During the recent town council meeting in Rosetown, Mayor Subhas Maharaj reported that he presented two motions to the council for consideration.

The first motion was in regards to the ongoing discussion over road paving projects.

The mayor shared that he wishes to establish a committee comprised of both council members and residents of the town of Rosetown and would discuss Mayor Maharaj’s previous road paving ideas.

“They’d look into an idea I presented and talked about many times, which was a dollar a day or 30 dollars a month, and we could pave all the roads of Rosetown that require paving within a year or two years,” shared Mayor Maharaj, adding, “Instead of waiting five or ten years or more for a paving program.”

Mayor Maharaj said that Councilor, Darcy Olsen had a number of objections to this idea and that it was ultimately voted down by all six councilors.

Councilor Olsen said, “The Mayor first brought his idea of utilizing the water billing to raise funds for paving, a dollar a day attached to every water bill, to the July meeting of Council. At this meeting I indicated that I felt that the water billing was an inappropriate place to raise funds for paving.”

Olsen went on to say, “At this time I did not mention that I believed that utilizing the water billing for funding infrastructure not related to water and sewer was prohibited by the provincial government, instead I proposed that his idea be referred to the Public Works committee for further review.”

Council agreed to have the matter referred to Public Works, and at the September 3rd Public Works Committee meeting, Olsen reported that the project engineer was present to answer any technical questions that may arise.

“This item was to be, according to the agenda, discussed at 7 pm. Mayor Maharaj, at the meeting and not before, indicated that he had a prior commitment and had to leave by 7 pm, so most of the discussion about his proposed paving plan took place in his absence and a recommendation was made that we continue with the plan in place.”

Olsen said that Mayor Maharaj’s paving plan also includes the town borrowing five million dollars. To this, Olsen reported that the town does not have the capacity to borrow this amount, based on other loans, according to limits set by legislation.

“The Town has devoted considerable resources in developing a comprehensive asset management plan and to focus our resources on one aspect of our infrastructure and neglect the rest could prove unwise,” shared Olsen. “I am all for new paving as long as it is done in a manner which keeps all our other obligations in mind.”

The second motion that Mayor Maharaj presented was the idea of having a town hall meeting. Mayor Maharaj explained that in the interest of having a well informed and enlightened community, a Town Hall meeting would be beneficial.

“We can talk about what has taken place, are there some accomplishments the town needs to know about and what are the towns future plans,” said Mayor Maharaj, who added, “Once again it was Councilor Olsen who presented an amendment.”

The mayor said the amendment, which was voted in favour of by all six councilors, “turned things around.”An amendment was made to say that the Administration Committee would develop the agenda and format regarding the Town Hall meeting and that Councilor Trevor Hay would act as Chair of the meeting.

“My point was to have the community {gather} not in a highly structured manor, but providing information and allowing individuals to have a chat,” said Mayor Maharaj, who also said that with having the designation of mayor of the town, he feels ‘sidestepped.’

Olsen also said via email, “I made this amendment to give the resolution more structure as it was not very precise. I wanted the Administration Committee to discuss the best possible format and agenda so that the meeting would be informative and beneficial to the public. Unstructured meetings tend to be very poor meetings that do not accomplish their intended goals. I wanted a Chairman that would speak to plans endorsed by the Council and therefore plans that are official goals of the community. Our Mayor has his own plans and is very intolerant of individuals critiquing those plans. I do not have the confidence in him to present plans endorsed by Council and to not hijack the meeting to present his plans for the future. Until his plans are accepted by Council they are not the plans for the future. This meeting is not an election debate but is suppose to present the approved plans of the Town of Rosetown.”

The Rosetown Town Hall meeting is to be held in the on Wednesday, November 27, 2019 at 7:00 pm. The location of the meeting has not yet been confirmed.