Christ the Redeemer School requested the possibility of renting space at the JBS Canada Centre, as they are looking at a severe space issue in their school next year. The three Catholic schools (Holy Family Academy, Christ the King Academy, and St. Joseph’s Collegiate), have approximately 1400 students. Next year, St. Joseph’s is anticipated to be at 106% capacity, Christ the King Academy at about 120%, and Holy Family Academy approximately 98%. They are looking at other options as well such as the Arts, Culture Heritage facility or Brooks Library, and the need to lobby the Provincial Government on the shortage of classroom spaces facing schools.

Bookings that could be displaced include:

• First Aid Courses

• RCMP Youth Academy

• Advanced Aquatics Courses

• Nurture by Nature (Daycare)

• Alberta Association of Recreation Facility Personnel Courses

A multi-family development (townhouses) is being proposed on two vacant lots at 175 and 207 Pleasant Park Road West. There is a large amount of greenspace in the surrounding area with paved pathways, playgrounds, the Riley Martin Ball Diamonds, Marshall Drain and West End Park. The owner intends to develop 60 housing units; 36 semi-detached units and two separate rental suites of 24 units. The development permit application has been sent to adjacent landowners and external stakeholders. Only one comment was received from Canada Post regarding the location of existing mailboxes.

Stolen Vehicles - Brooks RCMP has been investigating several stolen vehicles in May;

• A vehicle near Scandia stolen from Taber was recovered.

• Calgary Police recovered a vehicle stolen from Bassano during the execution of a search warrant.

• RCMP responded to a report of a break-in at an industrial area in Brooks where a truck was stolen. The truck was recovered later that day in Cypress County.

• RCMP responded to a stolen vehicle reported near Tilley. That vehicle was located in Brooks when it was used to steal another vehicle from Universal HD.

• Police located Universal HD’s stolen White Dodge Ram 2500 in Bassano near the Water Treatment Plant, it was also left abandoned. While on scene Police discovered a white crew-cab 4x4 Pick up had been stolen from the Bassano OK Tire, later recovered by Calgary Police in a separate event.

Suspects have been identified in many of the files. The Brooks RCMP is working with partners in other detachments to investigate and bring charges to those responsible.

Federal Support for Food Banks: The Federation of Canadian Municipalities voted in favour of a resolution to call on the federal government to help address the food insecurity crisis by providing emergency funding to food banks, food rescue agencies, and farmers’ markets providing emergency food assistance, and recognize the systemic issues involved in food bank usage, including affordability, inequality, core housing need and insufficient social supports, in order to end food insecurity.

Fire safety trailer is budgeted for purchase in 2024. There is only one manufacturer of a wheelchair-accessible solar-powered mobile training centre fully interactive with realistic fire prevention training aids that can be tailored to both children and adults. The price for the 27FT Fire Safety Simulator is $279,000. The budget is $200,000 of which $20,000 is funded by operations (34% of the $20,000 from County ICF), and the remaining $180,000 is funded by donations. TheThere has been extraordinary community support for this educational initiative. A total of $259,000 will be funded by donations.

Cancellation Schedule for the summer: Council Committee Meetings and Council Meetings will be cancelled after the July 2nd Council meeting until the Council Committee meeting on August 27th. Should an emergent matter arise, a Special Council meeting can be called.

Residential land use update will allow for secondary suites in semi-detached housing and townhouses. A new housing definition has been introduced; Cluster Housing, a small square foot single-unit development on one lot. Senior Planner Gavin Scott recommends that “although Brooks is working on transit options, as a City it is vehicularly oriented and parking remains part of the culture”. Therefore parking requirements should remain the same.

Communities in Bloom Garden Tour is set for Thursday, July 25 from 4-8:00PM. 10 amazing yards will be showcased. If you know anyone who would like to participate please call Loretta at 403-427-0524. Tickets will be available at From the Prairie and Brooks Greenhouses.

Come out and meet the judges. Judges will evaluate our region in the International Communities in Bloom Challenge on July 18-19th. CIB will have a Wine and Cheese Mix and Mingle at the Engineers’ house on Thursday, July 18th at 6:30PM.

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