We had a long meeting last Monday, with Council wrapping up after 9pm. Since then, it's been busier!
Last week:
Council was given a tour of The Bishop's Palace, one of our designated heritage resources. Thank you to the Oblates and St. Albert Arts and Heritage for the tour and history lesson!
Council attended the scheduled Media Training session. I can't say what we specifically covered in the workshop, but I can say that I have a great deal of respect for the media outlets that cover St. Albert. TV and print reporters do their best to keep us up-to-date. As always, I encourage residents to watch Council meetings in-person or online to get the full picture - media doesn't have the time or space to cover the nuances of our decisions, so seeing debate first-hand is the best way to get the full story.
I attended the Water Network Open House. The Admin staff and consultants were great at answering questions and it was reassuring to see how much thought they put into arranging the work to minimize impact on residents. If you use the following roads, you can check out the details on the city website:
- Erin Ridge Drive off of Boudreau and next to the hospital.
- Hebert Road just east of St. Albert Trail.
- Bernard & Bishop intersection
- Inglewood Drive
- St. Vital Avenue
- Malmo Avenue
- St. Joseph Street
On behalf of Council as the Deputy Mayor, I reopened Rivercrest Playground. Thank you to the St. Albert Breakfast Club and the National Lions Club for their generous donations, and to the province for their support through the CFEP grant. And thank you to the kids from the Boardwalk building daycare and the RCMP officers who happened to wander down the trail next to the park for coming out to celebrate!
I joined Amplify at the St. Albert Art Gallery to help paint lanterns for the upcoming festival. It was great sitting down with some of our youth to paint and chat about the opportunities and challenges for youth in our city. If you know of any youth grade 7 to 21 years interested in arts (music, film, fine art, poetry, dance...), let them know about this fantastic local resource!
I attended the Lennox Drive Traffic Calming Open House. It was great seeing so many residents stop by to look at the options we have to make Lennox a safer street to walk, drive, and bike on. We're expecting to see conceptual design preferences shortly that address resident concerns, then temporary measures will be put in place for about a year.
I attended the St. Albert Culture Map Open House, where I learned more about our plans to document all the cultural resources in the city. If you know of businesses or individuals who provide cultural or artistic services, please let them know about this project!
Councillors Brodhead, Hansen, and I attended the first Joint Opportunities Task Force meeting with Sturgeon County representatives. This sub-committee of the Intermunicipal Affairs Committee will give us the opportunity to more quickly consider and make recommendations that move forward the priorities of both governments.
Agenda highlights:
Heritage Committee Updates
In 2017, the previous Council created a committee to help manage, encourage, and protect Heritage properties in St. Albert. This is the first annual report being presented, including recommendations for 2019 priorities.
Q2 Corporate Quarterly Report (Highlights)
Revision of the Municipal Development Plan (MDP): We've completed the selection process for hiring a consultant to lead this project. Expect community engagement opportunities in late Q3.
Improve the service level of Ray Gibbon Drive: We're about 60% finished an arterial network analysis that includes RGD, and we've awarded the design analysis contract for RGD. On September 10 at our Governance, Priorities, and Finance meeting, there will be presentations about this project.
Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) strategy + St. Albert Trail: We've installed ITS systems in key locations and are working on programming. Next steps include data collection and programming adaptive signal control on St. Albert Trail. On September 10 at our Governance, Priorities, and Finance meeting, there will be presentations about this project.
Transit Local Route Restructuring: Expect open houses in 2019 to give residents an opportunity to look at proposed new routes.
Infill for mature neighbourhoods: There will be open houses later this year as part of the MDP project to share information with and receive feedback from residents about infill.
The financial report is also available for anyone interested in the details, and many performance indicators are available on the StATracker performance dashboard.
This is a brief high-level overview of highlights from our meeting agenda, with my personal comments sprinkled in - In no way are my opinions representative of the official direction of council or the City of St. Albert. Please let me know of any typos or errors. As always, I also encourage everyone who is able to tune in the the live-stream of the meeting (3pm here) or attend in-person (3rd floor of St. Albert Place, hang a right getting out of the elevator). You can also register to speak if you have information to present to council. Full agenda packages can be found on the stalbert.ca website.