Coalhurst council updates on December work as year nears end

By Kenyon Stronski
Sunny South News

Coalhurst council is readying for the end of the year and councillors updated each other on their work as December continues. Coun. Scott Akkermans was first to step up to the plate during council’s meeting on Nov. 22 to give his report and the last update council gave was a month ago.

“I believe the last update we gave was about a month ago, so in that time I had finished the EOEP (Elected Officials Education Program) course on strategic planning. I had the SouthGrow executive committee meeting on November 7, it was just kind of a business as usual, we did have that presentation last week that kind of filled everyone in on what they were going. And beyond that, I attended the Legion Remembrance Day ceremony that I thought was really excellent.”

Coun. Deborah Florence was called next, beginning with how she had the opportunity to do an education program, as well as being honoured to attend both the high school and elementary school Remembrance Day ceremonies.

“As well as the Legion — they did an excellent job — and it was a really great time to be out and about in the community. Seeing the fire department out in uniform is a source of community pride. We had the Community Futures meeting two weeks ago and we actually have a bigger session coming up in a few weeks to just have the yearly organizational meeting type thing, so looking forward to that. It’s a pleasure to sit on the Community Futures board. I’m looking forward to having development coming up this week as well.”

Deputy Mayor Jesse Potrie didn’t have much to report, noting he attended the Remembrance Day ceremonies and the Oldman River Regional Services Commission executive meeting.

Coun. Heather Caldwell reported much of the same, noting she had a quiet time since their last meeting and report, but attended the recreation and culture committee meeting.

Mayor Lyndsay Montina came last to give her report, giving updates on many things including a nomination for the Chinook Arch executive committee.

“I just have a couple of updates ‚ Alberta Municipalities Healthy Communities committee and I was selected to sit on that committee. I believe that I will have my first meeting sometime soon, I can’t remember the exact date, but I’m looking forward to participating in that and learning more about what that looks like. I think that we’ve already got a presentation from Alberta Health on ambulance services that will be coming up with that, so that should be quite interesting as well. I went to Remembrance Day ceremonies at the high school and speaking there as well as the Legion. I was grateful Councillor Florence was able to represent at the elementary school. The other thing that has come up recently is that I was at my Chinook Arch meeting and I somehow may be the president of the Friends of Chinook Arch, so I’m learning about what that is, I know we have one meeting a year. I’m also requesting to see if council will approve me as a member of the executive on Chinook Arch. I know for that group, it has a lot of long-time members and they’ve indicated they’d like more of their remembers to participate in committees.”

A motion was passed to give Montina the position on the executive committee.

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