OUTLOOK - The most recent reports from the Town of Outlook's Chief Administrative Officer, as well as the Assistant Administrator and the Public Works department show the progress of many initiatives in the community, including projects that are on the go and work orders around town that have been carried out, as well as those that are currently ongoing.
Chief Administrative Officer Report
Prepared by CAO Kevin Trew
Human Resources:
We welcome back Azelyn B. to our team as she is starting with Public Works today.
Several seasonal staff were hired (budgeted) to support the Kinsmen Park program and the different expanded programming held at the Jim Kook arena this summer, in addition, we have hired a student for the summer to work at the landfill to fill the short-term leave (covered in budget) that we have there and we hired students to man the traffic controls while Brunner’s does its work on the sewer service lines along the Highway through Town (a part of the project budget).
Policy and Procedural Items:
Tax notices (with municipal rates held at the 2021 levels) were issued on May 31, payments have been coming in similar to other years. This year we have implemented the ability to make payments to taxes and utility online through our website. We have been experiencing some difficulty and our team continues to troubleshoot and assist ratepayers as we are made aware that they encounter issues.
The Assessment Return and Mill Rate Return have both been filed, there were no assessment appeals this year, with 2025 being a reassessment year we expect that will not necessarily be the case next year.
We applied for grant funding to support the George Cuff presentation on December 4 and 5 in Outlook through the Targeted Sector Support Grant program and we have heard just today that we are successful, this is a joint effort within WaterWolf and we partnered with the Village of Elbow and the Rural Municipality of Loreburn in the application.
Successes this Month:
Recreation and Community Development – the expanded programs are garnering a lot of interest and registration is building. The team is working at keeping up with watering flowers, (mother nature is helping) but they are also working at keeping up with cutting grass and taking care of weeds. We are confident that they will be able to get caught up prior to the Communities in Bloom visit. Speaking of CiB, there has been a fair bit of interest on behalf of individual property owners in participating this year.
Learning Opportunities/Capacity Development:
Technology issues, we have had more than our share of technology issues this past 6 weeks with our server being upgraded and then the “normal” issues that come with changing over or upgrading, losing autofill passwords, etc. that provide challenge, then our website has had challenges with the new payment and registry system, but we are working at these challenges – I am really proud of the team and these items are being managed and handled at the lowest level they can be and I am only made aware of these concerns after they are fixed.
Current Unfinished Projects:
Raw Water Intake/ Water Treatment Plant Upgrade Project – Strike continues to make progress with the water treatment plant upgrade, the project is expected to continue for all of 2024, a shield well has been installed in order to complete the testing regarding a new raw water source, the pump is currently running and we have finally seen some test results showing the viability of this as an alternate raw water supply, we have provided update to Outlook Riverview Golf Club board and we expect the pilot to be complete this summer.
Subdivisions Projects
2024 Highway Commercial and Residential Subdivision – Casa Boldt Planning is putting together a new subdivision plan for Council to review, this will integrate using the sportsgrounds as Municipal Reserve and subdividing the residential lots along Mann Street as well as Multi-Res along Fraser Avenue, and division of the highway Commercial lots along Saskatchewan Road. Of course, we expect that CP Rail will be the hold up when asked for permission for storm water pond even though they have said that they are amenable, we have reached out to MP Tolmie to assist with CP Rail and it is time for us to get this planning work finalized.
College South Residential – nothing new to report at this time.
Outlook-Rudy Fire and Rescue capital projects – The Fire Hall Campaign Cabinet has started with the series of information articles in The Outlook as well as more of a presence at community events. The designs are presented at this Council meeting as they were recommended by the Joint Protective Services Committee. The subdivision is awaiting final approval from Community Planning. We are confident that we will be able to secure a local project manager to this soon. The most recent estimates for a new fire hall situated on McKenzie Street North beside the Town shop are at $1.2 million for an Outlook community-built fire hall that meets all code requirements.
Sewer Service Line Replacement - The Brunner’s sewer service replacement project is going relatively smooth, they will be finishing up McKenzie Street this week and will start Saskatchewan Avenue, starting on the west end and working their way east starting July 29, we expect them to complete the project in late August.
Assistant Administrator Report
Prepared by Rachel Sillers
Following the completion of the Town’s 2023 audit, we have continued combing through our tangible capital asset register. We are working towards using this as a more of a planning tool than we have in previous years, tying it to our paving plan and capital plan.
During the week of July 7th our corporate credit card was compromised by outside sources. Due to diligent monitoring by our Admin team the fraudulent charges were identified right away and I was able to cancel the card immediately. BMO has opened up an investigation and will keep us abreast of information as it becomes available. Any charges not made by the Town or its officers/employees will be reversed. While we don’t anticipate any financial repercussions from this event beyond not have access to credit for approximately 10 days, we do feel it prudent to revisit our current credit card handling procedure and update it accordingly. We will implement the changes upon the receipt of our replacement card.
Our ongoing infrastructure projects have been keeping pace with our original financial projections which has made our progress payments easily manageable. We do not anticipate asking Council to draw from our reserves until August or September. We have only recently dipped slightly into our operating line of credit as we await our revenue sharing payment and ICIP payment for the Water Treatment Plant project.
We have added the Munisoft Pre-Authorized Debit program to our suite of software effective September 1, 2024. During the month of August, we will get the system updated and train our staff on the new program without any disruption to our subscribers. The software extension will automate the PAD program, increasing efficiency and reducing clerical errors from manual entries.
We now have over 200 automatic debits each month with new accounts being added frequently.
Public Works Report
Prepared by Luke Lockhart
Transportation:
Road patching is near complete for the sections DLN was to do this year, a few spots left, but will be done in the near future, along with the full replacement of the Avenue between the greenhouse and the locker plant.
We will be addressing the potholes around town over the next few weeks.
Gravel roads have been graded regularly, we are expecting our second round of dust suppression to take place over this weekend.
Alleys have been graveled and leveled as needed.
We will be starting our sidewalk projects in the near future; specific areas include beside the Royal Bank, The Church of Christ, and the Elementary School; we have reached out to the School Division to see if they have any input, in ideas, and potential cost sharing for the areas between the 2 schools and in front of the high school.
We will be getting back to painting cross walks and curbs this week.
Utilities:
Water treatment plant upgrades are moving along well and on schedule for the most part. Piping is near complete, many electrical components have been installed and wired but not online yet, the groundwork on Cross street is near completion also, new water mains need to be tested before going online.
Sewer service replacement on the highway is going very well, all but 1 service has been done on McKenzie South; there are some complications with the 1 remaining so we are looking at the potential to reline rather than replace it.
Brunners will be away for the remainder of this week, and next week, but will be back on the 29th to start on Saskatchewan Avenue.
A few of our staff took in some training on GIS mapping, and we will be getting going on compiling points and data to implement our own personalized mapping and asset management data system.
Environmental Health:
Landfill operations have been getting back to normal with the addition of our summer student running the scale house, Brad has had lots of extra time to get things caught back up to keep us in compliance with the MOE.
General Public Works
Compost and tree pick ups have been ongoing as scheduled, and will continue for the remainder of the summer and fall months.
