Niverville council met for their morning public meeting on February 3 to address a number of bylaw-related concerns.
To open, council voted in favour of appointing seven Commissionaires officers to manage bylaw enforcement this year. The Commissionaires are a national not-for-profit security company employing military veterans. They provide municipal bylaw enforcement services as well as traffic control and non-core policing services to all levels of government, as well as to the police and RCMP.
Their goal is to help free up police to more effectively focus on more critical duties.
Niverville’s council has been contracting with Commissionaires for many years. CAO Eric King says that the town pays an annual fee for the services they carry out on a relatively random basis. There are no specific days or times when they drive along the streets, looking for infractions. Although they respond to specific concerns, mostly they keep an eye on recurring issues such as school zone parking infractions.
During certain events, such as fair weekend, they’ll ramp up their efforts.
“It’s not meant to be a cash recovery business,” says King. “We’re not in the business of printing tickets for the sake of printing tickets.”
Also in terms of bylaw enforcement, council gave first reading to an amendment on their current noise ordinance. If approved, noise exemptions would be provided for snow-clearing, both residentially and commercially.
“We had a resident contact us about a particular incident,” says Mayor Myron Dyck. “And when we checked into our bylaws, we realized that there was an omission or a gap.”
The exemption now gives greater flexibility to snow-clearing contractors who need to open up commercial parking lots early so businesses can operate, as well as church parking lots before Sunday morning services.
The noises which this bylaw are intended to address are those created by contractors and their equipment or neighbours revving motorbikes at midnight. General quiet hours in Niverville run between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
Residents wishing to host an event where the noise level may extend beyond those hours are asked to contact the town office for special one-time exemptions.
Finally, council voted in favour of making Niverville’s business incentive grant available to businesses that fall within a commercial neighbourhood zone. This type of zoning has been discussed with Highlands West developer Len Peters. If pursued, it would be the first such zoning in Niverville.
“[Commercial-neighbourhood-zoned companies] include the mom-and-pop type of businesses,” says King. “Whereas commercial corridor is more for the big box outlets like IKEA and Home Depot.”
Examples of businesses that fall into a commercial neighbourhood zoning could include the small corner grocer or hair salon, the kind of business one might see in residential neighbourhoods rather than busy commercial hubs.