County Gong Show

[cowman]

emerald: Red Deer county gave their staff a 6% increase for one year, this past year. No unionized staff as the operations are all privately contracted out. The claim is they save $1.5 million a year by contracting out operation services. Unfortunately they have decided not to contract out the rest of the services...for what reason I don't know? I know several councillors had ideological problems dealing with a union(Operations only unionized shortly before they scrapped it and went private!).
It would seem to make sense if you are saving $1.5 million in one department that the smart thing to do would to be continue with privatization...or did they just want to get rid of the union?
I was a little disgusted that they decided not to privatize ag services(specifically spraying and grass seeding) as I had a good look at it and was interested in bidding on the contract. Instead they have ordered another high priced chem application truck at $140,000!
One thing about the county...they seldom do anything cheap! I have been talking to their ag foreman and I think he is going to come work for me. He wasn't being paid one heck of a lot(maybe just cheap with some employees!) and it will be nice to have someone who is experienced. The two kids I had last summer were okay but you had to sort of babysit them. The old guy I have is very sick and won't be able to do much this summer.

[cowman]

One other thing emerald: The biodigester trip?
RD County sent three councillors and two staff to Germany/Austria for the bio digester trip. Part of the bill was picked up by the feds but not all of it?
Many people are a little pissed off at this?
The Ag fieldman has been working on this for close to two years and is very close to getting one built? He wasn't included in the trip! He probably knows more about the economics and feasability of building a plant in Alberta than anybody? Instead they send 5 clowns who wouldn't know a bio digester if it bit them in the butt!
On top of that the local MP(Mills) had spent prctically the whole summer in Europe visiting bio plants and had given a detailed report to the RD County council? The realities of a bio plant in Germany are not the same as one on the prairies? There are two state of the art facilities here...at Vegreville and at Cudworth Saskatchewan...guess those aren't exotic enough?
Most people see this little fiasco as nothing more than what it was...a little pleasure jaunt on the taxpayers dime!

[cowman]

cowman it would just boggle your mind if you attended conferences where municipal councillors are out in full force. I have been attending them for many many years and I can assure you the free booze runs like water, and the actual meat and potatoes of the conferences are poorly attended unless they afford an opportunity for some councillors to get up and grandstand.

We have one loose cannon on council he loves his booze and if its free he loves it even more. His first convention after being elected was in Edmonton a year ago last fall. I was at the Municipal Affairs Ministers reception and the councillor came in looking for the free bar !!! Actually I think there was only wine but he made a bee line for it.
At any given evening function he usually has a dozen empty beer cans in front of him, and his mouth gets in gear along with the booze.
He is the first guy at the mike when there is a question period, many times he makes very good sense but other times he isn't clear on the issue but of course, needs to be heard !!

Two members of council have already taken him aside and had a friendly chat with him to get him to back off on the booze. They asked the Reeve to do it but he didn't 'feel comfortable' discussing such things so the two real leaders on council took it on .

One thing I can say for our new council is that they aren't running off out of the province on trips. They attend most conferences, and take the farmer reps on the ASB plus the Chairman of the new watershed group to any environmental conferences which I think is a good thing.

The chair of the watershed is a very introverted fellow, very smart but shy when it comes to speaking in public. He allows the ag fieldman to control all their meetings. I am going to get involved in the watershed group, I think its a good thing given that our area has several rivers and a million creeks running everywhere, plus a significant cattle industry.

Did you have any dealings with Maurice Moore when he was the fieldman in Red Deer ? I always felt he was a very solid individual. He was on council in Ponoka County and knew his stuff, and certainly contributed a lot to the county. It was unfortunate that he was defeated by a very small margin in the last election.

Our Ag fieldman has only been here a couple of years. The former one went to work as the environmental specialist for EXH. He was an awesome fieldman, smart as a whip and set up some excellent ag programs.

The riparian co-ordinator here is a great kid, she used to work for me, and although she doesn't really have much post secondary education she is doing a heck of a job. Nice to see a local youngster getting the opportunity .

[blackjack]

emrald1...what is your idea on cattle drinking out of the creeks ...good or bad ...if bad... do you think its the ranchers responsibility to fence them off...or do you think govt should help in the cost... like you say there is thousands of tributaries here alone in alberta... that adds up to alot of money...

