If you just want to send me your thoughts or comments without specific reference to a blog post, click on the COMMENTS button and enter your information. When you are finished, I will receive a notification and review your input.
Mayor Mulligan
41 comments:
how wonderful to see and witness public tree and shrub plantings, so far along College Drive! hurrah and ......
two thumbs up for the administration. Looking forward to the continuation of boulevard plantings throughout the city.
We are settingup and Airport Advisory Committee and I will be sure to bring your ideas forward for a restaurant & retail services in the area. I will review future options in this regard with our planning team, as well.
Curious as to how the city justifies terminating the services of Bea Fisher in the area of blue box pick up and gives it to a firm outside of our city. Thus by doing so costing jobs for several people who are challenged to find other employment. Since we will be paying more for this service i can not see how this could be happening. I truely beleive the residents would not be happy with what is happening in this regard as it is a awesome program that Bea Fisher has going in our community and needs the total support and assistance of our city and our mayor. It doesn`t need to have its services ended in some avenues and then be done by a firm from Edmonton.
Anonymous - re: Bea Fisher Recycling Contract
Thank you for raising this discussion point. If you refer to the December 13, 2011, Lloydminster Source, the lead story accurately captures the circumstances and events that have lead to a partnership with an alternate supplier of service.
The Bea Fisher Management contacted the City of Lloydminster Management and advised the City they could no longer perform the function and were desirous of early termination of their agreement. Basically, with no staff to perform the job, and several weeks of missed obligations, they were hopeful that we could find a solution that would permit them to play a role in the sorting end of the function, however, it was clear to everyone involved that this was not viable.
As for loss of jobs, that is incorrect. All curb side recycling personnel will be accommodated by the new provider of service, should they wish to continue. The cost of the service to the City is exactly the same as what we were paying Bea Fisher, except, we (City) do not have to pay for the equipment or an operating shortfall which was routinely in excess of $200,000/annum. As such, the increase on utility bills was driven in large part to cover existing costs and has absolutely nothing to do with a change of vendors. When the decision on fees/rates was made, we projected this service to be completed by the Bea Fisher group until the end of the contract in 2013.
Bea Fisher will continue on an interim basis to handle the commercial recycling, and we are working with a local company to perhaps take this on in the new year.
So, in short, this was Bea Fisher's decision, due to a lack of employees to meet their contractual obligations. This was not initiated by the City.
The Bea Fisher has always had, and continues to have the full support of the City of Lloydminster. Any other claim is erroneous. As far as curbside recycling being done by a Lloydminster company; no company has built the capacity at this time. The contract will be tendered in 2013, at which time any qualified vendor can submit a proposal.
Mayor Mulligan
Thank you for your response and for bring to the forefront some tangibles not considered. I have been a citizen of Lloydminster and just hate the idea of anything being done by out of town firms if we are capable of doing it within our boundarys. Thank you for your time, appreciated.
Will the city be expanding bicycle trails in the near future? If you look at other similar cities in Alberta such as Leduc, Grande Prairie, etc. I think you'd find they have many, many times more biking paths than Lloyd. For example:
http://www.leduc.ca/Assets/Departments/GIS+Assets/Multiway+Map.pdf
Compare this to the official Lloydminster cycling map... which appears to be from the early 1980s (can't believe this is still in use)
http://www.lloydminster.ca/docs/rec/cycling.pdf
In a city such as Leduc, it's entirely feasible to travel virtually the entire city on bike paths.
Even worse, the few trails Lloydminster has are rarely coordinated. They are disjointed, sparse, and are generally just brief spurts here and there. There's very few trails that a person could use to pleasantly travel from one part of town to another.
Is this something the city hopes to target soon? I'm an avid cyclist and it's very disappointing my cycling options are limited to Bud Miller Park and on roadways (a death wish).
re: Bicycle and Walking Trails
I couldn't agree with your assessment more. The City Management and City Council have identified this area for attention within our near term plans, but more importantly, it his been highlighted in the new e4 Comprehensive Municipal Development Plan.
The areas nearest Bud Miller All Seasons Park, designed by Musgrave Developments have demonstrated how we should be proceeding, and our new Colonial Park Development Plans, jointly developed with City Planning staff also do a pretty good job, in this area.
