OUTLOOK - The town council of Outlook met for a regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday night, October 26. Present was all of Council: Kyle McLeod, Bob Stephenson, Justin Turton, Sharon Bruce, Ryan Husband, and Kevin Grotheim (also serving as Acting Mayor) as well as Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Trew.
The meeting was broadcast on the Town of Outlook's Facebook page.
A number of topics and items were discussed, including the following highlights.
Bylaws
Council discussed Bylaw 19(2022) Emergency Planning, which had its first reading passed at the last meeting of town council on October 19. The recommendation was that the second and third readings of the bylaw be held and carried, which Council proceeded to do. From here, the Town has key staff members in mind for the group, but they also encourage anyone who may be interested in joining the Emergency Measures Committee to do so.
Communications Requiring Action or Decision
Council discussed a complaint that had come forward from Rocky Mountain Equipment regarding traffic entering their property at the end of Christie Drive. To be clear, it was said that Christie Drive starts at Railway Avenue, with Christie Street coming to a dead end at the highway, while Christie Drive comes to a dead end at Railway Avenue. The company sent the Town an email requesting permission to put a barricade on the town property of Railway Avenue, and some alternate solutions were suggested.
As well, a request from the Outlook & District Regional Park was discussed regarding contributing to the fill-in of the old swimming pool. Machibroda Engineering has been hired, and the park has received recommendations on completing this project, and all the permits required by the town have been submitted. The Park was asking for the Town's assistance in filling in the pool, with the board of directors requesting a contribution of 50% of the cost to fill in the pool. The Park's goal is to remove fencing and then fill and compact dirt in the pool so that it's safe. This would allow the public to have access to the space. It was said that the old pool was located in one of the more "spectacular" areas of the park, so allowing for such access to it would be beneficial.
The Park has started the initial process, including discussions with a number of local contractors, with a feeling that they have a solid plan to start the work this fall. Working with a limited budget of between $25,000 to $ 40,000, there have been offers of in-kind services by contractors in order to see this project come to fruition.
More information was asked by Council on the project, and they'll discuss the project more in-detail when discussion of the latest town budget rolls around.
Council also discussed SaskPower's recent news of a possible Small Modular Reactor, specifically how Outlook is one of the study areas. The appointment of a council representative was discussed prior to an open-house event that SaskPower put on in Outlook at the Legion Hall on Friday, October 28. Administrator Trew also brought up how there are members of the community who had submitted their own names for a possible committee to be formed.
With this stakeholder committee, they wanted approximately 44-48 people on the committee, including 12 Indigenous people, 22 rural and urban municipally-nominated people, and 10 people who would serve as members at large.
Going back to the discussion of appointing a council representative, Councillor Husband shared his positive views on the SMR project and said he would serve if no one else was interested, and afterward he was voted as such, with Councillor Stephenson serving as an alternate.
