WESTLOCK – Westlock County councillors have officially discontinued the municipality’s hamlet mowing and community clean-up program, while approving changes to the scholarship program.
At their Feb. 28 regular meeting, councillors voted 5-1 (Coun. Jared Stitsen was against, while Coun. Francis Cloutier was absent) to rescind Policy 6.05 Hamlet Mowing and Community Cleanup Grants, while voting unanimously to approve revisions to Policy 7300-002 Scholarship Program — both documents and the proposed changes were discussed at length at the Feb. 21 committee of the whole meeting and covered in the Feb. 28 print edition of Town & Country This Week.
In the lead up to the vote to rescind the mowing and community cleanup grant program, community services coordinator Adrienne Finnegan presented the single-page letter to be signed by reeve Christine Wiese that was going out to the groups who had previously participated.
The program is being replaced by the purchase of a $15,000 commercial zero-turn mower previously approved in the county’s 2023 capital budget, along with hiring a temporary, summer employee to maintain county infrastructure “including, but not limited to county-owned properties and facilities” as it was previously stated in an administration briefing that it was in “the county's best interest, both financially and administratively, to maintain our infrastructure internally.”
The old policy allowed for $300 to be handed out to non-profit groups to do a “community clean up” in each hamlet, while $500 per every 50 people in each hamlet was available to groups to mow the grass on county-owned properties like fire halls and grader storage lots each month — funding was paid on an annual basis.
“A lot of these communities went above and beyond doing extra things like planting trees and things like that. I think this is a hard one for our communities,” said Stitsen, who was the lone dissenting voice.
Wiese said she liked that Finnegan would be personally calling the groups, while councillors thanked them for the service — the letter notes the county is “accountable to all residents and sometimes must make these difficult decisions.” Finnegan told councillors the mower is currently being built and should be ready by “late March, mid-April” and they’ll have someone hired for the temporary position by mowing season.
“I think it’s good that we’re taking responsibility for our own (properties) instead of leaving it to our hamlets … I think that will be a good thing,” said Wiese. “It is a change, but they will be able apply in a different sense and there will be other opportunities for funding, it’ll just not be automatically provided.”
“I think the letter needs a bit of wordsmithing so we can get our sincere appreciation into it and probably elaborate a little further on what’s coming for these groups,” added Coun. Stuart Fox-Robinson. “I think the groups have done a good job, but I think we’re making a change for the benefit our of residents and I think they’re going to see that, but sometimes change is hard for people.”
Councillors also made it known that the community groups who previously participated won’t be left out in the cold as they’re working on a revised Community Grant Program Policy that’s scheduled to be back in front of them this month — the letter to groups notes they “strongly recommend that you follow these changes when they are made available and suggest that your organization apply within the 2024 calendar year.”
“We are working on our community granting program policy and there will be opportunities within that,” Wiese confirmed.
Coun. Sherri Provencal said doing the mowing in-house will mean all county-owned properties, regardless of their location, will see the same level of service.
“I think this is just a better way to ensure that Westlock County properties are done to the face of what we’re trying to achieve … us taking over our own is to make sure they’re actually done,” she said.
Scholarship program to be tweaked
Councillors also voted 6-0 to approve a revised scholarship program policy with tightened eligibility requirements but will allow candidates studying outside Alberta to apply.
Finnegan previously noted that the program, which sees two $500 scholarships awarded annually, exploded in 2022 as they received 15 applications compared to the “one or two submissions” they usually get. At their Feb. 21 committee of the whole (COW) meeting, councillors spent close to 10 minutes debating the updated two-page Policy 6.07 Scholarship Program as presented by Finnegan —the document was first discussed at the council table Sept. 13, 2022.
In addition to several minor changes, like opening it to students studying abroad, councillors made a point they wanted to see the scholarships handed out only to Westlock County residents as previously it was available to anyone in the Village of Clyde, Town of Westlock and Summer Village of Larkspur.
“I like the changes that were made, it’s a great program as not every community offers this, so I think it’s very good that Westlock County does,” said Wiese.
Also changed is that applicants can now be a member or in the immediate family of a county councillor, while a yet-to-be formed community grant advisory committee that will include two councillors, two administration members and a public rep, will make the selections.
“My recommendation is to approve the policy as recommended today as at your organizational meeting (in October) you can identify at that point who on council will sit on that committee,” added CAO Tony Kulbisky.
