay is a credit card processing service that ratepayers can use to pay fines, property taxes and accounts receivable to the RM. Municipalities like the option because there are no processing fees passed onto their ratepayers; instead, the processing fees are on the individual user. The Town of Lumsden also approved OptionPay at their January 26th meeting.
Administrator’s Report
Chief Administrative Officer Monica Merkosky reported as new cases of COVID-19 remain high, despite the inconvenience of having most of the staff working away from the office, there is no intention to open the office to the public any time soon.
The CAO and the Assistant Administrator, Krystal Strong, worked on tax enforcement, registering eight tax liens.
Little Church Bridge Update
The Lumsden RCMP detachment asked for an estimate of damages on the Little Church Bridge. They informed the CAO that the truck was plated, and they will be forwarding a report to SGI. The RM of Longlaketon has sent a demand letter to SGI. The discovery the truck was plated was good news for the RM as there had initially been concerns that the truck involved in the accident hadn’t been insured which was causing issues in the insurance process.
MPE Engineering Ltd. completed the Geotechnical work for the Little Church Bridge on January 19th. Public Works Manager Leighton Watts reported they are waiting for the report he anticipated to receive in the next few weeks. Also, he said MPE has been in contact with the bridge manufacturer and will be sending the RM a report of any issues or concerns with the structure and an installation plan.
Development Applications Tabled
Council decided to table the Dakine subdivision application while waiting for clarification from the applicant regarding the proposed internal road and access to the proposed parcel. The concern is the access road location because if there is the potential for more lots council wouldn’t want multiple accesses off of the grid road. Instead, the council wants there to be a plan for an internal service road. Council tabled the application again on the 18th.
Council also tabled the Johnson Zoning amendment application. They requested comments from the applicant because they will only allow one access off Foxleigh Road, and they wanted to know how the other parcels would be accessed in the future. Council had further concerns because the residential and commercial uses were close to each other with no buffer. They added that the Department of Highways and Infrastructure would need to comment on the sightlines of the parcel nearest the highway. Johnson presented as a delegation before council on the 18th with some general discussion as he looked for clarification.
And finally, the last to be tabled was the Mignon development application for further review of the road upgrade requirements and policy. At the meeting on the 18th, a review was completed by the new Director of Planning and Development, Aimee Bryck. The review upheld that if the applicant wants the dwelling, he will need to bring the current approach up to RM standards and will be required to sign a road development agreement to upgrade the road, which is standard policy for the RM.
Public Hearing
There was a public hearing regarding bylaw 2020-14. The hearing was to amend the zoning bylaw to incorporate new consolidated zoning maps. There were no presentations or submissions on the amendment. Following the hearing, the bylaw passed the second and third reading.
Virtual Convention and Annual Meeting
Council approved Reeve Kent Farago and Councillor Glenda Schlosser as voting delegates to the SARM Annual Convention on March 9-11. All interested Councillors, as well as management and staff, will also be able to attend.
Reeve Farago, Councillor Schlosser and the Chief Administrative Officer will be attending the Virtual Annual Meeting for the SK Assessment Management Agency on April 8th.
Closed Meeting
Two resolutions arose from the regularly scheduled closed session occurring near the end of the open public meeting. There was a resolution to send an outstanding fire invoice to the RM’s lawyer for collection and the second resolution was that the RM create an Annexation Committee. They appointed Councillors Jordison and Langford to the committee.
Jennifer Argue, Civic Reporter, LMT - Local Journalism Initiative reporter
Note: These reports are abridged for content