After hearing that the Town of St. Paul was turned down on its two grant applications to the Small Communities Fund, Mayor Glenn Andersen said he had made inquiries as to why the applications were rejected.
At the Aug. 24 Town of St. Paul council meeting, he said after speaking to representatives, he heard municipalities that had projects that addressed safety issues were given priority in this round of funding.
The project that was closest to matching the criteria was the town’s proposal to repair 57 Street (Golf Drive North) at a cost of $1.3 million, but to access funds, the town had to show evidence that 3,000 vehicles use that road daily, a tall order for the small community.
“The road itself is pathetic,” Andersen said. “We’re trying to fix it so we don’t have any accidents.”
The other plan that the Town of St. Paul had submitted for grant funding was a $6 million planned industrial park on the northeast side of town. While the fund had turned down the project, the town is still looking at ways to proceed on the plan.
Council examined the proposed plan for Stage 1 of the business park, but CAO Ron Boisvert said he was still waiting to hear numbers for how much it would cost to develop this first stage.
While some people are very passionate about recycling, there is very little demand right now for mixed paper, noted Boisvert.
He said cardboard continues to be picked up and recycled, but there is no demand for mixed paper, such as the type that makes up cereal boxes.
Council questioned as to what was happening with the mixed paper, and Boisvert said this material is being removed and taken to the Edmonton landfill.
Boisvert said he would look into how much it costs to ship mixed paper to Edmonton, versus shipping it to the Evergreen landfill, or getting a burning permit.
“Let it burn,” said Coun. Ken Kwiatkowski, to laughter from the table.
The Town of St. Paul was getting free water testing to assess the quality of the water on Upper Therien Lake, with the view of seeing if it would be possible to introduce water sports and recreation to the lake.
However, after the testing, Recreation Director Gary Ward reported to council there was an issue with phosphorus in the lake, from household detergents and lawn fertilizers, which contributes to blue green algae and decreases the water quality.
The town’s water treatment plant needs to look at adding a chemical that would be approved by Alberta Environment to break down phosphorus, he said, adding he had given the results of the study to the town’s water treatment manager to study.
Coun. Norm Noel said the visit from Community Blooms judges to St. Paul went “very well,” with a presentation on the town’s transfer station a tour highlight.
The judges noted, however, that one issue is that the Town of St. Paul has a lack of water gathering at its public buildings, for instance, with rain barrels collecting run-off, which is part of the criteria the contest uses.
The Community Blooms contest will have an awards presentations for Alberta’s outstanding communities on Sept. 12 in Whitecourt.
At the request of the Town of St. Paul, Alberta Transportation came in to do a site visit and looked at some of the town’s traffic issues.
Boisvert said after looking at town hot spots, the representative from Transportation said he would be posting some new signs for speed limits on the highway heading east and west side of town, as well as removing the rumble strips on the east end of town in the fall or summer of next year.
The crosswalk near the St. Paul & District Co-op Shopping Mall will get some increased signage, with crosswalk signs preceding the intersection so motorists know it is up ahead.
After receiving a request from council to look at improving the sound system in the recreation centre and curling rink, Ward brought a quote to council from local company EyeTech on improving the speaker system and wiring in curling rink speakers at a total cost of $26,796.
“Is this something that we can budget for $2016?” said Andersen.
Council agreed to look at getting further opinions and to later reexamine the issue.
There will be a contest launched soon to pick a name for the 2017 centennial celebrations, for which planning is underway, Noel reported to council.
The year will mark the country’s 150th year and the Town of St. Paul’s 50th anniversary of its landing pad, and several more volunteers are needed to sit on each of the 14 sub-committees of the Canada 150 committee, that will look after entertainment, food, alien-related activities, media and more.
Everyone is invited to come out to the monthly meetings, which will take place at the Community Futures board room every third Wednesday at 5:30, with the first meeting set to take place on Sept. 16.
