By Shane Clausing

kate potter

Sexsmith Mayor Kate Potter reflects on 2020

Dec 31, 2020 | 5:30 AM

Sexsmith Mayor Kate Potter is reflecting on what was an interesting 2020 for her town.

While the year was full of changes and surprises, Potter says she was able to see residents come together throughout the year.

“I think what really stood out to me was the desire of the community to pull together. Often you see the greatest result of community when there are challenges that come your way and I think that was true for 2020.”

Potter pointed to the flooding that took place in April, which was the largest flood in the town’s history.

The flooding that took place in April came as a result of a lot of snow on the ground, followed by a major heatwave in the Spring that caused a majority of the snow to melt at once.

While the flooding caused damage, Potter added residents were able to come together and help each other out.

“In April 2020 we had our biggest flood we’ve ever had in Sexsmith. We just saw hundreds and hundreds of people step forward and work together to find a solution.”

Residents in the town helped lay sandbags in low lying areas to ensure that the flooding didn’t spread any further.

Since the floods, the Town of Sexsmith was approved for over two million dollars in funding from the provincial and federal governments to help install a new flood mitigation system.

Mayor Potter says engineering work is already underway to install the new system and should be completed towards the end of 2021.

While the floods from April were the biggest story of the year, Potter tells EverythingGP the community also came up with creative ideas and projects which could help those in need who were struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When we look at some of the projects that were taken on by some of our groups, one of them is our COVID Caring Commandos, which was a group of wellness coalition that worked in partnership with the schools and food bank to try and bring encouragement and food boxes to families that really needed it that were struggling. Seeing things like that and the collaboration has really been critical.”

In terms of what council accomplished this year, Potter added she’s happy to finally get the Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework (ICF) completed with the County of Grande Prairie after three years of work.

The town was also able to complete their new solar farm project, which will allow for most town-owned facilities to be powered by solar energy.

As for looking ahead to 2021, Potter says there’s lots of work to do, especially considering there is a municipal election coming up in October.

“We’re finishing off a number of projects that we’ve been working on. One of those projects is restructuring our Sustainability Committee and updating the sustainability plan for the town. We also have an Intermunicipal Development Plan and Municipal Development Plan that are both coming to the final stages of their completion.”

“Taxes is the other one. We approved the interim budget in December and here in the spring we’ll go through and approve all of our projects and capital spending. That will determine our tax rate and we’re cognizant of that and we’re really trying to keep our tax increases at zero.”

“For us as a council, we’re focused on making sure we’re doing our best right until the end of our term.”

Potter did not say if she would run for re-election in the fall.

She wanted to thank residents in the town who made 2020 a good year despite the challenges.