Developing an Airport Industrial Park

This morning, as the Grande Prairie Regional Airport cut the ribbon on it's recent expansion, candidate for Mayor Bill Given announced his intention to advocate for the development of an industrial park at the Grande Prairie airport.

“The Grande Prairie Regional Airport is a unique asset for our community and in terms of land development I believe it's currently under-utilized.” said Given, who has previously served as both a director and chair of the airport commission.

The $16.5 million dollars in recently completed renovations a the terminal building and parking facilities were a part of the airport's long-range development plan. The plan also envisions a commercial/industrial development on the west side of the property. This industrial park would offer close proximity to both highway 43 and the future provincial by-pass.

“On the airport lands we can offer businesses something not available anywhere else in the region; direct access to air transport service.” said Given. “I believe encouraging and supporting innovative development like this will add to the city's tax base and offer opportunities for new kinds of businesses.”

Given noted that such a development would be a longer term project that would require partnerships. “To be a success, developing these lands will take the airport commission, private industry and the city working together,” said Given “We need to start that process today.”

Road Closure – Poplar Drive

News Release September 15, 2010


Road Closure – Poplar Drive at 68 Avenue 




Motorists are advised that Poplar Drive will be closed on Thursday, September 16 and Friday, September 17.




This closure will impact traffic flow for drivers travelling on Poplar Drive near 68 Avenue, and traffic access to Poplar Drive from 68 Avenue.




Transit bus routes 1 and 2 through this area, will also be affected. The changes are as follows:




Route 1 – 131, M15 & 141;
A temporary stop replacing 141 will be placed westbound on 65 Avenue off Poplar Drive.
When the bus is headed south on Patterson Drive, it will turn west on 72 Avenue (rather than east) and cover the Country Club loop backwards; then turn west onto 65 Avenue, down 96 Street back onto 63 Avenue and onto the route as normal.




Route 2 – 221, 225, M15, 231, 251, 253, 257 & 263;
When the bus is travelling south on Poplar Drive, it will turn east on 76 Avenue to Resources Road, east to Countryside South and then returning to Resources Road to 76 Avenue and resume the route on Poplar Drive North.




“This closure is part of the asphalt paving at the intersection of Poplar Drive at 68 Avenue,” says Steve Kay, Project Engineer.  “As a result of this project the entire road width of Poplar Drive must be closed on these 2 days.”




“We thank motorists for their patience during the inconvenience as this work proceeds.”




—30—


Media enquiries may be directed to:

Steve Kay, P Eng
Project Engineer
780-513-5229

Building Relationships with Provincial Government

At the Grande Prairie airport this morning candidate for Mayor Bill Given announced that building relationships with the province would be a major focus for the city under his leadership.

“I believe that council needs to take an active role in lobbying the provincial government on behalf of our residents.” said Given. He noted that provincial government decisions can be positive in such areas as grants or can add additional expense to municipal budgets through increased regulations.

“When the province makes a decision we need them to know the impact it will have on our community.” stated Given. “I'm confident that we can do a better job of bringing our message to the provincial legislature.”

Given outlined a focused effort on building relationships with government officials through regular missions to the provincial capital. Given proposed that council should travel to Edmonton as a group at least twice a year to meet with government representatives.

“I feel as though we've been waiting for the province to come to us,” said Given “ and I know a more proactive approach is required to ensure our community's voice is heard at the provincial level.”

At the conclusion of the media event Given boarded a flight for Edmonton to make a presentation on behalf of the City of Grande Prairie to the provincial government's Standing Committee on Community Services. The committee is conducting hearings on proposed changes to the Municipal Government Act. More information on the committee hearings can be found here, the list of scheduled presenters can be found here and audio of the presentations is here.

Library Update - August 23rd, 2010

Automated Pick-Up Notification
If you currently receive a telephone call when your requested material is ready for pick-up you will now notice a difference as we have implemented our new automated telephone notification system! This new system will call you with a recorded message when your request has been processed and is ready for pick-up.

Staff at the Grande Prairie Public Library receive over 5000 items from other libraries each month for our patrons.

By switching to an automated service, we will be able to more quickly notify you that your item is available. Rather than wait to have a staff member call, your call will be generated as soon as the item is received at the Library.