The City needs to move in this direction. Thank you for your encouragement and input.
Mayor Mulligan
RE: School taxes
Hi Mayor Jeff,
Would you please explain what the "Seamless Education Delivery" mill rate is for?? In the Booster {Jan 18} it states " to guarantee the delivery of all programs to all students attending school in Lloydminster"
What programs are these??
The education mill rate has not been confirmed for 2012...so another increase?? Yes most likely!!
Thanks for your time,
Here is the response I received from our General Manager, Planning with respect to Bicycle & Walking paths...
Hi Jeff,
The planning staff here are aware of the benefits and the increased quality of life that bicycle paths and linear multi-use trails contribute to a community and neighbourhood. The Municipal Development Plan (Draft) will be released to the public for review and comments in the next few weeks. Within this document there are policies that speak to integrating more paths for recreational activities such as biking. I would like to share a few policies that the planning and development staff must up hold when reviewing future community plans prior to development, they are as follows:
11.1.1 Parks and Open Space Needs Assessment and Master Plan
The City of Lloydminster – should complete and adopt the Parks and Open Space Needs Assessment and Master Plans as may be updated and revised from time to time as a basis for future parks planning and development standards.
11.1.2 Trail Development
Should have parks, natural areas, school sites, recreation and cultural facilities in a pattern that provides for connectivity to a continuous City wide system of trails and greenways
11.1.3 Developer’s Responsibilities for Greenway Development
The City of Lloydminster shall require developers to identify locations for parks and interconnecting trail alignments dedicate land and contribute to the construction of inter-connected greenways and trails.
In addition to these proposed policies within our Municipal Development Plan (Draft). We have already implemented linear parks and multi-use trails in planned residential neighbourhoods. Such examples can be found in Colonial Park and Parkview Estates. More specifically, Colonial Park is estimated to have 2.6 km of multi-use trails in linear parkways within the new proposed development area. We will ensure by way of future policies and general responsible planning that we continue to provide multi-use trails and linear parks when reviewing neighbourhood plans.
Regards,
Trisha Vilaykham
General Manager, Planning and Development
Infrastructure Services - City of Lloydminster
re: School Taxes:
Thanks for your question. The Lloydminster school system is administered by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education, however, they only fund an equivalent amount to the students domiciled in Sask. As we know, this is approximately 33%. Alberta funds the students in Alberta, based on a requisition agreeement, and when they initiate a new program funding is only provided for the number of Alberta domiciled students. In each case, our School Divisions are required to deliver any such curriculm or programs to 100% of the students, with only 66% or 33% of the funds provided.
After a 2011 Education Summit in Lloydminster, we were permitted to leverage the Lloydminster Charter, to ensure that the school divisions did not have to take money/funds from other areas to equitably fund SK or AB initiatives, using the Seamless Education levy to ensure these programs were funded for all Lloydminster students.
This does not represent an increase in taxation 2012 over 2011, however, it does move this taxation from Education to Municipal rolls.
Mayor Mulligan
As a regular swimmer attending the public pool, I find it difficult at best to participate in lane swimming when the pool is so crowed and over booked all the time.
We need an additional lane pool in this city!
Re: Lane Pool
The City could not afford a new lane pool as an additional facility, based on usage and growth estimates for the next 10 years. We do, however, need to evaluate the useful life and refurbishment of the current Leisure Centre facility as part of the Bud Miller All Seasons Park Re-Development project.
Thanks for your comments specifically about lane swimming use. I will review this with our City Manager and his team.
Mayor Mulligan
With regards to the pool talk, is there any plans in place for a future outdoor pool. The current one is very busy in the summer, and is starting to show its age. wouldnt it be great to develop different green spaces in lets say college park or even at bud miller with a new outdoor pool?
John: (re: Outdoor Pool)
Thanks for the input and insight.
We do not have a new outdoor pool on the current capital project list. We do have park and facility improvements on the plan for the existing pool. Our first priority this season is to install the new water play park at Bud Miller All Season's Park to replace the facility that has ostensibly been closed for the past 2 years and was deemed unsafe.
