ATHABASCA - It has been a rough year for everyone, personally, and for all levels of government, but the most recent statement of financial operations for the Town of Athabasca looks to be in the black.
At Athabasca town council's Nov. 17 meeting, chief financial officer (CFO) Jeff Dalley presented his report ending Oct. 31, noting the town has received its Municipal Operating Stimulus (MOST) funding and that two big payments are coming due and while the ledger had a lot of red it, councillors were interested in the final numbers.
“Our ATB (Alberta Treasury Branch) checking operating; kind of stable dropped a little for October. We did receive our MOST funding so our bank account is up a little,” said Dalley. “Now toward the end of the year, November, December, we'll be making some big payments, for example, the school requisition payment; we’ll be making the police funding payment right after Christmas.”
Overall Dalley said investments were staying the course noting the town should not have to transfer much from the investment account and that he has not changed much in the forecast report.
“I haven't changed much of the original forecasts on this particular report,” he said. “I'm projecting a small surplus of around $60,000.”
He added that interest rates are increasing, noting between Oct. 15 and Nov. 15 interest went from 1.82 per cent to 2.016 per cent.
“I don't know the reason for that,’ said Dalley. “Potentially one reason could be that their loan program now is going to be taken over by the government. So, I don't know if the loan the interest rates were adjusted for that or just that the economy may be getting better and interest rates are going up.”
Muskeg Creek Trails
The council received a letter from Transportation Minister Ric McIver saying while there was nothing his department could do to help with the bridges, he noted some grants that could be applied for.
“So, the first two they mentioned was the Federal Gas Tax (FGT) and the Municipal Stimulus Initiative (MSI),” said Dalley. “From my understanding of this, is that for MSI for example, if we wanted to take $500,000 … for (the) Muskeg Creek bridge we can apply to use $500,000 of our MSI funding.”
The information was accepted and more research will be done pending an engineering study and for input from the ad hoc Muskeg Creek committee.
Bylaw officer report
Peace officer Brian Bandura gave his report noting 23 occurrences with 11 provincial citations including two of disorderly conduct and petty trespass.
"I ended up doing a walkthrough with the RCMP in one building and the owner or complainant to the other occurrence basically set up a fence that would prevent vagrants from entering between the two buildings,” said Bandura. “And that was all rectified.”
He added that now that it has snowed, he will be turning his focus on enforcing local bylaws.
"I think pretty much what I will be doing here in the next little bit is focusing on sidewalks and vehicles that have been left on the street for more than 72 hours (about 3 days),” he said. “I'll definitely be doing a push on that to make sure that people are complying with our bylaws.”
Request for recycling rebate
The Athabasca and District Senior’s Society sent a letter to council asking for a rebate of $300 on the recycling fee starting since they had to close in March, citing they had not held events so there was no garbage or recycling to be picked up.
“The recycling rebate,” said mayor Colleen Powell. “This was one that we looked at last meeting, it went to retreat and it’s coming back to council. For those of you who are not aware, we had a request from the Senior’s Society to get a rebate on the recycling fee since they were open during that time.”
Coun. Tannia Cherniwchan asked if the town had received letters from any other businesses in town that had also been closed or from any vacant or for-sale home owners.
“No, we have not,” said chief administrative officer Rachel Ramey.
Powell noted that the program only works if everyone pays and subsequently the council denied the request.
Heather Stocking, TownandCountryToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @HLSox