For those that prefer, the option of receiving notifications by e-mail is still available.

Building Stories
Grande Prairie Public Library will be hosting the Prairie Art Gallery’s collection Building Stories for the entire month of September. This collection features Alberta artists’ works including local artists such as Euphemia McNaught and Peter von Tiesenhausen. The works will be displayed all over the Library as part of the Artwalk during Arts Days. Those who view the collection during the weekend of September 17-19 will be eligible to enter the Arts Days grand prize draw. Stop in and have a look!


Celebrate Alberta Arts Days
Prairie Tales 12 – Made in Alberta Movie Shorts
The Grande Prairie Public Library and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts are pleased to present Prairie Tales 12. Each year, Prairie Tales compiles a feature-length program of some of the best short films and videos made in Alberta during the last eighteen months.

Prairie Tales 12 features fourteen short works in all genres. Running time is 74 minutes.
Eric Becker, producer of Water Under the Bridges, one of the featured films, will introduce the Sunday screening.

Join us after the film as Eric shares his journey as a film maker in Alberta and the making of Water Under the Bridges.

Date: Friday, September 17
Time: 10:00 am and 3:00 pm

Date: Saturday, September 18
Time: 10:00 am

Date: Sunday, September 19
Time: 1:00 pm

Location: Rotary Community Room

Council Agenda for July 26th, 2010

A pretty short agenda for tonight's council meeting, but it does have at least two interesting items:

The first is item 9.2.1 from Public Works - awarding a tender for road repairs on 98th Street in front of City Hall at a cost of just over $1 million. This section of road is easily one of the worst in the city. this section of 98th hadn't been upgraded because (a) we knew that there would be changes needed to the intersection at the entrance to the Montrose Cultural Centre and (b) because we were waiting for the 101 Ave couplet to go ahead. Now that the Cultural Centre is up and the Wapiti Dorm is down it's time to do the upgrades... even tough the couplet may not go ahead for a year or two.

The second item of interest is from the General Government Services committee, item 9.3.2. This is a motion to change the title of "Alderman" to "Councillor". I support the change mostly because it brings us in to line with what is more common across the country. In fact, the term Alderman has been even dropped in the U.K. where our system of local government comes from. Although Alderman is an old term I don't believe there's any real historic attachment to it locally. On top of all those facts, the Municipal Government Act (the provincial law that governs how cities are run in Alberta) says this on the matter:

Titles of chief elected official and other councillors
155 A councillor is to have the title “councillor” and a chief elected official that of “chief elected official” unless the council directs that another title appropriate to the office be used.

So, even though we could choose to continue calling our council members "Aldermen" it seems more appropriate change to "Councillor".... unless we're going back to the days of The Men Who Run This Town


AGENDA FOR THE CITY OF GRANDE PRAIRIE COUNCIL MEETING JULY 26, 2010

1. CALL TO ORDER

2. NATIONAL ANTHEM

3. ADOPTION OF PREVIOUS COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

4. ADOPTION OF AGENDA

5. DELEGATIONS
5.1 Mr. P. Dumelie, CEO, Covenant Health, re: Alberta Hospital Edmonton Geriatric Psychiatry Program and Villa Caritas

6. PUBLIC HEARINGS
6.1 Bylaw C-1087-07, to Amend the Northeast Area Structure Plan (attached)

7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS

8. REPORTS

9. COMMITTEE BUSINESS
9.1 Council Committee of the Whole – July 12, 2010
Council receive the minutes of the Council Committee of the Whole meeting held July 12, 2010.

9.2 Public Works Committee – July 13, 2010
Council receive the minutes of the Public Works Committee meeting held July 13, 2010.
9.2.1 Tender T-32-552-10, 98 Street Upgrade (101 to 104 Avenue)
RECOMMENDA TION
Council approve Tender T-32-552-10, for the 98 Street Upgrades Project be awarded to Wapiti Gravel Suppliers (Division of N.P.A. Ltd.), in the amount of $1,025,918.25 (excluding GST), as the lowest tender meeting specifications, and further, that funding be allocated from the 98 Street Upgrade (101 to 104 Avenue) Capital Program.

