3 items to watch at city council on Monday
Snow clearing, heritage status and sunshine lists among the topics up for debate
Here are three things to watch for at Calgary city council on Monday.
Snow, snow and more snow
Administration is seeking council's blessing for what should be included in its annual Snow and Ice Control (SNIC) report.
Given the 4X4 conditions on many residential roads this winter, the bureaucrats want to broaden the scope of this year's report.
They want to look at how Calgary's program compares to other winter cities. They want to research the issue of mandatory winter tires (even if the city has no way of enforcing that).
They also want to look at the costs of having more contractors on stand-by so they can be called in for the extreme events like Calgary witnessed for essentially the entire snowy month of December.
Coun. Shane Keating will bring forward his own idea for stand-by crews: he wants the city to look at a bigger picture.
His suggestion is to have stand-by crews year-round who can pitch in with snow clearing, pothole repair in the spring or even things like clearing away downed trees after a windstorm.
Heritage Monday
There's a proposal to designate two city properties as municipal heritage resources.
The Butters residence, located at 637 29th Avenue S.W., is a 1912 arts-and-crafts-style bungalow near the Glencoe Club in Elbow Park. It's also a sandstone house.
If you haven't seen it, swing by to admire its distinctive corner turret. Those lucky enough to see the inside would see a grand open staircase and beamed ceilings.
The other property is the C.C. Snowdon Oils factory in Ramsay.
Neil Richardson with Heritage Property Corporation is in the midst of revitalizing this long-neglected building. Its exterior is being restored to its original look with C.C.'s highly visible name while the inside is being renovated for a new life as a modern office and commercial space.
Also on Monday, the Calgary Heritage Authority will be presenting plaques at the start of the meeting to honour four historic Calgary bridges.
Sunshine list study
Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart wants the city to follow other jurisdictions in publicly reporting which of its employees is paid more than $100,000.
But she's crafting this to ask council to support a study on how best to implement a sunshine list.
Her idea is to let someone independent draw up the parameters and then council can debate the merits of a sunshine list.
She specifically doesn't want the city doing this internally as she fears the bureaucrats will come up with their own list — a list of ways this will cost too much money to do or be impractical, etc., so it never happens.
She is calling for a report to be done by September, which means council members can vote for a study and not take a stand (yet) on whether the city should have a sunshine list.