Battleford council tackles road safety, new bylaw and community recognition

“It is a self-governed, self-paced kind of learning that municipalities can put their councillors through,” said Mayor Ames Leslie. “There’s not very many councilors across this province who have completed them all. So, to recognize Coun. Mark Coleman tonight as one of those people who have done it and done it in his first two years of being on council is also a very respectable feat.”

Whittleton was awarded during a Saskatchewan Water and Wastewater Association conference earlier this year but received his award at this week’s meeting.

“He was recognized for an award for his years of service and giving back to the community and always being that person where colleagues can go to for support or advice,” Leslie said. “So administration recognized Aubrey tonight for winning that award at the provincial level.”

New bylaw

Council also approved a new bylaw outlining standard operating procedures for new water and sewer connections.

The bylaw is intended to make the process clearer for both residents and town officials by bringing several existing procedures together.

“We had a lot of SOPs [Standard Operating Procedures] for how meters were installed, how paving was done after we put a new build in, how water and sewer was responsible when a business was asked to have sewer and water attached.”

Leslie said the new bylaw will combine roughly five separate SOPs into one document, making the information easier to access and understand.

Purchased land

The town also approved an offer for a land purchase by the Ministry of Highways as part of planned safety improvements at the intersection of Highway 4 and Grid 656.

The project follows requests from residents who have raised concerns about turning onto the grid road as development continues in the area, including the Ridge and nearby surveyors.

The town has been working with the Ministry of Highways on a design that would add a dedicated turning lane.

The land purchased from the Town of Battleford will allow the ministry to move forward with the redesign and improve access for people leaving the highway and turning onto the road leading toward the Ridge and nearby residents.

Community Safety Dashboard update

Lastly, they received an update on the town’s Community Safety Dashboard, which was announced in April.

The one-page statistics dashboard is designed to give residents a clearer picture of community safety information from the RCMP, Public Safety Officers and Battlefords Citizens on Patrol.

Leslie said the idea came from requests from council and community members for greater transparency around local safety.

“It’s an evolving document that will only get better and better, but I’m glad that the administration has worked to get it out there and on our website, and it will only get better.”

Leslie said the dashboard has not received as much attention as he expected, which he believes may be because residents are not aware it is available.

“Today it’s on the website, but maybe we need to share some snippets into some of our social media or randomly put some copies into some of the water bills and kind of get that exposure as well.”

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alyssa.rudolph@pattisonmedia.com

by Alyssa Rudolph

Battleford council tackles road safety, new bylaw and community recognition

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