[cowman]

Emerald: The sad fact is that in most cases of "public interest" the good employees get sick of the BS and move into the private sector? It is really sad, in its own way, that this is so?
I'm not a "super insider" but I do know a bit about what turns people off?
They get disgusted with the "public system" of waste and mismanagement and eventually they move on? In reality that is how I will "lure" the ag guy from the county?
Quite often the people we do elect, tend to be "meglomaniacs"...that is why we elect them? They have a clear message that sounds good and aren't afraid to express it! In fact you couldn't get them to stop with a gag!
Personally, from a private perspective, booze should not be any part of any public service! I am not naive in how the world works...but I want my repersentatives sober and in full capacity of their faculties when making decisions that affect me! Maybe that is too much to ask in this day and age?

[cowman]

blackjack: You know that the right thing to do is fence them out of the creek. I struggled with this problem myself! One hudred years and no problems????
The boy decided that we should get into this "Environmental Farm Plan" thing! I was a reluctant participant...figured who the hell needs the government to run my affairs and decide how it should be!
I still have problems with the whole thing, but we did it and realized that we had a problem... not a big problem...but one that needeed to be addressed?
Problem: yep, our cows were polluting the springs. Yep, that spring ran into Waskasoo creek!
We fenced it this summer and without a doubt there was a cost! I told him at the time...we'll do this because it is the right thing to do...and the government can go to hell! He still thinks he might be able to squeeze a few bucks out of the deal but for me it was just the right thing to do and whether the government gives us any money was secondary? If they give us any money(unlikely) then that is fine...but frankly, they can go to hell!

[cowman]

blackjack, there are ways to keep cows away from creeks if they are near any other water source.
Many ranchers put mineral and cattle oilers near the creek and that invites the cattle to water there.
I don't like dugouts myself because I hate to see cows wallowing in the darn things and certainly the water quality cannot be good.
Fenced dugouts with windmill or solar pumps work well and there are some grants available for those.
I hope we never get to the day when producers are forced to fence off creeks, and at this point there is no talk of it as far as regulations go.
The biggest environmental concern isn't with the cows watering in creeks but with the seasonal feeding and bedding sites located near watercourses.
Spring runoff turns many creeks brown in this province and there is no need for it.

I see it in my own community and luckily someone called the NRCB last spring when the run off was pouring off a cow/calf operation into the county ditch and across the neighbours field. The rancher has moved his feeding operation this year but common sense should have told him that his feeding site posed an environmental risk last year !!

[cowman]

cowman I think its municipal politics not waste that makes good employees decide to leave. That combined with watching some members of council use the system for their own benefit has certainly had people looking elsewhere for jobs.
Many of the senior public works administration have gone to highway contractors, but it seems that County CEO's stay in the system forever, unless they get fired.

[blackjack]

i do agree cowman and emrald of keeping the cows away from the creeks as much as possible... the reason i did ask emrald was because of all the ranchers including myself that take cattle up into her area for summer grazing... when the problem isn't in your own back yard many are not going to go to the added cost to make it right...as for watering out of dugouts...have used a couple of kellin solar systems for a few years now with great success...

[blackjack]

The city of Calgary has been making noise about their concerns about their water being affected by cattle operations.
I think that the many watershed groups that are forming across the province shows that the cattle industry is being responsible and doing their part to ensure that they do everything possible to mitigate their affect on riparian areas.

It isn't just the livestock producer that needs to be aware of the potential for manure run off. Municipalities are allowed to discharge human sewage lagoon contents from Hamlets into creeks etc. Of course the lagoons have been treated and can only be discharged when AB Env. allows it to happen but Hamlet sewage is not required to be treated to the same level as sewage from cities, towns and villages.

I shudder when I think of all the residential development allowed along creeks and rivers, when it is a given that some domestic sewage disposial systems will fail. Fencing people away from creeks etc. isn't going to stop the sewage from migrating !!!

[cakadu]

From what I can gather, that is one of the reasons why permanent development along the *****on reservoir, otherwise known as Glennifer Lake, was opposed - because of the potential for waste water/sewage problems.

The problem might be unnoticed for a while because they don't always open up the dam to allow water to escape. Last summer's record rainfall was the exception of course when they had it open full bore to allow the water to move.

Water pollution is always a downstream problem and it may not bother you but it can sure affect others downstream. Think about some of the municipalities that you know of whose water treatment intake is below where the sewage comes out. No potential for problems there is there.

[blackjack]

...i look at problem pretty much the same as emrald does... to clean up the streams our city cousins also need to know they are as much responsible as the ag industry is...

...with our lack of lakes here in central alberta and the culture for people wanting to be at the beach ...and with some of the big dollars out there it all most looks likes a competition who can build the biggest cabin on the lake...i do agree with cakadu if glennifer ends up like another pine lake that would be rather sad to see to say the least...