Niverville’s council met on Tuesday, June 16 to discuss a variety of items on the town’s agenda.
Summer Meeting Schedule
Council agreed to cancel their scheduled morning meetings for both July and August. The summer meeting schedule will include just two regular meetings of council—on July 21 and August 18, with both starting at 7:00 p.m.
Mayor Myron Dyck reflected on the prudence and practicality of conducting town business in the summer with only one public meeting per month.
“We don’t want to be holding up things,” Dyck said. “Are we now too big of a town… to have only meeting a month?”
Deputy Mayor John Funk weighed in, pointing out that additional meetings can still be called as needed. Councillor Nathan Dueck agreed, citing low turnout at meetings as being not a good use of time.
“Look at a meeting as per today,” said Dueck, referencing the one journalist in the room. “It doesn’t really serve a ton of value to anybody at this point.”
Councillor Chris Wiebe pointed out that if special meetings are called, council should notify the media, to which Dyck agreed.
Public meetings are currently held at the south end of the arena. The public is recommended to check the town website prior to the meeting time to see if there has been a change of time or location.
New Doctors at Open Health Niverville Clinic
Open Health Niverville has one new part-time doctor starting in July and a full-time doctor starting in September. This is in addition to two part-time doctors who have already started working at the clinic.
Dyck also says the clinic is back to accepting in-person patient visits.
“Niverville Clinic is open for business. If people need to see a doctor, they’re more than welcome to come to the clinic,” said Dyck. “There’s lots of appointments for people that if there’s anything that they feel they have a need, they should come on down to the Open Health Clinic and they’d be able to make sure that they are being cared for.”
Water Treatment Plant Expansion
Council approved a 50/50 cost sharing agreement with Manitoba Water Services Board for the reservoir and water system expansion at the Spruce Drive Water Treatment Plant. The town’s portion will be set at a maximum of $250,000 for the engineering and design services. This is to ensure that the town has increased water capacity to support future growth.
“My hope is that we will have a design complete next year,” said Eric King, Niverville’s CAO, “and that you’d have construction start in 2022.”
Mayor’s Report
Mayor Dyck issued thanks to the volunteers, businesses, and town staff responsible for the new bike skills track at Hespeler Park, saying he has seen a lot of people using it already. He called it a real plus for the community.
Dyck also issued a statement of congratulations to all 2020 graduates.
“From myself and behalf of the councillors as well, congratulations to all the graduates for 2020,” he said. “I know it’s a unique year, but I want to wish them well in whatever the next year holds for them, whether it’s further schooling, or work, or whatever it may be. Congratulations to all the Niverville High School class of 2020.”
A graduate scholarship is still being issued by the town, but due to social distancing, the conventional delivery method and handshake will be foregone. Instead the mayor suggested they may work on putting together a video greeting instead to send to the recipient after the certificate is mailed out.
Lastly, Dyck couldn’t resist commenting on the past weekend’s sunny weather, the exact weekend that would have marked the Niverville Olde Tyme Country Fair had it not been cancelled due to COVID-19.
“Of course, the weekend we don’t have a fair, it doesn’t rain,” said Dyck.
He went on to commend the fair committee for their upcoming plans to hold a parade on July 1 (more to follow in a separate article). He also said that the public should watch carefully for another announcement from the fair committee, but wouldn’t say what it was regarding.