Eckville Town Council met for its scheduled bi-weekly meeting on Mon., Oct. 22.
The session featured an organizational meeting where Colleen Ebden was re-elected deputy mayor for the next year.
There was no changes made to board appointments. Board meetings will still be held at 6 p.m. every Monday.
During the regular council meeting, Council made the motion to accept the Terms of Reference for The Town of Eckville 100th Anniversary Committee with no changes.
Council will now be looking to populate the committee over the next month or so.
Members will be appointed for a term of approximately three years ending in Dec. 2021. It will be made up of seven people who will be in charge of planning a celebration for the Town of Eckville’s 100th Anniversary on Nov. 3, 2021.
“The Council will appoint the chair and the committee members, so basically we’ll see what we have and then go to Council and they can make the decision,” said Town of Eckville CAO Jack Ramsden of the selection process.
The Town will also be selecting a new Director of Emergency Management (DEM).
The Town will be paying an honorarium for this position for the first time starting at around $600 a month.
Ramsden says he hopes the honorarium helps to recruit the right person and that they are hoping to secure someone fairly quickly.
“I’m not saying it’s a lot, but it’s more than doing it for nothing, which it was in the past,” explained Ramsden.
Ramsden added they will be looking at applicant’s qualifications, sort of like a resume, during the selection process. The selection will be made by himself and the mayor, and then it will be ratified by Council.
“It’s a very powerful position in emergencies, so depending on the training of the individual that we have, and I’m hopeful that we’ll gave several people interested, so there will likely be some training required depending upon who we select,” continued Ramsden.
On Monday Council also motioned to increase the Employee Wage Grid three per cent effective Jan. 1.
This increase is based on the Statistics Canada Consumer Price Index which increased 3.1 per cent from Oct. 2017 to Oct. 2018. The increase will be applied to Council and staff.
Council also had a discussion regarding redoing the garbage and recycling contract, but no decision was reached.
Ramsden said they will be getting to it by the end of December and will hopefully see a new contract in the new year.
The next Town Council meeting will be Nov. 13 at 6 p.m.