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Open house good opportunity for public |
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Wednesday, 12 September 2007 |
As readers will see, this week's issue focuses heavily on the town's most recent open house regarding the Alternative Services Delivery model for a new wastewater treatment plant.
In fact, four stories, and this editorial, are devoted to that very topic.
First thing comes first when discussing this topic - the town should be commended for hosting these open houses for the public.
Monday's event, which actually saw a pretty good turnout among Taberites, provided a large amount of information, and likely went a long way to answering, or in some cases, partially answering, most of the questions from the public.
Everyone, including EPCOR, the town, its consultants, the general public and even the town's lawyer, got to voice their opinion.
From financial figures to the historical account of how Taber reached this predicament and how it proposes to move forward, nearly every nook and cranny of the topic was touched upon.
The glaring question, however, seemed to be how the ASD model could be half as much as the traditional method, a question which was answered to some satisfaction Monday night.
The issue which seemed to bother people most focused on the inaction of previous town councils in coming up with a solution to the wastewater dilemma.
The fact Taber is staring down the barrel of a late-2008 deadline to get the wastewater treatment plant completed, certainly did not sit well with some.
A lesson should be learned from this for future town councils, that holding the line on taxes is fine, as it may earn a few more votes come election time. In the end though, tax increases are sometimes needed to fund important projects such as this, to build on reserves and maintain current facilities. Generally, if taxes are increased in incremental fashion, and with good, solid, reasoning, ratepayers will have little reason to gripe.
But however Taber got into this current predicament, the focus now must be on doing what is best for the town and its ratepayers.
To that end, it appears fairly certain the ASD model will indeed go ahead.
Unless there is significant and unrelenting public pressure between now and Oct. 15, it appears this issue will not be put to a plebiscite during the municipal election.
That, as the town's lawyer indicated, leaves citizens with one last battlefront. A petition could be launched when the town discusses a borrowing bylaw to obtain the funds to pay EPCOR.
At that point, according to the town's lawyer, a petition could force the issue to a vote.
With the timeline tight to negotiate and sign a contract with EPCOR, should that be the way the town goes, and to actually get the plant built, it would appear there may not be time to start the process all over again.
Unless another option can be discovered quickly to build and operate the wastewater treatment plant for a cost similar to what EPCOR is proposing, it may be time to bite the bullet on this one and move forward. |
