Smooth Sailing For Last Council Meeting of 2025
Coun. Brian Varga reflecting the festive season with a Christmas-themed suit during Monday’s council meeting. (CMH)
It was a smooth and quick meeting for city council Monday evening with ratification of a new police contract, finalization of the approval of utility rate increases and rezoning of a couple of properties.
The regular council meeting stood in stark contrast to the lengthy meetings held over the past two years which featured incidents of dysfunction up until the election and detailed updates following it with Monday’s business completed in under two hours.
While Monday’s meeting differed in many ways, some of the nagging issues which have come before council continued.
Categorization of small businesses which briefly exceed electricity usage thresholds that result mid-commercial rates being applied was raised by Micheal Reid, owner of Yoga Revolution.
“When small businesses are being categorized as medium commercial due solely to short, momentary demand spikes, it becomes highly relevant,” said Reid, noting it can add 20 per cent or more to utility bills, higher than large commercial operations. “It raises legitimate questions of fairness, proportionality and alignment with economic development goals.”
The comments came during the open hearing on utility rate schedule changes required due to budget amendments approved during the last council meeting.
Council passed the bylaw amendment but promised to look at the issue again in the future.
City police were granted a raise of 11 per cent over three years following council’s vote ratifying the agency’s contract which had expired at the end of 2024.
The issue of extending the Rotary Centennial Trail from Desert Blume to Canyon Creek will likely face more scrutiny in the new year from at least once council member. (File Photo)
The contract required council to dip into its operating reserves to fund the increase for this year and next due to the last budget predicting 2.5 per cent for 2025-2026.
Coun. Brian Varga brought up the issue of design work for the Heron Crossing/Canyon Creek multi-use trail indicating he’d like to see the project postponed until sub-division development is built out to the community.
“I’d love to see we don’t do it until a development is finished just for the reasons of where do we put the trail,” Varga commented to council.
The issue had been bounced back and forth between committees and council since 2024, eventually landing with a proposal to conduct a $70,000 design for the trail. The public services committee heard they will require an additional $14,000 for that work with the unbudgeted project estimated to cost around a million dollars.
Council heard a budget amendment will be forth coming sometime before the end of March with further discussions available at that time.
The next council meeting is scheduled for Jan. 6 2026.