By John Wagner

The RM of Piapot held its monthly meeting on January 11th at Piapot. Present were councilors Ken Hobbs, Lorne Kusler, Don Moorhead, Roland Evans, Gerald Sanderson, Harvey Baker, Doug Casey, Graham Markert, Administrator, Barry Dixon and myself.

January is the month for appointments, setting salaries and council remuneration. As far as committees go oil and gas, fire, finance and road weight committees remain the same with the entire council. Our Chinook Regional Library rep. is Dawn Maalerud, the auditor is Stark and Marsh from Swift Current. The Maple Creek Health Trust Advisory is Graham Markert, Eastend Health Trust Advisory is myself, John Wagner, and Cypress Lodge Trust Advisory is Lorne Kusler. Swift Current Water Shed Committee is Robert and Leanne Gilbert. The Gull Lake Regional Water Committee is Lorne Kusler and Doug Casey.

Our Deputy Reeve for 2010 will be Gerald Sanderson and our Returning Officer for all of 2010 is Lana Bavle. If you are wondering who Lana Bavle is, Lana is currently working as an assistant administrator at the RM of Pittville. Lana will have her C certificate for administration by April and was interested in the upcoming position at the RM. We invited her to our meeting to sit in and see what she thought of the operation. It must have been alright as she went through the interview process and offered to work two days per week part time until later in the year, then she would increase to full time by year end when Barry retires. Council liked her offer, her job record, personality and what she could bring to the position. She has a lot of good ideas, is a business woman and also has a background owning and managing a trucking company. Bottom line is if she had no trouble dealing with truckers and customers she shouldn’t have a problem with our ratepayers and staff. In the near future you will see her in the office modernizing Barry. (This should be interesting to say the least).

On Council remuneration we moved from $120 to $130 for our monthly Council meetings. Meals are paid at $12, $15 and $20 for breakfast, dinner and suppers when away from home representing the RM. Mileage is 50 cents per kilometer. There is a $30 monthly reimbursement paid to each member of Council for phone calls, time spent, office and expenses that are not submitted for payment.

Our staff is paid starting with a base rate and adding for responsibility pay, chemical applicators license, 3A or better driver’s license, seniority and for benefits from SARM for employees over 65. We moved our base rate from $17 to $18 for the outside workers and from $15 to $16 for office workers. The administrator positions are based on the Rural Administrators and SARM guidelines.

Representatives from the Cypress Health Region Board and administration came to the meeting to discuss a number of issues. The new integrated facility for Maple Creek was a big concern. At this time we are told that the Ministry of Health is offering a 24 acute (active hospital) care beds and 48 long term care beds. Of the 24 acute beds 10 would have the option of being either acute or long term care. As far as maternity, there are rooms that would be set up for deliveries. Apparently the maternity rooms are similar to the others except there is a larger storage closet for the different equipment. We asked about oncology (cancer treatment) and that will be accommodated. The Stantec consultants report asked for 27 acute and 56 long term care beds, which is what the local steering committee that we are part of has adopted as our request and is what we are prepared to fund. It seems to be at a standstill right now so Council wrote a letter to the Cypress Health Region asking them to facilitate a meeting between the Health Region, the Ministry of Health, the consultants and the steering committee. We hope that if we get everyone at the table maybe we can get moving on this.

We also raised concerns about some of the recent resignations with health care managers, the closure of the hospital in Maple Creek and moving patients. We questioned under what act the region is forced to close the hospital and move patients? In following up with the Health Region, there seems to be only one document that is an agreement between the Ministry of Health and the SMA (doctors) in 2006 that pertains to this. In this agreement for a hospital to maintain emergency status it has to have a physician available within 30 to 45 minutes or a physician available in another facility within that time allowance. As for moving patients, that as I gather is because of the liability issue for the Health Region. What our Council has suggested is that Tele-Health, which is an on line interactive form of consultation where the physician is on the screen in front of you as you are on their screen and a nurse is in the room with you working with the physician. This is already being done in a number of places including Swift Current and is a viable option not only for physician shortages but also for weekend coverage on a regular basis. Council is bringing forward a resolution to the upcoming SARM Convention this spring. We feel that the on call issue on weekends is a big problem in rural Sask. and it is time we used 21^st century technology to make the rural practices even more attractive than the large urban.

On the garbage side of things: We have had one hearing on the charges regarding burning the Piapot Dump. Three of the four charges have been dropped and the RM has pled guilty on the fourth charge. An agreement has been made with the Crown Prosecutor however it still has to come before a judge in February. At this time what is on the table is $12,600 but it has to be approved by the judge. We have permanently closed the dump in Piapot and ratepayers in the RM can use the dump in Maple Creek. The Town of Maple Creek has agreed to let us use the facility; however we will be meeting to set up an annual fee. The town asks that you try to recycle, no tires, old propane tanks, etc. You will not be charged a fee when you go there, just tell them you are from the RM of Piapot. Council would like to thank the Town of Maple Creek for accommodating us on short notice.

On other issues: we have sent out invitational tenders on repairs to the RM office and shop. The tender includes repairs on fascia, soffit, eaves trough, windows in the meeting room and a front door for the office. Council approved an application for Brian Wolfater to purchase two quarters of lease land. Approval has been granted for gopher poison for 2010 so we ordered 100 cases and it will be available at the office. Council will be renewing our membership in the Southwest Municipal Government and will be joining the Southwest Transportation Committee. We renewed our membership with SARM along with 3 million dollars liability insurance, our bond and short term and long term employee disability insurance for 2010. We also purchased an additional 2 million dollars liability from SARM for $735. It was decided not to tender for fuel as the prices are subject to change. We will be coming out with a longer term policy on the fuel tenders so companies will have an opportunity to bid in the future.

Our snowplows have been busy. We had a fair bit of snow, then the warm weather came and it started melting to the point I was hearing of dams and dugouts starting to fill, which is a good thing. It got warm enough that we even had to put road bans on some of the softer grid roads, but as usual the weather changed. I usually write this report on Sunday but it didn’t happen this Sunday as we were in the process of getting over 2.5 feet of snow dumped on us. You spend the entire day pushing 4 ft. drifts away from buildings, feed stacks, water bowls, and then when you come in at night the power goes out. Makes you question your chosen profession. All the plows are out and running, they will get to you eventually. Remember these machines are big and clumsy so they cannot do yards. With all the snow currently being moved the only problem is in this country we know it is not going to stay there. There will be a big wind and it will all move so you have to guess which direction you think it will blow from and plow accordingly.

Heard a good quote the other day: “An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” So in ranching terms does this mean the optimistic rancher goes to the auction to see what he got for the cattle and the pessimist rancher goes to see what he didn’t get?

Our next meeting is February 8^th at 1 PM.