We know that we are not far away from a major expenditure on the Leisure Centre Wave and Lane Pools, as well.
We will keep your comments in mind as we make plans for the future.
A new lane pool is required! The pool is always over booked and at times, families chose not to go swim because it is overbooked. A new building is not required.... a new addition to the current pool with a new (second) lane pool is!!!
I agree. The pool situation is a little dire. Over crowding and preferential treatment is causing backlogs of people when the free times or organized times occur. I am sure the cost of an addition would be very expensive, but since the free time activities in this city are limited, this should take some sort of priority.
I know our population base is not even close to the levels of Calgary and Edmonton but im just curious if the city has plans to develop a "circle" drive. the anthony henday and stoney trail are very affective in there purpose. I know we kind of have a "loop" with Meridian Ring Road (brutal name by the way) but is it actually gonna be developed into a non-stop continuos road (eg speed curves, not right angle corners) I think the main knock on our city is that our roads aren't up to the amount of traffic we have (highway 17 should be 4 lanes, college drive should be 4 lanes)i think its time to actually plan ahead and improve our city!
I have now been a resident of Lloydminster for 10 years. In the last few years I have seen a definite improvement in the quality of service provided by City Hall. The attitudes of the employees and the positive feeling I see there are a huge improvement. I would like to thank Mayor Mulligan and Glenn Carroll for the awesome job they have done for this city over the past few years. This year is an election year and I'm hoping to see Jeff reelected so that he can complete the projects that have already been started. I think one more term in office will cement how much he feels for Lloydminster and remove any doubt about his vision. To those who have been knocking him, I would like to see you step in his shoes for even a day and do a better job!!! Instead of complaining about what you don't feel is being delivered to you personally by City and Council, why not try coming up with a solution? Anyone with a voicebox or a computer can complain. Complaining is easy....it's the solutions that take all the hard work.
Just sayin'.........
I certainly appreciate the positive support and your comments about encouraging folks to work alongside their local government to bring innovative and positive solutions to our City. I will be making my decision about another term in the next 4-6 weeks, so your "Comment" (Anonymous) was most timely.
Mayor Mulligan
Jeff, I didn't know where to leave this concern,so thought I'd leave it here to start. It seems the city doesn't have any bylaws regarding the keeping of mid to full size dogs, such as purebreed boxers,dobermins, etc. I have a neighbour that has two of these. Now normally a person would keep them in a properly fenced back yard or tied up in the back yard as well(when left outside). Well these people are from out east and seem to think a little 3ft. high front yard fence will keep these dogs in. They aren't tied up and don't have a collar or license either. Dogs don't normally bother me, but these dogs jump out, go for a quick run around until the owners relize their missing. Now for the reason of their being kids in the neighbourhood that play outdoors quite a bit in the warmer months, this could become a problem. Also the yard is completly covered in you know what, and even now when it warms up, you can smell it a yard away. When asked, they reply their is no laws against this as they have checked and their dogs natuarlly won't hurt anyone. Could we setup a new bylaw stating dogs must be kept in the backyards of the property owners with a proper 5 or 6ft. high fence as well(when left outside). This would keep them under control when outside of the home as they should be restrained and collared and licensed anyways, it would also keep unsightly messes out of the view of everyone else from the street. Thanks, and here is hoping this can be corrected and put in the papers to notify people once done.
I would like to see traffic lights at the intersection of College Drive and 53 Ave. There have been too many accidents at that corner. First of all, the traffic on College Drive is often going faster than 60 Km and needs to be slowed down. Second, there are many beginning drivers who feel pressure to cross that road as the traffic line grows behind them. I phoned 2 years ago and was told lights would be installed in 2012. The situation has not improved! It is a dangerous corner and needs immediate attention.
Sincerely,
Lyn Namur
I read with interest of the recent proclamation of Transgender Awareness Week, in the Source.
I forwarded the item to some of my contacts, and our responses have been uniformly in favour of the spirit of the proclamation, and of the inclusive sentiments expressed by Mayor Mulligan. People referred to the situation as "refreshing good news".
The experience in Winnipeg and other cities is that once supportive professional organizations are created, that the number of transgendered people served in practice almost always far exceeds the highest planning estimates.
