Snow, summer prep, keeping Town of Coalhurst busy

By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South News

The following are selected briefs from director reports presented during the April 2 meeting of Coalhurst town council.

CAO Report

• Town staff is busy preparing for summer events and community programming, including:

• Volunteer appreciation luncheon

• Completion of budgets and delivery of tax notifications

• Road and sidewalk repair and replacement programs

• Transitioning to new financial software

• Undergoing sewer lining program

• Implementing new facility booking software

• Developing a community garden site and planting community fruit trees in Imperial Meadows Park

• The new council tables have been ordered with delivery expected to take place in six to eight weeks. The current council room furnishings will be advertised for sale and once the new furniture is in place, the town will need to make some upgrades to their electrical and computer system. 

• Seven members of the Town’s lead staff have completed their ICS 100 emergency management training in preparation for ICS 200 training on April 9/10 and April 16/17. ICS 300 training will take place in the fall of 2024, and before then, Patience hopes they can complete some agency-specific training. 

• CAO Shawn Patience said he had “numerous conversations with multiple developers” regarding marketing of vacant properties, business expansion and facilitating some exciting new developments. 

Patience said that overall, “it’s been a busy couple of weeks”.

Director of Operations Report

The following are selected excerpts from Kevin Lewis’ Director of Operations report to council:

• The 2024 roads and sidewalks program is ready for tender, with Lewis awaiting cost estimates and a decision regarding the work for the Community Center parking lot project, before tendering both projects.

• The town has experienced a few snow equipment issues over the past few weeks with the recent snow, but all equipment issues have since been repaired.

• The garden boxes are expected to arrive the week of April 8, and Lewis is working on planning for site preparation and construction for the boxes.

• Operations staff have completed a good portion of the town’s park tree pruning. They have identified a few trees the town may lose, but staff will give the trees some time before making a final determination. Coun. Scott Akkermans asked if they were concerned over losing trees, to which Lewis replied the town loses a few trees every year, and that “This year was a little, a few more, partially because last year, we did have a warm-up and then freeze again, so some of the trees were starting to bud. We’re looking at probably 10 trees out of our 6-700 that we have, so it’s typical to lose a few.”

• Over the next few weeks, town staff will be busy finishing tree pruning, and preparing parks equipment including blade replacement, oil changes and servicing mowing and spraying equipment in preparation for warmer weather, and will soon begin removing and storing snow fences and snow equipment attachments, and start performing building and water and sewer system maintenance. 

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