At its regular meeting on March 16 Irricana council tabled a decision which, if passed, would allow a “drone” to take aerial photos of the town.
Ironhide Inspections requested council allow it to use Irricana as a test site for its Unmanned Aerial Vehical (UAV) also referred to as a “drone,” which is a small remote-control helicopter. Ironhide Inspections offered to take overhead photos of the town and the surrounding area.
“We are in the planning stages of setting up a contract with the Town of Irricana,” said Paul Fisk of Ironhide Inpections Inc. “We will be using the drone’s capabilities for survey and photogrametry (the science of making measurements from photographs) to provide high quality service data.”
According to Ironhide Inspections, the UAV is capable of surveying an area and mapping out the area’s volume, distance and GPS locations. It can render a 3D model of the surveyed area and has remote access enabling it to photograph high and hard to reach areas. The UAV can also provide an air quality test for buildings and inspect hazardous areas.
“Combined with a military-trained helicopter pilot, Ironhide is in a unique position to be able to offer the highest quality drone scanning services,” said Fisk.
Council members were concerned for Irricana resident’s privacy and weren’t sure if there would be a charge for the usage of the “drone.”
“I would not be in favour of giving (Ironhide Inspections) the go ahead because of privacy concerns,” said Deputy Mayor Dennis Tracz.
Council decided they wanted to hear a full presentation from Ironhide Inspections during a yet to be determined council meeting.
Extended office hours
Council unanimously moved to open its Town Office’s doors to the public on Fridays (excluding holidays) effective May 1.
Currently the Town Office is only open Monday through Thursday, however, staff were working in the building on Fridays prompting council to add the additional day of service to the public.
“(Currently) we have every single staff member working Friday anyway,” said Councillor Laura Thiessen. “It’s not going to cost us any more money to open the door.”
“I really don’t think it’s going to have a massive impact on the number of visitors.”
Last year Irricana began to close its Town Office’s each Friday due to lack of staff and dropping work production.
“The intent at the time, when the office went from fives day to four days a week, was to save money due to staff members not working,” said Thiessen.
Credit card fees dropped
Council unanimously moved the immediate abolishment of the two per cent surcharge added onto any credit card payments made to the Town.
In September 2013 a policy was passed enabling the Town to add a two per cent surcharge to any bills, fines, tickets etc. paid for with a credit card. This was used as an attempt to recover costs of transaction fees charged by the Town’s credit card service provider according to the policy.
“We shouldn’t have had (this surcharge) in the first place,” said Councillor Lora Peterson.
“If you’re going to offer credit card payments to people, then you should be willing to eat the costs associated with it,” said Thiessen “It’s the cost of doing business.”
Mayor Valerie Squires said there was a total revenue of $888 raised from the two per cent surcharge in 2014.