The proclamation has brought a new awareness of Lloydminster far beyond your immediate area, and I for one hope that I might someday visit.
Regards,
SLM
Lyn Namur:
Thanks you for your comments. I will forward your comments and inquiry to our Engineering and Transportation Team for follow-up. I am unaware of any near term plans to place a traffic light at the intersction at College Drive and 53 Avenue, however, this could be something they are working on.
re Dog Control & Bylaws:
Thank you for your input and comments. We are committed to reviewing our bylaws on a regular cycle and will ensure your input is considered as we re-visit both the Dog By-law and our resultant enforcement.
Lyn Namur:
Here is the information from our Engineering Team here at City Hall..
Thank you for your concern for traffic lights at the intersection of College Drive and 53 Avenue. Every year the City completes a review of traffic volumes in various locations throughout the City. In review of these volume counts, intersections are analyzed for potential traffic control changes. Analysis of last year’s traffic volume information has not been completed as of yet, but we will make sure that this intersection is looked at and see if it warrants a change in traffic control. Additionally, the City receives the traffic accident data from both provincial governments. This data should be available soon and will be used as well in our analysis of intersections within the City.
If warranted, this will be added to the overall capital project list and prioritized accordingly for future budgets.
I will forward your concern for speeding on College Drive to Protective Services as part of their enforcement program.
Terry Burton, P.L.(Eng), R.E.T.
General Manager, Engineering Services
City of Lloydminster
Ahh...Spring is here again, along with all the dust, gravel an grime that comes and goes with the winter months on our city streets. So as a avid motorcycle enthusiast I was just wondering when the street sweeping and washing of downtown and highways 17 and 16 thru town will start taking place? Hopefully not to long,thanks again for this forum, tho it seems a little harder to find now.
Was reading some of the other peoples comments and anwsers here, once I found your comment area, seems a little hidden from view now. As usual traffic and road way issues take precedent here as in most community forums.I did like the recent one about dog restrictions and bylaws, and I have to agree this should be looked at soon, as this a more frequent problem than it used to be with our ever ending transient population,please bring about a change in the bylaws for the better soon, thanks so much for your forum.
Should be easier to find the COMMENT Page now. For soem reason, as you switch formatted templates and try to keep the look fresh, tabs, menus, etc., sometimes are arbitrarily moved by the "editor" software.
Can't guarantee it won't move again, but we will keep an eye on it.
Mayor Mulligan
Street Cleaning:
We were all set to go just prior to the snowfall two weeks ago. Watch our website,Facebook, and Twitter feeds to receive regular updates.
Mayor Mulligan
I just want to echo Anonymous' comments--last year if I recall street cleaning wasn't done until late June. A clean, beautiful city starts with clean streets and I do not think this has been a priority for the city in the past.
It would be nice to see at least twice annual street cleaning, especially on the major arteries. North Battleford cleans the streets twice a month.
I hope the city can find the funds to ramp up the cleaning.
Was wondering if the highway, truck route signage as proposed last year, is any closer to becoming a reality? The overhead big green signs as are in other city's would certainly help out the out of town motorists and new locals as well with getting around our fair city. Also in the not to distant future, are we going to start policing big rigs to try an keep to our truck routes or 16, as all other areas of town simply aren't made traffic wise, for thier use. Maybe get back on the Sask. and Alta. governments to get our bypass built sooner than later...
Hi
just wanted to comment or enquire on few concerns. Weaver park seems the most inaccessible park and has been getting worse over the years.
I was very dissapointed after the latest new fence was installed and the tree pathway barricaded last year i believe. just a few days ago while walking along the fence since there is no park path it was sad to see yet more trees cleared and natural area ruined. It often seems that there is a rush to clear bush out of that park and out of the city, we don't have may nice area's and they take so long to develop here should there not be better consideration? Also seen opposite kings husky that trees were cleared there. If Weaver truly is a park how come it is so hard to get in, walk through. If were to take note from places like sherwood park at least there would be a nice path along the new fence or something.(and it would be cleared in the winter)
For highway traffic flow what is ever going to be done to remove oversized curbs that reduce turning lanes or at least install some larger turning lanes at instersections if not getting to widening the hole hwy south of arby's?
