Council convenes with reports from CAO

January 15, 2016 · 0 Comments

Despite the stormy weather Shelburne Councillors convened for their first meeting of 2016 Monday evening, January 11th. CAO John Telfer presented three reports to Council including an update on the water main break that hit Shelburne two days before Christmas.
CAO Telfer reported the “Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) office operated from 5 p.m. until 1 a.m. December 23rd and resumed December 24th at 9 a.m. with the update. Operations shutdown at 10am with news of the break being managed.”
He informed Councillors that, “The water main break will be covered under operational repairs,” he said, “At this point, the final bill is unknown by estimated to be around $12,000. The cost was significantly reduced by being in the remote areas where urban standards are not evident. If the same break had occurred downtown or on one of the residential areas, the risk and the cost would have been significantly more.”
“Finding the break was the key adventure overnight until Dec 24th at approximately 8:00 am” he said, “the discovery allowed us to isolate (by valve shutoff) and repair quickly.” He reported,” Public Works staff secured the location approximately four metres north of Wansburgh Way on County Rd. 124. The water was draining into a ditch on the west side of the road. Locates were secured by 10 a.m. and work was finished by 12:15 p.m.”
By 5:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve the Town was “out of high risk for firefighting and back to normal operations,” Telfer told Council. Regarding the break in the pipe, which was installed in the mid 1980’s, the CAO had said previously, “It is always difficult to determine water main breaks as piping ages over 30 years…but based on their collective experience, Public Works staff have suggested the pipe may have been resting on a rock, and over the years the pipe weakened at that point eventually resulting in the break.”
In other items, the CAO reported to Council that the opportunity for a Canada Day grant had been missed, due to an oversight regarding a change in the application deadline criteria, leaving the Town short $6000 in anticipated revenue for the event’s celebrations in 2016. CAO asked for Council’s deliberation on the issue and they followed his recommendation that $5,113 be transferred from the Canada Day reserve and $666.95 be transferred by the Festival reserve.
In an update on Dog Tag administration, the CAO told the Mayor and Councillors that after having met with the Chief of Police to discuss moving the responsibility to the Town staff, he was recommending to Council that “the new arrangement be implemented in 2016.” He said, “For the public portion, a mail out of dog tags will be done based on the records to date.” Additional new data will come from police and by-law enforcement complaints and volunteer record information. “Once set up, the on-going information will be handled by the Town Hall administration.”
The CAO also said staff would begin “a review of dog tag fees” and report back to Council.
Council supported the motion that recommendations begin with an update for consideration in November of this year.

By Marni Walsh