On Tuesday, May 18, Niverville’s town council met virtually to discuss a variety of topics on the town’s agenda.
Chicken Chef Patio
The first item was a public hearing to discuss the granting of a conditional use permit for a licensed outdoor seating area at the Chicken Chef restaurant on Main Street.
Owners Laura and Tim Mulvena told council that they plan to close the Main Street entrance as well as the parking area immediately to the east of the restaurant. They hope to construct a 390-square-foot concrete pad in this area with a three-foot high fence around it. This new patio will have a 20-seat capacity and would be licensed to serve alcohol.
Laura stated that when she and her co-owners first took over ownership of this location, they noticed there weren’t a lot of patio options in the town and they already intended to create one. She pointed out that other Chicken Chef locations have licensed patios and have experienced success with them.
The Mulvenas also confirmed that they will still have the required number of parking stalls for the restaurant, with 18 stalls remaining on the south side of the building. The lot will be upgraded to clearly demarcate these spots. Although they don’t plan to pave the parking lot at this time, they plan to use dust control on the area to ensure that outdoor diners aren’t bothered by dust being blown around by the wind.
CAO Eric King confirmed that Chicken Chef had their liquor service approved by council on January 21, 2020 and that council had previously approved three picnic tables on June 23, 2020.
Laura’s request was for outdoor liquor service to run from 11:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., but Councillor Wiebe suggested that this service be expanded by an hour, until 10:00 p.m., since summer weather can make outdoor dining suitable later in the evening.
Councillor Wiebe made a motion for this to be added to the proposal, and with this amendment the request from the Mulvenas was unanimously approved and carried.
Self-Storage Parking Spots
Next on the agenda was a request from Ray Dowse for a conditional use permit allowing the addition of 103 self-storage parking spots of varying sizes on the north side of 301 Main Street, the south side of which is currently home to Niverville Animal Hospital. The property is adjacent to Dowse’s business, Main Street Storage.
There was considerable discussion regarding this topic and how the area would look from Main Street. Several councillors mentioned their desire to ensure that the look of Main Street not be compromised.
After some debate, it was determined that the parking spots would be acceptable as long as a chain-link fence is constructed to match the rest of the fencing in the area. The motion was then unanimously approved and carried.
Odds and Ends
Council then heard a request for a building permit extension at 30 Briarfield Court to July 22, 2022. This request was unanimously approved and carried.
The summer schedule for council meetings was then amended. Normally council meets will continue to be held twice per month, but the decision was made to cancel the July 6 and August 3 meetings in consideration of the potential scheduling conflicts that may arise due to summer.
The cheque registry for the town brought forth a few questions. Most notably, there was discussion about a deposit for a Red River Cart display. Some local citizens donated money to the town for the purpose of purchasing and setting up a Red River Cart at the new Community Resource and Recreation Centre. Councillor Stott inquired as to why a cheque was drawn from the town’s account if the money had been donated. CAO King clarified that the funds had been donated, but then the cheque was written on the town’s account so the donors could receive give a tax receipt.
“We want to thank those individuals for their donation,” Mayor Myron Dyck said. “We think it will be a wonderful entrance piece to the site to preserve our heritage and how many people that settled Niverville generations ago came to be here.”
Continuing with the cheque registry, Councillor Stott asked about the approximately $18,000 cost for new radios for the fire department. CAO King revealed that approximately half of the old radios would be sold, but half of them would be kept by the town for communication with emergency services in case of cell phone outages, etc.
Mayor Dyck referenced an exercise that was done about a year ago to determine what would happen to town communication if cell towers went down in the case of an ice storm or other disruption. Two-way radios were determined to be the next best choice, and so Dyck, King, a member of public works, and Fire Chief Keith Bueckert all have radios in their homes in case of emergency.
Dyck mentioned that there is a third option in case of emergency. Ham radios can be set up at the town office as well, in case all else fails.