DIDSBURY - At the regular council meeting on May 22, council heard a presentation from Sam Smalldon, CAO of Mountain View Seniors' Housing (MVHS) about the organization's work, priorities and accountabilities.
Smalldon reiterated that Carstairs is the next priority for MVHS as far as building a new seniors' facility, followed by Didsbury, then Olds.
"Our Carstairs project is our next priority for the board, and that's a unanimous decision of our board," said Smalldon. "If you recall in the community about a year and a half ago we offered two choices to Didsbury, to enhance on our current site or build on a new site in Schantz Crossing. I believe at that time the decision was to build a new project."
Didsbury mayor Rhonda Hunter said that council was pleased to receive the information from MVSH.
"MVSH operates as one of the strongest management boards in the province, which is great news for our region, and to hear of their successes as well as their challenges was of great benefit," said Hunter. "Seniors' housing affects all of us, and ongoing provincial downloading of financial and operational responsibilities onto boards and municipalities continues to be concerning. MVSH will return to a council meeting in the fall with an update on their new business plan."
In other council news, council passed a motion regarding public incident reporting. A policy has been developed to define inappropriate situations and behaviours within the town's facilities and offer clear direction to staff on reporting and documenting such incidents.
Council also approved several amendments for the special event bylaw, which was developed for use for large-scale events being hosted within the Town of Didsbury's parks, faciliities and streets. Some of the changes include updates to contact information, ability to waive the application process for Didsbury non-profit organizations, and increasing the attendance threshold to 1,000 people.
Council approved an FCSS funding request for $1,250 for Hope -- The Conversation Has to Happen, a one-day conference addressing suicide, depression and other mental health issues.
