Resident survey to tackle several topics; Town and County plan 57 Street rebuild

Resident survey open until March 16

The Town of St. Paul will have a survey on topics ranging from municipal services to recreation to future priorities available online for residents until March 16 follow the survey’s approval at the Monday night council meeting.

According to CAO Kim Heyman, this survey is an expansion of the document sent out in 2018 which focused more on services and town facilities. The questions added to the survey for 2021 include ranking outdoor recreation opportunities and the town’s indoor facilities, as well as an open-ended comments and concerns question for whatever other feedback residents wish to give.

Coun. Ron Boisvert moved to approve the survey as amended, and to approve the prizes offered for those who fill it out. The motion carried.

Residents who fill out the survey will be entered in to a draw for passes to the Aquatic Centre, gift certificates to local restaurants, or a 50 per cent discount on their next residential water and sewer bill (max $150).

You can fill the survey out here.

Plan announced for 57 St. rebuild

The Town of St. Paul will be partnering with the County of St. Paul for the paving tender of the 57 St. rebuild expected to be completed this spring and summer.

The County of St. Paul is rebuilding Township Road 582 in 2021. That road connects with the Town of St. Paul’s 57 St.

According to Town of St. Paul CAO Kim Heyman, the town will benefit from the partnership by receiving a much better per metre price on the paving portion of the project. She said she also expects it will minimize the disruption to residents and businesses who use 57 St. because “it will eliminate two contractors with large equipment trying to work around each other.”

“We will make sure when we tender this paving that it’s executed in such a way that only half the road is being worked on at a time. And that we break it up into different sections, so people can still get on their property and get off their property,” said Heyman. She noted 57 St. is also heavily trafficked by Mistol Seeds and Xtreme Oilfield and both companies would be quite busy during the construction season.

Mutual Aid Agreement with BRFA

The Town of St. Paul signed a mutual aid agreement with the Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority on Feb. 22.

According to Fire Chief Trevor Kotowich, the agreement is very similar to the agreements St. Paul already has with the County of St. Paul and County of Two Hills. The Bonnyville agreement was brought up after BRFA provided an aerial fire truck for a dangerous fire in St. Paul in October.

“We don’t have one specifically with the town [of Bonnyville] because I’ll be honest in in all these years, we’ve never had a resource requirement such as the one we did October of last year. We’ve always handled it with additional resource requirements from within the county, so Ashmont, Mallaig, or Elk Point,” said Kotowich.

He noted the BRFA had been very generous to the Town of St. Paul because when they sent the invoice for the fire services, they charged using the Alberta Transportation schedule of fees, not the industry rates which they could have fairly applied.

The agreement has no cost to either municipality.

Coun. Gary Ward moved to approve the mutual aid agreement with the BRFA. The motion carried.