OUTLOOK - The town council of Outlook met for a regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday night, September 11. Present was all of Council; Ryan Husband, Justin Turton, Sharon Bruce, Kyle McLeod, Bob Stephenson, and Kevin Grotheim, as well as Mayor Maureen Weiterman, CAO Kevin Trew, and Assistant CAO Rachel Sillers.
The meeting was broadcast live on the Town of Outlook's official Facebook page.
A number of topics and items were discussed, including the following highlights.
Bylaws
Council had a couple of new and/or updated bylaws to pass their first reading.
First up was Bylaw No. 05(2024) Public Disclosure Statements. The public disclosure bylaw was initially done in 2018, and at that time, there were public disclosure forms and today there are slight changes to how they were worded before. They're very similar today, but there are now just some slight changes in wording over what they were before. For example, if you're running for Council, then you fill out a public disclosure statement. Then, if you're elected, you fill out another one again. The first reading of the bylaw was passed by Council.
Next was Bylaw No. 06 (2024) Animal Keeping. This bylaw was just done last year, so there are no major changes being made to it this year. However, one thing that was overlooked was the presence of the recent rodeo, which obviously includes horses, and the bylaw wasn't including those animals to be within the town limits. As such, this bylaw was being updated in order to include such animals to ensure that all bases are covered when future editions of the rodeo are held in Outlook. After some final discussion regarding the use of horses at other events, such as community parades, the bylaw's first reading was passed.
Communications Requiring Action or Decision
Council next turned to the questions that were asked by members of the public at the recent forum that was held at the town's open house on September 4 at the Civic Centre. The Town is keeping the questions, with answers, for information, and CAO Trew further noted that he'd had a request from someone for a list of the questions with responses from the Town. The meeting wasn't recorded, but Trew did provide the person with notes relating to what the responses were at the meeting, which was satisfactory to the person who made the request. Should anyone else request it, Trew told Council he would make it available to anyone who asked.
Councillor Bruce shared that feedback to the meeting that she had heard was overwhelmingly positive, with topics and subjects covering things that some people didn't necessarily want to ask themselves. Councillor Husband received some feedback on the timing of the forum, due to it currently being the busy harvest season. Councillor Grotheim said that a few people he had talked to had actually expected more of an open mic format. Mayor Wieterman shared that she felt that everyone was very respectful at the forum and that it went well in that regard. She was also glad to see the amount of people that the forum drew to the Civic Centre.
Moving to the SkyTrail, CAO Trew shared that he had requested from Associated Engineering a means to possibly monitor the bridge. He said the Town should have been and haven't been monitoring how the bridge is or isn't moving.
"We have no actual science behind how it's doing," said Trew. "It's just a visual."
Trew reached out to Associated Engineering and requested a quote on what they could do for installing some monitoring equipment, as well as doing some initial field work. The fees they came back with totaled approximately $39,000 for monitoring equipment, and the total fee of the whole project would be $76,700. Associated Engineering suggested that it would be under $10,000 a year for the monitoring work.
Councillor Husband recused himself from the discussion at this point.
Mayor Wieterman shared that such an action of assessing the status of the bridge is something that the SkyTrail Trailblazers Committee had been requesting, and she asked for the feelings around the room on the subject.
Councillor Grotheim felt that with the number of projects and initiatives that Outlook is looking at right now, spending taxpayer money on something such as this, including up to a possible $75,000 and more, was something that he had to ask how it could be justified.
Councillor Bruce shared that she would like to see the committee find a way to access such key funding for this initiative, notably through fundraising as there is a sizable amount of people who have claimed support in the past for seeing the bridge reopened.
"I agree; $76,000 plus tax is a lot of money," she said.
Trew said that at the end of the day, there has been no monitoring of the SkyTrail since it closed in October of 2013 and that as owners of the property, the Town has "done nothing" to maintain it.
"As far as a town infrastructure piece, I think that's negligent of the Town," he said. "I know that's a strong word, but I think it's very negligent of the Town to not be monitoring and having a knowledge about that infrastructure, which actually will have one day a huge impact on the Town of Outlook's finances. What that is, I don't know; when that is, probably not in my lifetime, but I think at the very least, the Town should be monitoring that."
Trew noted that he was aware that $76,000 in outlay funding is a lot of money, but at the end of the day, it's the Town's infrastructure and responsibility, regardless of anything that the Trailblazer Committee is able to accomplish.
The feeling around the room was that yes, it only made sense for the Town to monitor a major piece of infrastructure that it owns, but there were questions surrounding spending that kind of money, only for nothing of note to ever happen in the years ahead. Of course, should groups such as the Trailblazer Committee wish to fundraise for such a venture, that's something that members of Council could get solidly behind.
Mayor Weiterman noted that she and Council are closing in on the end of their term, so she asked if this was something that they wanted to make a decision on for now. Trew shared that this was something brought forward for information and that it would return in the talks for the Town's 2025 Budget for consideration.
Councillor Turton said that having someone with knowledge of what the slope or stability of the bridge has done in the last decade and longer would help substantiate one's opinion. Grotheim said that such work was done in 2013, but Trew interjected, stating that such work was only offered and that it was *not* done in 2013, after which the bridge was declared closed.
"They said in 2013, 'We want to do this'," said Trew, noting the recommendations for work to be carried out on the bridge before it was closed. "And Council at that time did not do that. The engineers said there were two pieces; there's the cost for the SkyTrail's rehabilitation, which was a high investment, but they said in that report that in order to do anything, we encourage Council to pay for a constant monitor."
After some final discussion, Mayor Weiterman noted that while some in the room disagreed on how the bridge would arrive back at its reopening, everyone in the room would like to see SkyTrail open once again. From there, the subject was tabled.
