Mayor’s Message – August 22, 2022
It has certainly been a busy summer in our community; having things fully opened up following Covid protocols is certainly a breath of fresh air. Connecting with people again is awesome. Your council and staff have been busy dealing with community matters and I want to take this opportunity to share a few “tidbits” of information with the community about happenings and initiatives that are on the go.
In no particular order-
– It was great to celebrate the financial payoff of the Waterpark Improvement Project that was complete in 2014. It was also a great way to celebrate and honour long serving volunteer Virginia Kreklevich by declaring a special day at the water park in her honour from now on, annually! Well done to all who made this project possible, what a great asset to Foam Lake.
– Building relationships with our neighbours in Fishing Lake First Nations, Wynyard and Wadena has been on our agenda a few times this summer. First with a tri-town meeting (Wynyard, Wadena and Foam Lake), then with a Mayors, Chief and MLA meeting in Wadena, followed by a meeting at Fishing Lake with community members and Health Authority reps to talk about Mental Health and Addictions Services and then just last week our MLA Hugh Nerlein and Premier Scott Moe met with us as Mayors and Chief again to talk about community issues with health care and discussing future directions for us towards solving staff shortages and service interruptions!
– Our CAO Joleen Tuchscherer attended Premier Moe’s Town Hall meeting in Kelvington and hand delivered our town letters to the Premier and our MLA advocating for action on getting health care positions filled towards normal levels of service at our Health Centre and Jubilee Special Care Home. We ask you as citizens to all send letters as well (letters for you to sign and send can be obtained by calling the town office or checking online)
– The Town provided facilitation support at a meeting for our local business community to get organized and help form an organization in the community that would represent and be a voice for business. Watch for more details soon on this initiative.
– Our staff and employees have been at the Tuesday Market in the Park connecting with people and asking for your opinions on the soon to be developed sport activity court in Ralls Park, as well as simply promoting our great community. Look for the people with I LOVE FOAM LAKE buttons on at the market!
– We held the official opening of the new play equipment in the Northside Playground. What a great new addition to promote children play AND another wonderful asset to the community. Kudos to our staff and volunteers who all helped to make this happen!
-The newly formed Cemetery Committee toured the cemetery a few weeks ago and discussed clean up issues as well as revitalization and beautification of this ever-important place of honour and remembrance in our community. Watch for details
-It was great to sit down and have lunch with our new RCMP Sargent Shannon Brouwer. Mayor STC and CAO Joleen took the opportunity to meet with Shannon and talk about our policing and working relationship. Sgt Brouwer is the head of the Wadena/Foam Lake detachment and transferred here from her last posting in Swift Current. Welcome Shannon.
– Access Communication did about an interview on community news with Mayor STC. This was an opportunity to let others know about the current happenings in Foam Lake and will be aired soon.
– The damaged shingles pile at our transfer station grows bigger, mainly due to the repairs from last year’s hailstorm. The Town has contracted services to have them hauled away, the nails removed, and then the shingles shredded and crushed; the resulting crushed product is returned to Town where the Public Works crews are testing out the recycled shingles as a dust suppressant on some non-paved roads. Stay tuned for reports later on how this works out.
– Sask. Highways just announced highway work, in the form of Highway 16 passing lanes, to be done from Saskatoon to Dafoe (some of this has already been done) and from Springside to the Manitoba border. Following up with Sask. Highways, we learned the 150 km stretch of highways from Dafoe to Springside has no plans for passing lanes. When questioned, the response from Sask. Highways was that the vehicle numbers did not warrant work on this stretch of highway 16. Mayor STC and Council have contacted MLA Hugh Nerlien on this matter and will be questioning the lack of safety passing lanes further. We will also be contacting the Northeast Transportation Association to advocate in this issue.
– The issue of provision of necessary supports to older adults and adults that may be at special risk in our community has been on the agenda and a focus group spearheaded by our Leisure Services Board has been meeting to discuss positive actions to improve supports for our older citizens.
– Are you interested in serving on Town Council? The call for nominations for a by-election to fill a vacant council seat has been posted. For more information on council roles and responsibilities contact the Town Office or have a chat with myself, or any member of Council. The term will be for approx. 2 years until the next general election for council positions in 2024. Think about it. What can you contribute?
– We gathered as a Town Council and Staff to honour our long serving now retired Public Works Foreman Bob Reynolds on Aug 14 at the Foam Lake Golf Club. Some golf, a great meal and speeches with gift presentation to Bob for his 42 years of service took place. Co-workers, Council, friends and family were all present to say, “Well done Bob and thanks!”
– Town Council is very pleased to have signed the completed joint Emergency Measures Organization agreement with our Rural Municipality of Foam Lake #276. This is a great step forward to coordinating our emergency resources and responses.
– The new speed signs on Highway 16 through Foam Lake have been installed and seem to be quite effective in reminding us all to slow down to the posted limits through town!
– The cheque presentation for the newly installed digital x-ray machine at our Foam Lake Health Centre Lab took place with local Health Foundation members, Town Council, Government and SHA reps. This is a very proud moment for securing diagnostics services for our community. Well done Foam Lake Health Foundation Members!
The wheels of local government do not take the summer off. It is full speed ahead with projects and services for our community and our Council and myself want to acknowledge our hard working managers and staff for keeping our community “The Best Place in The World to Live!”
Till next time,
Mayor STC
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