Council Debrief: A Celebration of Successes

In the first part of our debrief this week, councillor reports give us a good cross-section of what different organisations in the area are working on. One particularly interesting tidbit was that the local physician recruitment team has made contact with a group of international medical doctors and internationally trained nurses, and are working with them to get the necessary credentials to begin working in our region.

Director of Operations Denis Saquet was pleased to be able to report on the success of the operation over the May long weekend to connect the new reservoir to the local water system.
As well, the new RCMP local headquarters is nearly finished and has received the seal of approval from officers stationed locally. It is expected that they will move into the facility within the month.

For two consecutive weekends in June, the town has approved the temporary closure of portions of Mountain Avenue and Hamilton Street for parades. The First is on June 18th for Filipino Heritage month, and the second is on June 25th for the Class of 2022 Graduation parade. They also approved the use of Riverbend Park for the fireworks display on Canada Day this year.

We finish out the first half of the Council meetings with a pair of subdivision requests, one of which is routine and the other which might be anything but.

It involved a rezoning of a 39-acre parcel of land just east of Broadway Avenue and Riverbend Campground from residential hold property to industrial development. At this point this is speculation and no announcement has been made, however this matches almost exactly the needs set out for the development of the new hospital and medical centre. In a statement given to the Neepawa Banner and Press, Mayor Blake McCutcheon said,

“The Province, Town of Neepawa and capital health planning teams are working with local landowners to establish a site for the new hospital. Technical due diligence is being completed and a detailed planning process is underway to confirm the availability and configuration of the site. When this process is complete and approval of the sale is finalized, more information will be available.”

Also covered in this half of the meeting were a BPSD grant to Riverside cemetery, the regular financial report, staff training request, a budgeted vehicle purchase, a pay increase for officials in this year’s municipal election, a grant for the Storefront Improvement Program, a mileage increase for town staff, and a policy to codify the notification procedures that took place when the town was connecting the new water line.