Raymond town council Aug. 22 briefs

Posted on September 7, 2023 by admin

By Kenyon Stronski
Westwind Weekly News

The following are selected briefs from the Aug. 22 regular meeting of Raymond town council. 

Raymond Irrigation District Policy Draft:

A new draft for the service policy of Raymond Irrigation District was proposed to council. The policy has a variety of changes set forward, with the first one a re-wording of the policy statement. 

“This policy provides Town of Raymond administration with the ability to allow residents to connect to the Raymond Irrigation District (a third party utility provider) without the need for franchise fees or have the Town of Raymond be the utility provider. Utility fees would be solely set, determined, collected and administered directly by the Raymond Irrigation District to the user.”

While important to remember the policy is still a draft, this statement would allow the Town to provide a resident water without the need for franchise fees, and it is noted eligibility will be determined by the Town of Raymond administration. Utility fees however can still be collected by the irrigation district themselves.

As regards to untreated water such as irrigation water, the wording has changed to note properties must now be directly adjacent to the Raymond Irrigation District infrastructure in order to qualify for eligibility. 

Reduced Fall Meeting Schedule for council:

Over the summer months, Raymond’s administration and town council trialled a period of reduced meetings in order to see if there was an uptick in productivity within administration. As outlined within the agenda, the document states, “administration has observed an increase in available time to efficiently accomplish tasks and meet the demands of the Council.”

This led to administration looking to further forward and explore the benefits of a reduced meeting schedule leading to a reduction in meetings between September 1 and December 1. The meetings are scheduled to be on the second and fourth Tuesday’s of each month. 

Raymond Provincial Crime Stats:

Provincial crime stats for the first quarters of 2019 to 2023 have been released and submitted to council as correspondence. Some offences show an upward trend from previous years, with Raymond experiencing its first robbery call since before 2019 this year. Other crimes trending upwards in this year’s first quarter include sexual assaults, assaults, and fraud.