HIGHLIGHTS OF THE VILLAGE OF GLEN EWEN 2012 RATEPAYERS MEETING

A Village Ratepayers Meeting was held on September 17 th, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at the Glen Ewen Communiplex. Those present were: Mayor Lewis, Councillors Boyes and Stoesz, Debbie Tornblom, Myrna Babbings, Charlie and Jean White, Donna Jack, Irene Hanson, Bryce Merkley, Tyley & Parry Hitchens, Marilyn Johnson, Blake Burnett, Angela Lewis, Pat & Sharon Gosselin, Ryan Folkerts, Veronica Hanson, MaryEllen Benjamin, Blair Hanna, Nicki Bigney, Lonnie Hawker and Lorinda Jones, Don Ritchie, Erin Boyes, Frank & Mavis Hawker. Myrna Babbings welcomed everyone to the meeting. Opening remarks were made by Mayor Lewis: Welcome everyone and thank you for coming. Since our last Town Meeting, there have been quite a few new residents in our little town! Houses have been built and trailers moved in and this has been nice to see but with growth has come increased growing pains. 1) Our water plant is operating near full capacity and so we have had problems when we have had water leaks to keep everyone supplied with a constant, sufficient supply of water. We sent out notices for residents to limit their usage of water to household use only but even then, due to a few misusing the water and our increased demand, we had problems resulting in us having to turn off the water at night so there would be enough for everyone during the day. (We apologize for the inconvenience). To date this year we have had to spend over $10,000.00 to have water hauled in to keep the water cisterns full enough to supply the residents and backwash the filters at the water plant. We had discussed installing water meters in each house to determine usage, but it was pointed out that this would not do any good because the residents that were willing to pay for more water could still not be supplied with the water they wanted. Last year we had to make a motion to not service any new lots in the foreseeable future due to insufficient capacity of the water plant. 2) Also, we as Town Council felt we had to put a freeze on selling town owned lots so that we could try and get a handle on expenses. We get calls every week from people looking to buy lots in the Village, but when we weight up the pros and cons, it was decided for now that we would have to make the decision to say no lots available for sale at this time. This is because Towns and Villages are expected to service a lot with water and sewer up to the property water curb key. These costs are getting higher and higher due to companies raising their hourly rates and the cost of pipe, fittings, etc. Is it fair for the town to spend $2,000.00 to fulfill this obligation for bringing an old existing service up to working order and then, in the case for some of our unserviced lots, if service is wanted, spending $12,000.00 to $16,000.00 to supply water and sewer to the property and then adding the $10,000.00 to $14,000.00 to everyone elses taxes to pay?

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE VILLAGE OF GLEN EWEN 2012 RATEPAYERS MEETING

We also decided that the Village cannot at this time afford the cost quoted to us for expanding the water plant and increasing the capacity of the sewer lagoon system at over a half million dollars. Everything is decided by the government as to the capacity of our lagoon based on the volume of water produced by the water plant. (The more we provide to our residents, the bigger our lagoon must be). Resident owned sewage tanks are not an option because we still do not have the water capacity to supply more customers at this time. And since we already have a town wide sewer system, Public Health as good as told us why would you want to go backwards and have these tanks and all the hassles involved with them? It is a tough job as a Council making decisions which affect so many people, but we didnt and dont want to be known as the Council that overspent and brought the Village into an unrecoverable debt load, so there have been a lot of long meetings with much discussion over the past year of so on how we should approach this issue and others. We would like to be able to maintain what we have here in this beautiful little Village and try and put some money away so in the future we can expand our water plant etc. Other examples of improvements we would like to be able to do: 1) Fix the streets better (in the last couple of years we have spent $10,000.00 each year on patching alone). 2) Barb thought it would be nice to plant new trees on the south side of the main street to help improve the appearance of the street. 3) Maintain our park and playground equipment and grounds (we have many more children using them now). 4) New signs out on the highway would look good too. We have to have Village pride, this is our hometown, lets make it look and operate the best we can. The Financial Statement was distributed and questions were answered. Councillor Stoesz presented information about the Water and Sewer Rate Increases: In 2012, we received a letter from Municipal Affairs informing us that in our audited Financial Statement, there was no money set aside in our utility reserve account for ongoing maintenance, eg: capital expenditures, water and sewer breaks. At the time we looked at our revenues and expenses for water and sewer and once again we were in a deficit position. We have applied to the Municipal Board for October 1st to increase water - $2.00/month from $39.00 to $41.00 per month and sewer will remain at $14.00 per month. There will also be a $5.00 per month fee for maintenance/reconstruction. Sewer/Water/Trash bills will now be $207.00 for 3 months Each month - 41.00 for water, $14.00 for sewer and $5.00 for utility reserve and trash $9.00 per month. If its easier to pay monthly, please speak to Debbie. Councillor Stoesz presented the Policy for Water Sewer and Trash accounts: Council has determined that the Village business practice shall be that the Water, Sewer and Trash account shall be sent to every property owner in the Village who has these services in effect. The property owner will have the utility account in their name and are

