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Hanna Town council briefs

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Community Generation Capacity Building Program
CAO Kim Neill informed council that the Community Generation Capacity Building Program Committee has submitted a request for an extension of the deadline to complete the project from May 29 to Sept. 30.
While they wait to hear back Neill said the group is continuing to work on the Financial Modelling plans on the Town of Hanna Virtual Power Plant Project, which proposes to install solar fields on the vacant land at the Hanna Public Works yard adjacent to the arena if the land is available as well as adjacent to the fire hall if the land is available. The group is also looking at the option of a solar field at the Truman Ford brownfield site on Second Avenue West.
Neill said a business case presentation is expected to be shown to the committee and then Council, and would be put through a public engagement process before any requests for decision are brought before council.
Neill said the grid connection application on the Sheerness site has begun, and is being reviewed by ATCO, which is moving slower than anticipated on the request.
As such a request has been made to the Alberta Utilities Commission for assistance on having the information given on a faster timeline.

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Tax recovery sale
A tax recovery public auction was held Sept. 12 for two properties not removed from the Tax Recovery List through payment of tax arrears Neill said.
The owner of the property had the chance to pay the tax arrears, penalties and costs at any time before the auction to remove the property from a tax sale he explained.
A property was offered for sale at public auction, Lot 18, Bloc 27, Plan 6133AW, however no bids were received.
Currently the taxes owing on the property amount to $10,089.13.
The assessed value of the property, Neill said, was $82,470, and council directed admin to take title of the property and dispose of it for fair market value.
Administration, Neill said, had two local realtors look at the property and evaluate the value of the property, with one indicating they were considering making an offer.
If an offer is not received shortly, Neill said, the property would be listed.

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Highway 9 millings
Alberta Transportation asked the Town of Hanna and Special Areas Board if they were interested in receiving the asphalt millings from the reconstruction of Highway 9.
Neill said it was anticipated that there would be 90,000 cubic meters of material that would be split evenly between the two municipalities.
Neill said 50% of the millings would require a storage space of 100m by 50m by 8 m high, which he said would be placed at the Public Works Yard.
The millings, Neill said, could be used in place of gravel in most instances, and Administration had a number of ideas on how to utilize the resource.
Roads using asphalt millings require less maintenance than dirt or gravel, which hardens over time. Recycled asphalt surfaces are less susceptible to the weather and erosion and as a bonus they produce no dust or mud.
One ton of asphalt millings covers 80 square feet if laid a few inches thick according to homeadvisor.com. With 31,783 tons of asphalt millings the Town and Special Areas could cover approximately 2.5 million square feet with the shared millings, which have an approximate value of $222,481.

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e-transfers available
The Town of Hanna can now accept e-Transfers as a method of payment announced Director of Business and Communications Laurie Armstrong at the June 9 meeting.
Armstrong said she had been working with administration to set up the e-transfer option, which was not available.

Floral displays begun
Director of Community Services Gwen Snell noted that the Towns floral displays, barrels and planters were being planted within the parks and green spaces areas after high winds and rains delayed the planting schedule.
Crews, she noted, were hard at work to make the displays exceptional.

Dam revitalization
The Town has completed the contract documents for grant reporting on the Helmer Dam revitalization noted Snell in her report. The funding is through the Alberta Conservation Association’s Conservation, Community and Education Grants for 2020-21.
Three quotes were obtained to complete the first year’s collection and studies with the successful company being asked to adjust the work and revise their quote to bring it more in line with the budget.
Snell said background data, water chemistry and physical parameters will be clearly
documented in order to provide a base in determining how to best establish a
sport fishery for the area.
Additionally, Snell said, Alberta Fisheries did a spring stocking of trout fingerlings on May 6, as part of their annual stocking program in Alberta.

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Canada Day fizzles
Canada Day celebrations will “definitely have a different flavour this year” according to Snell. She said staff has been taking part in online sessions to discuss alternate ways of celebrating, which included a tool kit from the Federal government that was release June 4.

“We will be working to provide those supports and resources for our community,” noted Snell.

Food bank funding
The Hanna Food Bank received funding through the Community Foundation of South-eastern Alberta special COVID funding program noted Snell.
“This support is important
to ensuring that our food bank can continue to support meeting the need for food
security in the community,” she observed.

Lighting approved
The Municipal Climate Change Action Centre approved funding to proceed with LED lighting upgrades for the arena, pool and Centennial Place noted Snell in her report to council.
The funding will see lights upgraded, with updated quotes needed so they can proceed to update the lights.
Funding allocation will be $26,122.95 in Centennial Place and $39,837 at the arena and pool.

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Under construction
The Town saw an increase in development applications with eight applications ranging from $200 to $15,000 in value throughout the community.

Soft alleys
Director of Public Works Brent Olesen noted that the alleys in town seemed to be worse this year with soft spots. Many of the spots seem to be where Altagas installed new tie ins for their meters Olesen observed. He noted the department planned to go over the alleys with a grade to fix them as soon as the ground is hard enough.
They also will be line painting over the next few weeks as well as working on potholes around the community he added.

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