The County of Stettler hosted the grand opening of its new Public Works Facility on Thursday, July 20.
More than 650 taxpayers from Stettler and surrounding area attended the occasion, and were treated to a barbecue lunch.
Guests were also taken on guided tours of the facility.
After lunch, at 12:30 p.m. there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony, where Reeve Wayne Nixon thanked everyone involved and called upon MLA Rick Strankman and the project manager on the job, Scott Builders’ Brent Remyn to say a few words.
There was also a time capsule prepared, which was buried on the ground of the facility by the councillors. It included a current photo of the County of Stettler council; County of Stettler flag; County of Stettler toque and pin; Canada 150 flag and commemorative pin; ‘Our Canada’ magazine; a photo of the old county shop and photos during the move in June of 2017; invitation to the grand opening; County’s ‘Connections’ magazine; 2017 Royal Canadian coin collection; current County of Stettler map; photos of the County of Stettler equipment fleet; Stettler Independent newspaper edition of July 20, 2017; information on the Canada 150 design contest winning logo; list of all the County of Stettler staff, consisting of administration, Stettler and District Ambulance Association and Stettler Waste Management; newspaper articles on the discussion, financing and building of the new County of Stettler Public Works Facility; information on general overview of the leaders of 2017, along with movies at the box office, music, and cost of groceries.
“It was both an honour and a privilege to be part of the grand opening of the County of Stettler Public Works and Agriculture Services Facility,” said CAO Tim Fox. “This facility has been built to house county operations in order to continue to provide our county with municipal services for decades to come. I am so proud of the improved operational abilities and advancements.”
Fox said that the building addresses safety concerns in the town of Stettler that was expanding before their eyes with walking trails, residential developments, recreational fields, and foot traffic including children, pets and senior citizens.
“Health and safety concerns over the working conditions in the old Public Works Facility were identified, and major expensive upgrades were flagged with initial estimates up to 30 per cent of the cost of building a new facility,” Fox explained. “It exists thanks to a council whose vision of progress and dedication to employee safety made this building possible.”
Fox also thanked Scott Builders.
“Their efforts and dedication to quality and detail contributed to this building construction not only being completed on time, but also being brought in approximately $600,000 dollars under budget.”
“I want to recognize and thank the provincial government too; it is because of the Municipal Sustainable Initiative (MSI) grant funding, created to support local infrastructure priorities with a focus on building strong, safe, resilient communities that we were able to complete this project,” Fox said. “We received approval to finance nearly the entire cost of this new state-of-the-art facility using our MSI funding. Under council’s direction – we were able to do this without borrowing a single dime.”