Tim:
Preserving our urban forest is an important priority for Council and Staff and we appreciate you providing us with information that may assist with this process. Our current procedure is to remove trees only if they are in poor condition or present a hazard.
The trees in question were inspected because of reported dead fall. It was determined that over 90% of the trees were dead and that they should be removed to minimize the fire hazard.
We have partnered with one of the major financial institutions in Lloydminster to re-plant the buffer of trees this fall.
We have fenced the the Weaver house and Heritage village for two reasons: 1) to reduce the constant vandalism to the properties, and 2) to restrict access to areas where hazards may exist.
The management team is working toward a solution to allow possible access to the Weaver house later this spring.
In regards to your question about highway traffic flow, the one-way coupling of Highway 17 will control the flow of traffic. The plan includes turning 50 and 49 avenue into one-way traffic in either direction from just north of 44 street to just south of 62 street.
Thank you again for bringing your concerns forward. To keep updated on what’s happening at the City or to view our future planning please visit our new website at http://www.lloydminster.ca/list.aspx
Its easy to critize and say different things but as a younger adult who grew up in lloydminster i say you have done a hell of a job, and i hope you will be our mayor for many years to come. Good job Jeff!
Any plans in the future for a new convention/community center. The exhibition renos are nice, but i have seen the newer regional center in vermilion and it is way better than anything we have in lloyd. Id love to see a new place like that maybe incorporated in to bud miller park development. Any thoughts?
Ryan:
Great question...I have long been a proponent of a new Event Centre and it will take a few years from concept to completion, so we need to start talking seriously about this, soon.
As this year has moved along, though, I am beginning to wonder about some sort of a SUPER Centre that would bring together many of the facility needs we have on the near-mid term horizon and place them under one roof, so to speak. Clearly, this would not be a fit for the Bud Miller Park, based on our recent study and research about the use of the park.
A structure and centre like this would need acres of parking, easy access routes and an ability for traffic to disperse in multiple directions, not impact residential neighbourhoods to any great degree and afford the flexibility required for a broad range of uses and hours.
Our e4 plan calls for the development of an entertainment district idea, perhaps north of the golf course lands, which may be the place for something like this. Great question and great idea... We will have to see if this moves forward, and what shape it takes in the coming years.
Mayor Mulligan
Myself and my family enjoyed spending time at bud miller park this weekend, we were discussing the future plans of the park and came to disagreement over whether it will be expanded. Is the size of the park settled? or will it be expanded in the future?
Morning Mr. Mulligan. I was wondering if city council has been aware of, or pondering already the idea of putting up a "no Jake breaking" sign on 12th street by the multiplex. there are a lot of truckers taking this road and more and more are driving through the night. For all home owners in that area it is very annoying to be woken up to that sound. I dont know what it is but it seems to echo quite clearly across that area. further west on 12th street a local farmer has made his own sign by the looks of it and it is probably respected. I would imagine sooner or later the development is going to be in full effect and homes will be running along side of 12th street and this topic would be taken more seriously. I'm just trying to jump the gun and get something rolling. I mean it's just a sign right so it could be worth a shot to try out. Thanks.
Barb: re: Bud Miller All Seasons Park Size or expansion?
The park is a nature gem for the City of Lloydminster that requires regualar maintenance and upgrading. We have a capital project list of more than $8 Million to address over the next many years. The park size is not under review as we determined it to be more than appropriate during recent studies. Keeping it in pristine natural condition is the challenge, while upgrading facilities within the park area.
In short, the City of Lloydminster does not have any plans to increase the park size.
Jake Brakes? Good question, I will send this on to our Traffic Engineers for review and consideration. Makes good sense to me and it may well already be in their plans.
Mr. Mayor, and city councilmen. Here is a thought towards getting the washboards out of traffic intersections, using the idea of concreate/ashpalt before the intersections, use them in them, and out each way about 50-60 meters? The 62nd ave/44thst one the one at 52nd ave and 44thst, 50thave and 44thst and maybe a couple downtown, say 50th and 50th and another at 48th st and 50thave? These seem to work very well on the highway thru town, so lets modify their usage and have a few more of them? just a thought on preserving our roads...
Post a Comment