CARSTAIRS - At the regular council meeting on May 14, Carstairs council passed a motion to accept the 2018 Mountain View Regional Water Services Commission business plan and rates.
"They are twinning the water line from Didsbury to Crossfield," said CAO Carl McDonnell. "It's the next stage of it. So they have to increase the rates to pay off the debt to it. All the towns have to agree that that's OK. They previously twinned the line from the plant (in Innisfail) down to Olds.
"This is the next phase in the process. They have a good multi-year plan and the rates are still pretty affordable so it made sense for us to do that."
The rate increased $0.10 to $1.60 per cubic metre, he said.
Meanwhile, the 40 km/h speed limit for Carstairs went into effect on Friday, May 18. All streets unless otherwise posted are now 40 km/h.
"We were hoping for May 1 but the signs didn't come in time so we had to wait for the signs," he said.
Elsewhere, Carstairs library board vice-chair Pat Christensen and library manager Joanne Merrick were honoured by council after receiving the ministerial award for libraries for programs in the community.
"They were at the library convention up in Jasper a few weeks ago where they received the award from the minister," he said. "They brought the award to council and talked about it."
Meanwhile, Mountain View Seniors' Housing representatives Bruce Beattie, chair, and Sam Smalldon, CAO, were at council to talk about the recent fundraiser in Carstairs, as well as future projects.
Council also received a presentation from Sandra Stone of the Carstairs off-leash dog park committee talking about potential locations for an off-leash dog park.
"They looked at three different sites: by the rodeo grounds, by Scarlett Ranch, and the former landfill site west of town," he said. "They're going through the different processes to recommend. Their number 1 recommendation is the former landfill site, to take a portion of that. We're going to work with them to see if that will work or not. We'll have some discussions with Mountain View County as well."
The dog park committee is hoping to get some more information and return to council in the fall with a proposal, he said.
Elsewhere, council approved the intermunicipal subdivision and development appeal board agreement (ISDAB), which consists of members from Carstairs, Cremona and Didsbury.
The agreement relates to appeals of decisions made by the development authority and subdivision authority pertaining to applications relating to lands located within each municipality.
"Under the Municipal Government you can't have council members on the subdivision and development appeal board," he said. "We had an agreement that each community would appoint two members to the ISDAB."
Didsbury council approved the agreement at the May 4 regular meeting, while Cremona council approved it at the May 16 meeting.
