Working Well Workshops for Residents

Workshop Registration:  www.mdfoothills.eventbrite.ca

7:00 pm, Tuesday, February 6, 2018 – Priddis Community Hall - WORKSHOP FULL

7:00 pm, Wednesday, February 7, 2018 – Davisburg Hall - Spots Available

1:00 pm, Tuesday, February 13, 2018 – Highwood Memorial Centre - Spots Available

In an effort to provide valuable information to residents, the MD has brought back their Working Well Workshop by popular demand.  The previous workshops filled up fast so be sure to RSVP ASAP.

IMPORTANT: Register by January 30 with your Legal Land Description or your Lot/Block/Plan#, Date of Well Completion, and Original Owner or Depth of Well, so that you can receive all the information for your well from provincial records to be used in the workshop.

• Did you know that a poorly maintained water well can put your water supply at risk of contamination and reduce your well yield?
• Have you had your well water tested in the last two years?

RSVP Septic Sense Workshops

Septic Sense: Solutions for Rural Living Workshops
Understanding and taking care of your septic system

7:00 pm, Mon. January 22, 2018 at Priddis Community Hall
7:00 pm, Wed. January 24, 2018 at Davisburg Community Hall...
7:00 pm, Mon. February 12, 2018 at Highwood Memorial Centre

Pre-registration required:

Did you know the average person puts 340 liters of sewage through a private sewage system (septic system) every day? For a family of four living in a two-bedroom house, that amounts to 1,360 liters per day and just under half a million liters per year!

Rural property owners are responsible for ensuring their systems operate properly and safely. If you have a septic system on your rural property, you will benefit from attending this workshop. Presenters will teach you how to understand, assess and properly manage your septic system, enabling you to protect your investment in your property and the valuable natural assets associated with your land.

Learn what you can do to properly manage and maintain your septic system. Attend the Septic Sense workshop hosted and presented by M.D. of Foothills, with technical expertise provided by the Alberta Onsite Wastewater Management Association (AOWMA) and materials developed by Land Stewardship Centre (LSC).

During the workshop we will cover:

Jan 10/19 Update - MD Snow Removal, Graders and Snowmobiles

MD Snow Removal Policy

Many of you may be aware that the MD public works has a snow removal target of 72 hrs after the completion of a major snow event.  The goal public works has is to clear all 4,400 lane km within that timeframe.  Some of you may not have received it within that timeframe over the last few weeks.

See the video below for more details or continue reading below...


There are a couple reasons they have had challenges with this recently:

ATTENTION Snowmobilers in Millarville!

For Your Own Safety,

Please no not ride on the lake in the hamlet of #Millarville as it is spring fed and has sections of thin ice and open water!

Please share this with others as we don’t want to have a tragedy here in Millarville. Thank you and be safe out there!

Protecting our Animals

Animal Safety During Emergencies

The MD of Foothills has been taking steps to ensure our Fire and Protective Services are even more informed on how to deal with our animals (large and small) in the event of an emergency.

On November 21st, MD First Responders and Staff attended workshop to provide an overview of the equine industry in Alberta and assist municipal bodies and personnel to incorporate equine into their existing emergency management plans.

The workshop was very well received and valuable for providing more tools for our First Responders to help provide us all with an even higher level of care for our animals.

Also, the story below shares some news for our other furry friends.

How Fast is Your Internet?

Please Share

I am still trying to share this internet speed test from CIRA (Canadian Internet Registration Authority) to get as many people as possible to take the test so that they receive more data about what kind of speeds we have out our way.  The Federal Government has a target of getting households to a minimum up 5 mbps download speeds but they need data on what people are currently getting.

To take the test, go to: https://performance.cira.ca/

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Good news today from Municipal Affairs

Municipal Affairs just announced a program called Property Education Requisition Credit (PERC). The program will be giving a tax credit retroactive from 2015-19 for municipalities that had to pay the school requisition based on assessment, even though they were unable to collected taxes from some Oil & Gas companies. For the MD of Foothills, this credit could end up being up to $500k. This is very good news for all of us!

Millarville Halloween Howl

A Very Special Thank-You!

Thank-you so much to everyone that volunteered their time to make the Halloween Howl at the MRAS such an amazing night for everyone and for all those that attended!

A very special thanks to Andrea Matovich, Rebecca Clark, Laurie Minter-Borys, Shanna Dunne, Freddie Fleetcroft (Ben and Jenny), Laura Dunne, Adele Webb DePauw, Erica Aspden Crowe, Laura Ball, Melodie Webber-Koopman, Cinnamon Bunn (my pumpkin judging guru counterpart) and everyone else I am unable to tag for your ongoing efforts to make such a fantastic community event happen! A great time was had by all!

If for some reason you didn't make it out this year, be sure you don't miss it next year!

New Council, Councillor Training, Staff Orientation and Organizational Meeting

New Council

As many of you are aware, the M.D. of Foothills has a new council that started back to work and were sworn in on Oct 24th.  Your new council consists of:

• Division 1 - Rob Siewert
• Division 2 - Delilah Miller
• Division 3 - Myself Jason Parker
• Division 4 - Suzanne Oel
• Division 5 - Alan Alger
• Division 6 - Larry Spilak
• Division 7 - R.D. McHugh

Council Orientation

As per the new Municipal Government Act (MGA) Amendments, municipalities must offer orientation training within 90 days after each councillor takes oath of office.  The training provides important information addressing key topics outlined in the act.  Getting down to business ASAP, our council completed this training on Oct 24th.  The M.D.'s training was conducted by an outside party that has years of experience dealing in municipal law.  It was a great review for the previous councillors and very eye opening for the new councillors.  I am happy to report, that after completing the training, we still have a full council!

Staff Orientation

In order to prepare the new councillors as best as possible, Oct 25th consisted of a staff orientation where directors of all the departments at the M.D. of Foothills had an opportunity to walk council through what their departments do and who key staff members are in those departments.  Presentations were done by Public Works, Community Services, Planning, etc...  Due to all the valuable questions, we were unable to get through everyone in the full day and will have more introductions in the future.

Organizational Meeting

Oct. 26 consisted of council's Organizational Meeting where the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and committees are decided.  Council nominates and votes on each of these.  With the departure of the previous Deputy Mayor, Ted Mills, council elected a new Deputy Mayor, Delilah Miller from Division 2 and Larry Spilak retains his position of Mayor.

After the Mayor and Deputy Mayor were sworn in, council decided on each of the committees the individual councillors will sit on. 

Next week it is back to business as usual with the Wednesday council meetings.

THANK YOU!

Thanks so much to everyone for the support! I am honoured that once again you have put your trust and faith in me to represent you for Division 3 in the beautiful M.D. of Foothills. I look forward to doing my absolute best for you over the next four years. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Keep an eye out as we move forward with ways to continue to keep you up to speed on the latest happenings within Division 3 and the M.D..  If there are specific ways you would like to be kept informed, please let me know by contacting me HERE.

All the best,
Jason