Around two dozen people packed the Town of Bonnyville's council chambers to discuss everything from infrastructure concerns to bylaw infractions at the 2016 budget open house.
“I haven't seen this many people at any of our open houses for the last 10 years,” said Mayor Gene Sobolewski after the meeting last Tuesday. “I'm very encouraged and I'm very happy that people came out to voice their concerns.”
The public is called upon for their input during the annual budget open house before council passes an interim budget for the upcoming year. Turnout has been quite low at these meetings over the past few years.
“We work very hard on that budget, some nights we're there until 10:30 p.m., especially on a year like this when revenues are down because of the state of the economy,” said Coun. Ray Prevost. “We were ecstatic to see that many people in the room, we would like to have twice that many and ask as many questions as you can.”
Council began the session with a presentation by assistant CAO Bill Rogers explaining operational and capital costs to residents. CAO Mark Power stepped in to explain complex concepts such as equalized assessments and supplementary assessments, both of which impact taxation and revenue.
“I think it's positive to see people coming out, if anything I'd actually encourage more people to come out,” said Andrew Bibo, a Bonnyville resident who attended to share his concern about people not shoveling their properties and a visible lack of bylaw officers.
“This town has a lot of transient activity, there have been a lot of new people that have come to town and safety and security is important, you want to feel like you can walk around without any problem.”
Although some councillors conceded that there has been a disregard of bylaws, they highlighted the fact that the RCMP also does rounds to check bylaw infractions, and that it is expensive to staff more officers.
“I thought he brought an excellent point to the table, maybe it's time for this council to look at becoming more aggressive with town bylaws,” Prevost said. “It looks like bylaws are not being adhered to but maybe what we need to do is step it up.”
Shortly into Rogers' presentation, Bonnyville resident Colin Hanusz asked council about creating sidewalks in the east end of town. Specifically, Hanusz echoed concerns about a lack of sidewalks on sections of 41st Street between 47th Avenue and 50th Avenue, and two blocks west of the Dave Bush Park on 47th Avenue, forcing people to walk on the street.
“For kids walking to school, people that walk to work, or just families that want to go for a walk in the evening, you can't walk around that part of town without walking on the street for portions of it,” Hanusz noted.
“I was happy they had a discussion. You know those sidewalks have just never been there in Bonnyville but they should've been a long time ago.”
Council pored over the options to include an assessment in their budget for the sidewalk and also improving sections of the Jessie Lake trail. Usually neighbouring residents requesting sidewalks would have to pay a levy, unless the town deems it as a safety requirement, in which case they foot the bill.
“That's something now that council is now going to have to deliberate on and charge the administration to say, ‘Well how do we put that into the budget?'” Sobolewski said.
“Maybe we may not get all the sidewalks completed, maybe we get the engineering done, but at least being able to put in to a plan for 2017-2018 that's the important part.”
Council also fielded questions from people concerned about the estimated $8 million in the budget to fund a new Town Hall. One resident questioned why the cost was so high. Another asked why the new building couldn't be located outside of the downtown area to save costs.
Sobolewski responded saying the current building has served its time, noting that a dehumidifier needs to be kept constantly running to avoid issues with mould. He added that the only “fancy” aspect of the new building would be an elevated entry, which is most efficient for heating.
“We're not gold plating anything.”
A discussion about the state of the swimming pool took place shortly after council passed a motion to go out of the open house session. Around 15 people stayed to talk about the future of the pool.
