The rural municipality of Keys addressed publics concerns regarding plans for construction and new bylaws at its public meeting held on August 30 at the Rainbow Hall in Canora.
Barry Hvidston, administrator, said Reeve Morgan Vivian and councillors Garth Bates, Tammy Bobyk, Eugene Strozen, Wallace Butterfield, Kenneth Lozinski, and Clarissa Mydonick were present to field any questions from the audience, which was comprised of about 50 people. Gina Rakowchy served as the moderator, and Hvidston said she did “a very good job” of keeping the meeting organized.
The meeting began with a discussion of finances, particularly a rundown of the RM’s revenue and spending for 2015. This quickly moved into a discussion of the RM of Keys’ major bridge project.
“The bridge project was a major expense for 2015 and now for 2016, so a lot of concerns arose about how to pay for construction on the remaining bridge,” Hvidston said.
The first bridge that was under construction, which runs northeast of Road 21 to west of Road 2, cost $1.097 million, when revenue for the RM was at $925,000. Because of this difference, the RM is now looking at how to fund the $300,000 each of the four other bridges requiring construction will need.
“We hired a consultant to see what plans could be made, and though we plan on just doing maintenance with the bridges for now, we’re definitely looking at long-term plans,” Hvidston said.
Custom work charges were also discussed at the meeting. The municipality is planning to lessen the amount of custom work it does for the RM, simply because the equipment they own for jobs is just too big to maneuver properly in private property.
“Trying to work our equipment in such a small space takes time away from other important things our workers have to do, and we have to stop it so we don’t cause damages to houses in the RM.”
A few new motions were made during the meeting. A new act regulating ditching permits has been passed, and Hvidston reminds anyone planning on doing work in ditches to get a permit. A speed bylaw is also being enacted in front of certain residences. Cars that pass houses will now be required to slow down to 60 kilometres an hour, “just for safety reasons,” Hvidston said.
As well, a new motion is being passed that requires all houses in the RM to have rural addressing.
“We’re finding that when residents try to get drivers’ licenses and other registration, they need a physical address. Box numbers just don’t cut it any more.”
Without a proper numbering system, emergency service vehicles can find it hard to know what residence they have been called to. The province is pushing for all houses to have street numbers by 2018, to make it easier on emergency services. Every 40 metres, a new house number will be assigned. A house’s number will depend on where the driveway ends, in case the house extends beyond 40 metres. This will make it easier for all houses to be numbered, and will mean emergency vehicles can reach houses in the RM sooner, as addresses can be input into a GPS.
Once major concerns were discussed, Rakowchy moderated the open forum, where major concerns were snow removal, dust control, weed control, and the difference between public and private lands. Hvidston said that the revision to the RM of Keys’ current dust control policy will occur in 2017.
