OUTLOOK - The town council of Outlook met for a regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday night, July 19. Present was all of Council; Sharon Bruce, Bob Stephenson, Kyle McLeod, Justin Turton, Ryan Husband, and Kevin Grotheim, as well as Mayor Maureen Weiterman, Chief Administrator Kevin Trew, and Assistant Administrator Rachel Sillers.
The meeting was broadcast on the Town of Outlook's Facebook page.
A number of topics and items were discussed, including the following highlights.
Presentations and Recognitions
The people behind the upcoming Riverbank Rodeo in Outlook made a request to the Town to declare the week of August 7-13 to be Rodeo Week in the community. This practice has been done for previous rodeo events, and the motion was carried to indeed mark that week to be Rodeo Week in the town of Outlook, culminating in the 4th edition of the event that takes place over August 11 and 12.
Communications Requiring Action or Decision
CAO Trew discussed an engineer report that touched on the status of the landfill decommissioning project and highway infrastructure replacement. Trew shared highlights from a report compiled by the lead engineer of current projects going on around town.
Regarding water and sewer, work has continued at the intersections of Franklin Street and Saskatchewan Avenue, with the Con-Tec crew working at installing a storm sewer lead across the west side of the intersection. Once the storm sewer work is complete, Con-Tec will continue to work east down Saskatchewan Avenue, installing water mains toward McTavish Street. They'll be doing some investigation on the water main valves near McTavish to confirm the isolation of the work zone as it moves east, and have chlorinated the water main from Selkirk Street to Franklin Street and are preparing for pressure testing. Once that testing is complete, they will conduct sampling, which was expected to be completed by the end of the week.
Regarding mobilization and demobilization, Trew noted that the Town had proposed something to the contractor. Con-Tec had originally said that they were going to be doing bacteria sampling, followed by long stretches of paving and back-filling, and the Town asked that they rethink that formula and don't do long stretches, rather that they do it in two spots as opposed to the same time. Because of that, there will be an additional cost to the Town because it wasn't what the contractor planned to do or what was in the bid. Trew said the cost would be another $10,000 to do the work in two phases.
This move eliminates the original plans that Con-Tec had for the project, which would have seen Selkirk Street all the way to Christie Street as one continued work zone, effectively changing how traffic flowed in the community in a very big way.
"They were going to do it in two phases, and now they're going to do it in three," said Trew.
"So, they would have done Selkirk all the way to Christie in one?" asked Councillor Grotheim.
"Probably," said Trew. "That's what they were thinking and that's what they bid on."
"So the whole thing would've been a construction zone?" asked Grotheim.
"Yeah, and we don't want that," said Trew. "That's why we're going to sign to have it changed, because it's worth the $10,000 to get it changed."
Grotheim was blown away that the original plans would have seen that stretch of road between the Selkirk and Christie streets closed, and a discussion was had regarding the finer details of the bid that was agreed upon.
Reports of Administration, Staff and/or Committees Requiring Decision
Council moved to make a non-arm's length payment to Mayor Weiterman regarding a bill of $262.42, a reimbursement of a hotel bill following a recent SUMA golf tournament, as well as the purchase of candy related to Outlook's recent Canada Day celebrations.
Assistant Administrator Sillers went over the town's quarter 2 financial statement. Of note, chequing balances ending June 30 showed $1.18 million, and in reserves showed $2.23 million. Due to the amount of large projects currently underway and planned capital purchases, the Town will likely be looking at accessing its line of credit in August. Following discussion of a number of other factors, the financial statement was moved by Council.
Mayor and Councillor's Forum
Mayor Weiterman made a special note about a major event that the town of Outlook has confirmed in 2025 following a visit to St. Walburg by herself and several councillors. Outlook will host the 2025 SUMA Golf Tournament at the Riverview Golf Course, which will mark the 35th anniversary of the event. Stay tuned to The Outlook for more on this special event in an upcoming issue.
New Business
Council came up with a date to hold a staff and committee appreciation BBQ. After mulling over some options, it was decided to hold the event on Wednesday, August 23.
