麻豆视频

It turned out to be a year of upheaval at City Hall in North Battleford.

The COVID-19 pandemic dominated the year, as it upended regular council meetings and the normal business of the municipal government.

But while COVID-19 was something that caught a lot of people by surprise, the pandemic was something the city saw coming. As early as January, the events in China and elsewhere around the world where the still-unnamed novel coronavirus was wreaking havoc were noticed by city officials.

Before the pandemic was even declared in March, the city was working on a pandemic plan and they had also struck a deal with Battleford for a joint administrative committee to deal with the pandemic response.

A temporary pandemic policy, based on an existing document that was already in place at City Hall, was approved at council March 9 鈥� just days before the first COVID-19 case hit Saskatchewan. At the council meeting, city manager Randy Patrick and director of protective services Lindsay Holm cited the urgency of getting something in place right away; their concern that something big was about to happen proved prophetic.

Little did council members realize that the March 9 meeting would be their last one held live at City Hall council chambers for the rest of the year.

That temporary pandemic policy gave administration some time to craft a new and more comprehensive policy to take into account the current circumstances. In April, council approved the new Joint Municipality Pandemic Plan in conjunction with the town of Battleford.

By that point, city hall had been closed to the public, and leisure services facilities across the city were closed as well. After cancelling their scheduled March 23 meeting, council resumed meetings in April virtually on the Zoom online platform 鈥� something many other municipalities and companies were also doing.

The city鈥檚 finances were in upheaval, with the city taking a huge revenue hit from the loss of leisure services facilities. Temporary layoffs of some staff came in.

Internally at City Hall, there were major changes in how staff functioned. The city opened its Emergency Operations Centre on March 16 to deal with pandemic issues, but also to function essentially as a 鈥渟econd City Hall鈥� in case an outbreak of the virus at City Hall itself. Some employees from Human Resources, Finance, Engineering and the Deputy City Manager were relocated to the EOC, separated from the rest of the staff at City Hall. Financial Services staff were divided between City Hall, the EOC, and working from home.

There were also changes for the fire department, who were shifted to work a 48-hour shift rotation instead of the usual 12-hours. The idea was that it would be easier for firefighters to immediately go into self-isolation if they caught the virus, with minimal disruption to staff. Road crews, as well, worked out of two different locations.

There were a few hiccups along the way. One of them was an April incident at the Cameron McIntosh airport, where many city staff were now based, in which a couple of individuals flying from Maryland to Alaska landed their private plane at the airport.

At Planning Committee, council members learned that the individuals had come into the terminal looking for a pilot鈥檚 lounge. The problem was that the individuals were supposed to either stay with the aircraft or be quarantining. The city ended up reporting the incident to agencies, but ultimately the two individuals left quickly. In response, the main terminal was closed to the public.

The impact of the pandemic continued to be felt in June, when Mayor Ryan Bater provided a 鈥淪tate of the City 2.0鈥� update on the ZOOM platform.

Bater had given the State of the City address back in March at the Tropical Inn, but the pandemic had changed things dramatically and the mayor focused his address on what had changed since then.

As Re-Open Saskatchewan rolled out, so did plans for reopening city facilities. The rollout of the re-opening of the city鈥檚 facilities was subject of a special meeting of council in late June. City Hall itself re-opened on July 13, with social-distancing measures in place and plexiglass barriers installed.

Council meetings would continue on the ZOOM platform for the rest of 2020, although there was a brief move in November to the Chapel Gallery where one meeting was held live. Even then, several councillors attended on the Zoom platform.

The pandemic didn鈥檛 produce all bad news for the city. The city was able to access funding from the Municipal Economic Enhancement Program (MEEP) for two major projects: the Carlton Trail intersection and roadway for $1,650,433 and the 100th Street service road improvements for $607,472. Both were projects that had been on the books for years and the ribbon cutting for the Carlton Trail project took place in September.

Also in September, Mayor Bater and several councillors also took part in a ribbon cutting marking completion of the final portion of the 100th Street road work from 12th Avenue to 15th Avenue.

At their final regular council meeting in October, the city bid farewell to the two councillors not seeking re-election, Kevin Steinborn and Don Buglas.

The major activity in the fall was the election, run under pandemic restrictions and protocols. A central location of the Civic Centre was chosen for voting day, which would allow for voters to social distance and be able to vote safely. The other change was a switch to new ballots that could be tabulated electronically.

Once the votes were tabulated, City Hall was rocked by yet another monumental upheaval in 2020, right at the top.

It was David Gillan who defeated Ryan Bater and three other challengers to become the new mayor in the election held Nov. 9. Gillan, who had spent the previous three years as Battleford鈥檚 director of finance and deputy CAO, had run on a platform pledging to address North Battleford鈥檚 image as a crime town and to bring industry development to the city.聽

Four incumbent councillors, Kelli Hawtin, Kent Lindgren, Greg Lightfoot and Len Taylor, were all re-elected and they were joined on council by Thomas 鈥楤ill鈥� Ironstand and Ross MacAngus.

They were sworn into office the week after the election 鈥� not at council chambers like in previous years, but in a socially-distanced ceremony at the Dekker Centre that was live-streamed to the public.

The new council got down to business quickly, as they went through four gruelling nights of budget deliberations over the Zoom platform before they finally agreed to a one percent increase to property taxes with no increase for utilities.

It was a relatively calm end for what truly was a year of chaos and change at City Hall.