During Beiseker’s village council meeting on March 9, it was brought to council’s attention the Village may be paying too much to light and heat public buildings.
Councillor Warren Wise, who is also President of the Beiseker Golden Years Club, said he was alerted to a possible issue when the heating and lighting costs for the Golden Years Club, whose heat and electricity are not paid for by the Village, was averaging a bill of $380 per month, with their February bill more than $330.
“The real escalation comes from the transmission cost,” said Wise.
“The company that you are purchasing power from can change the delivery cost.”
Wise noted there are two aspects to paying for utilities transmission costs, the charge from the generating station main power grid to the transmission lines and the charge of individual energy companies picking up the power from the transmission lines and delivering them to different homes and buildings.
Wise told council his personal heating and lighting bill was much lower than the Golden Years Club’s and felt council should review its energy bills considering the Village, like the Golden Years Club, are under the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association.
Council reviewed the bills and found that their costs were quite reasonable compared to the Golden Years Club.
“Our Village Office uses way more power (than the Golden Years Club) and they are not getting charged as much as the Golden Years Club,” said Wise.
“Something is wrong somewhere.”
Wise added he will continue looking into the bills for the Golden Years Club and if he cannot find resolution with the costs, he is prepared to talk with other energy companies to determine solutions.
“It is going to be figured out one way or the other,” Wise said.
LED streetlights
The desire for new cost effective lights in Beiseker may not pan out due to extensive costs.
Council announced it doesn’t look like the Village will be getting new LED streetlights to replace the current lamps.
“There is no reason to even go ahead with LED streetlights,” said Wise.
“The savings that we would get with LEDs are fairly minimal.”
Wise and Beiseker Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Jo-Anne Lambert estimated the costs required to switch the current sodium bulb streetlamps to LEDs would be $800 per light.
“It would take about 30 years to recoup the cost,” said Wise.
Council will have a full report presented by Allison Beaudry of FortisAlberta at the next village council meeting on March 23.
Wise also said it would make sense to install LED streetlamps in the new development of Beiseker due to there being only an additional $500 cost as opposed to installing sodium bulb lamps in existing lights.
Cost Sharing Agreement
Council unanimously voted to terminate its involvement with the Intermunicipal Cost Sharing Agreement (IMCSA).
This decision comes after the City of Airdrie announced its withdrawal from the IMCSA.
“When you look at all the (towns involved), its kind of silly,” said Lambert.
The IMCSA was an agreement established on April 16, 1996, which settled cost sharing for a community’s liability. The City of Airdrie, the Towns of Banff, Cochrane, Irricana, Turner Valley, Black Diamond, Crossfield, Okotoks, High River, Strathcona, the Townsite of Redwood Meadow and the Village of Beiseker were all under this agreement. Airdrie acted as the Insuring Municipality for all the listed towns.
“Now that Provincial aid has changed, (the IMCSA) is no longer necessary to have,” said Lambert. “We’re dissolving that agreement.”