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE VILLAGE OF GLEN EWEN 2012 RATEPAYERS MEETING

directly responsible for the utility payment whether they reside in their residence or the residence is rented out. This account may be paid by a third party, if that has been arranged between the property owner and his tenant. The property owner will provide a copy of the account to the third party in this case, to ensure proper credit. The property owner is responsible to ensure that the bill is paid in a timely manner to avoid service charges (3% per month) or the water shut-off fee, which amounts to a $100.00 reconnection fee. Pat Gosselin spoke about the Waterplant operations: Our system holds 20,000 gallons of water and normal daily use runs between 8,800 and 10,000 gallons One garden hose, running overnight can use 6,600 gallons! There is a void since Jim Burnett is not able to help as in the past. He did a lot of manual labour for the waterplant. Thank you to Charlie White for his help. We need a back up operator who can run tests every day at 24 hour interval. It takes about half an hour to run these tests. Thank you to Barb Stoesz for looking after the Waterplant while he was away. Kris and Erin Boyes can GPS curb keys after they are located for future reference. We had a troublesome 6 week period and Kris Boyes thanked Pat for all the extra work he did during this time. Pat noted that Precautionary Boil Water precautions must be issued for times when the water is depressurized. These PBWs are not issued because of bad water, but are precautionary in nature and required by the Ministry. Other items brought forward: Snowblowing has always been done by Jim Burnett. The Village has advertised for a person to snow blow and at present no one has come forward. If no one comes forward, the R.M. may come out and blade the snow off the streets. A ridge will be left at the driveway and cars must be off the streets. Private lanes will no longer be cleaned out. Volunteers Needed for Work Bees addressed by Mayor Lewis: A list will be put up for residents to offer their services. People are still paid a voluntary fee and if they do not want to collect the cheque, it can be handed back into the office and an Income Tax receipt will be issued to them to cover the cheque.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE VILLAGE OF GLEN EWEN 2012 RATEPAYERS MEETING

General Election in 2012 addressed by Myrna Babbings: Nominations for Mayor and 2 Village Councillors are open until Wednesday, September 19 at 4:00 p.m. Debbie will be in the office in case anyone wants to pick up their papers on that date. If we hold an election, an advance poll will be on October 22 nd from 4-8 p.m. with Election Day at the Village Office on Wednesday October 24 th from 9-5 p.m. Councillor Boyes gave information about decommissioning the Nuisance Grounds: On October 1st or soon after the government departments of water and nuisance grounds will not be under Ministry of the Environment. Water will go to the Department of Sask Water and landfills will stay under the Ministry of the Environment. There is a new code out that tells us we need to decommission our landfill because we have closed it. We are working with Min. of Environment now. The cost is unknown, but it is a cost that we did not budget for. We have asked the R.M. of Enniskillen for some assistance and they may give us a grant or they may give money to us in the form of a loan. If we dont do it now, we will be dealing with engineers in the New Year and the Min. of Environment have quoted in excess of $100,000.00 Myrna discussed the Restricted Dog Bylaw and RCMP enforcement. A show of hands was taken to rescind the Restricted Dog Bylaw. The Dangerous Dog Bylaw is still in effect. New Garbage Bin system was discussed. Many people expressed approval of the system. Question was asked about where the fee for these bins is used since tax dollars covered the old system. Answer: fees go into general revenue. Our new Fire Chief, Bryce Merkley spoke about the Fire Department: Volunteers are welcomed to join the team and no courses are needed. CPR/First Aid training can be provided. Oxbow donated a 1988 Fire Truck which holds 700 gallons of water which is a good amount to suppress a fire. The 1947 Willys Jeep has been retired. It is important that there are people trained to drive the Fire Truck and to know how to operate it. There will be a Fire Team Meeting on Thursday September 20, 1012 at 7:00 pm at the Fire Hall (behind the Village Office). Poor Cell Signal and Internet Service in Glen Ewen Quite a few people expressed their dissatisfaction with these services. It was suggested that a petition be made and this was an idea that was supported. We need to know what services we are petitioning for and to whom the petition(s) would be sent. Any help in drafting the petition would be appreciated. Please let us know if you can help.