9.3 General Government Services Committee – July 14, 2010
Council receive the minutes of the General Government Services Committee meeting held July 14, 2010.

9.3.1 Strategic Priorities Chart
RECOMMENDATION
Council approve the Strategic Priorities Chart.

9.3.2 Change Alderman Title to Councillor
RECOMMENDATION
Council approve the City of Grande Prairie change title of its eight members elected to City Council from Aldermen to Councillor effective at the October 2010 Organizational meeting.
(attached)

9.4 Community Development Committee – July 20, 2010
Council receive the minutes of the Community Development Committee meeting held July 20, 2010.

9.4.1Multiplex Community Advisory Committee Terms of Reference (attached)
RECOMMENDA TION
Council approve the Multiplex Community Advisory Committee Terms of Reference.

10. CORRESPONDENCE
10.1 Federation of Canadian Municipalities, re: 102 Street Revitalization Study Grande Prairie
(attached)

11. DELEGATION BUSINESS
12. NOTICES OF MOTION
13. COUNCIL MEMBER REPORTS

York Hotel Update

One of the hot topics out there as we head in to the fall election is the city's purchase of the York Hotel. As it turns out the hotel is on the agenda for our regular General Government Services committee meeting this Wednesday. Staff are bringing forward a simple report to update council on what will be happening with the property over the next while. The highlights:

Building Tenants
Mar 4th, City takes ownership of the hotel
Apr 7th, Residential tenants were gone
Jun 17th, Commercial tenants were gone

Timelines for demolition (estimated)
July 9th, Receive hazardous material identification report.
July 23rd, Tender Hazardous material removal contract
Aug 23rd, Award Hazardous material removal contract & tender Demolition contract
Sept 20th, Award Demolition contract
Nov 12th, Demolition complete

Costs to Date
Building purchase $1.1 Million
Operational costs since purchase $52,497.53
(Operational costs are mostly related to security & utilities. Security costs are down significantly since the tenants moved out.)

I know a lot of people who have been concerned that the building would sit as a boarded up eyesore down town and with that in mind I've been pushing to have this all happen as quickly as is reasonably possible. If everything goes according to the plan above I think it's fair to say that we've had a pretty rapid process & that will be good for downtown.

As for next steps... I believe we need to come up with a plan that will see a new building built on the site sooner, rather than later. I also think we need to do that in a coordinated fashion, rather than dealing with just this property in isolation from the rest of downtown. I believe we should be to open up the downtown enhancement plan and take a big picture look at the west end of the city's core because there are a lot of changes coming to that area in the next few years.

In addition to the changes at the York Hotel/Germain Park property, eventually the old Park Hotel will come down and the city will build the 101 Ave couplet that will cross through the area of the old Coca-Cola bottling plant. When you add all this up we have a chance to remake the face of our downtown, if we have a good plan that looks at everything together, rather than dealing with individual sections.

I would like to see more mixed use development (commercial on the bottom and residential or office on upper floors) in the downtown. I believe having more people live in the heart of the city adds life to the streets and provides a housing option that is in short supply in GP.

So this Wednesday we're getting an update on the work that's been done so far and what's coming up shortly & that all looks well in hand. Now I want to see us get started on where we're going to go in the long term.

Montrose Cultural Centre Recognized with Award

The architects of the Montrose Cultural Centre have been recognized with an award for their design of the building.

From Canadian Architect:

"Toronto-based Teeple Architects (in association with Kasian Architecture) received the 2010 Prairie Design Award of Excellence for the Montrose Cultural Centre in Grande Prairie, Alberta in the Recent Work category. The award celebrates “new standards in creativity and skill” and is presented every two years by the Alberta Association of Architects (AAA), the Saskatchewan Association of Architects (SAA) and the Manitoba Association of Architects (MAA). The Awards were presented at the kick-off to the RAIC/SAA Festival of Architecture in Saskatoon at the end of June."

Read the full article HERE.

Of course the real point of the building is how it's used and what it means to the community. The increased number of people getting library memberships, making visits the gallery and enjoying the space show the true value of the building - but, it's also nice to know that the great things we have here in GP are also recognized outside of our city.