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Vol. 11, No. 44, Tuesday, August 30, 2016 www.LamontLeader.com
Village of Andrew now debt free!
MICHELLE PINON PHOTOS
Village of Andrew Mayor Heather Tait, far left, and Chief Administrative Officer Pat Skoreyko, cut the debt free cake while nine-year-old friends Kaige Grosul and Abby Kapicki hold up their celebratory balloons on Saturday, August 27. Michelle Pinon Editor
Around 40 people joined Village of Andrew Mayor Heather Tait in Memorial Park Saturday morning for a special celebration. “It’s a great honour to have you join us for today’s debt free celebration,” stated Tait. “Nineteen years ago we were over $800,000 in debt for infrastructure, and we were in serious financial circumstances for such a small municipality. However, with best practices, vision, innovation and succession planning; Andrew is now debt free. In 19 years Andrew has certainly come a long way.”
She went on to say, “We are a viable and sustainable municipality. We are very proud of our community, residents, volunteers, businesses, groups, organizations, council past and present, and staff for making Andrew such a great place to call home. Great job everyone and thank you for making Andrew such a great place to call home. Great job to everyone and thank you for your continued support, dedication and community involvement. Together we can claim that we are the first debt free municipality in the county and beyond; a feat to be proud of.” Tait went on to express
her gratitude to the provincial and federal governments for grant funding which she considers vital to meeting the village’s infrastructure needs. “These grants are essential for our projects such as the undertaking of relining of the sewers. Andrew has been far ahead of the curve, and the very first municipality to reline sewers with a non-evasive sewer rehabilitation technology. Also, we’ve ensured that Andrew is up to date by upgrading our water system with monitors, alarm systems and automated water meters. Additionally, our road paving plan is well underway. Further
upcoming projects are the village owned well reclamation the water plant valve upgrades which will be paid by the Federal Gas Tax Fund.” CAO Pat Skoreyko, who came on board 19 years ago, said she quickly learned all the ins and outs of the municipality, and initially put a freeze on spending, re-evaluating all of the services, and keeping a close eye on the fiscal bottom line. “We kept holding the line because we didn’t want to go into debt.” Times were especially tough during the Klein years when grant funding and downloading of services fell on the back of the municipality and not the provincial
government. Skoreyko has high praise for former Premier Ed Stelmach who introduced the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) grant funding program during his tenure in office. “Our sewers were relined in three years,” pointed out Skoreyko. Former councillor Keith Olsen said things were pretty tough back then. He joined council in 1999, and said that council members paid their taxes ahead of time to help pay the bills. Bill Romaniuk, also a former councillor, served from 1990 to 2006 also reiterated that times were tough, but people went above and beyond
to volunteer and help out any way they could. “There’s a fine line between saving and maintaining, and you have to try and find the balance.” He’s happy to see the village is now out of debt and in good shape. “I’m happy where things have come.” Resident Milton O’Brien jokingly said, “If Notley hears we have money she’ll come knocking.” O’Brien said he was surprised to learn the village is now debt free, but pointed out that the area has pretty conservative leanings with some great leaders and politicians coming from this neck of the woods.