Maintaining Municipal Services during COVID-19 Outbreak: As this situation evolves, we will post ongoing updates with information on how we will maintain municipal services and proceed with work in the County and from our office, facilities or off-site. Foothills County Council and Staff will continue to interact with residents and provide services, community water and wastewater, fire department response and road maintenance. Links to trusted resources for accurate up-to-date information will also be shared on our website.
In recent years, we have gained experience from dealing with emergencies of flood, fire and storms. In this case, we are watching daily to consider our next steps. We are learning from other countries about what they wish they would have done sooner to flatten the curve of the corona virus outbreak. Foothills County is responding to Alberta Health Services’ guidance on COVID-19, with a focus on protecting people’s health, keeping essential services flowing and business and supply chains open. We are allowing the opportunity for staff to work remotely when possible. At this time, we have implemented closure of recreation facilities and some county buildings to the public, while staff remain on to keep up maintenance. We are considering closing our office to the public. Please check for updates.
While we hope these collective measures will provide a different outcome than other countries ahead of us on the timeline, we remain optimistic in our resiliency. Many suggestions are being shared about supporting organizations facing loss of business or people facing illness. Let’s be creative in our ideas on how to support each other. We are grateful for those who are acting to keep others safe during this uncertain time.
Some thoughts for consideration: stay informed in order to make best decisions and keep perspective on actual information coming out of Alberta, guard your sleep, make healthy diet and life choices to keep your immune system charged-up, consider a positive approach to help you manage, protect yourself and others (especially health-vulnerable people) by your choices to not share your company in person, reach out to others for support – just not in person as much, at this time. We can all play a role to reduce the risk and prevent the spread of this virus.
Updates to Foothills County status will be placed on our website: https://mdfoothills.com
If you need information about your file or project, please contact Foothills County:
General Phone: 403.652.2341
Email your Foothills County staff directly.
Questions regarding Foothills County Emergency Management: 403.603.3557
After hours emergencies regarding Public Works services: 1.888.808.3722
Volunteer Firefighters needed: Foothills County is looking for Volunteer Firefighters to serve the Priddis area and other areas in the County. If you are interested, please contact our Fire Chief: Rick.Saulnier@FoothillsCountyAB.ca
Finalizing this year’s Budget, now that we have provincial numbers: Our Council has committed to a zero-increase budget with no decrease
to service levels, at least as far as the County is concerned. We are facing losses and changes including new policing costs, an education tax increase, Calgary Metro Region Board costs, inter- municipal planning costs, oil and gas industry defaults
upcoming property tax notices, we want residents to know what you’re paying, so we will clearly identify all the expenses being charged by the Province, separated out from what’s being charged by the County. Regarding these Provincial numbers, we also get it, that we need to deal with the mega-debt (left to us by the previous government), deficit, and learning how to run this province in all economic times. We recently heard some good news, in March, that Alberta Education is spending money in Foothills County on the refurbishment of the Blackie School project, a very welcome surprise.
Save the Date (maybe): This may be dreaming, but the County and special guests were planning to hold an event??? Just in casetheworldisinadifferentplacebyMay, we would like to bring in the experts and hold an info session and discussion on May 11, 2020, about “living with wildlife, with a focus on elk”. Look for the May edition of this HCN publication where I will confirm whether the event is a go or not. If the May date does not work out, we will reschedule later in the year, since this topic is of interest to many people.
Best Regards,
Councillor Suzanne Oel
For Other News & Updates:
Please visit my website: suzanneoel.com
www.facebook.com/councillorSuzanneOel
