Strategic planning and training sets Lanigan Town Council up for success – DiscoverHumboldt.com

With new council members in the fold since last November’s civic election, the Town of Lanigan is embarking on a positive and proactive direction under the leadership of Mayor Tony Mycock. Supported by CAO for the Town, Ron McCullough, the new look council has undertaken training, an open communications strategy, and strategic planning to guide Lanigan through an anticipated period of growth.
The announcement of a new daycare construction agreement with the local committee and a new K-12 school nearing completion, it’s the start of a multi-faceted series of projects designed to better the lives of Lanigan residents and make the community an even more attractive place to call home.
Some of the initiatives were the result of training and consultation with noted facilitator and local government educator Dr. Gordon McIntosh.
“It got started with our CAO Ron McCullough,” explains Mycock. “He’s known Dr. McIntosh for a long time. Gordon has been involved with municipal government for over 40 years. He brings a wealth of knowledge, and Ron suggested bringing him in.
We started with a regional session open to other municipalities, and the next two days were specifically with Lanigan council. It started with our town office staff and our public works staff. It was amazing getting some of the young people we have employed with us speaking up and talking about what they see as priorities.”
The training sessions followed up with issues of governance for council members dealing with the Municipalities Act and its established policies and procedures. Mycock says that McIntosh’s greatest contribution was simplifying some aspects of the statutes and “clearing up some of the grey areas,” those components that may be open to interpretation.
“That really helped set council up on the municipal side with the Act, especially with three new councillors that have never been on council before.”
That work was followed by open brainstorming when it came to strategic planning for Lanigan’s future. The ideas tracked a number of fronts including housing supply; recreation, arts and culture; and commercial development and enhancement. In fact, Mycock indicates there were fourteen key topics that arose from the planning session. The Council targeted five of those for immediate attention.
“We started with our first five in the strategic priorities chart, and Ron brings these to us every meeting,” Mycock explains. “It’s in our face all the time, and it’s holding everybody accountable with the timelines we’ve placed. It really sets the new council up for the right start.”
Beyond the identification of priorities for the town, Mycock says there was tremendous value in the team-building aspect of the training and facilitation. It’s a novel experience for the mayor who has been involved with Council for nine years.
Housing development is one of the top priorities. Mycock says that Lanigan is set up well as far as residential serviced lots go, but rental space is short. With the ongoing BHP Jansen mine project and its upcoming move to operational status, and the nearby Aspen Power Project, both single dwellings and multi-unit dwellings are at a premium.
“Houses have been selling really fast in Lanigan, and a lot of them are turning into rental properties and most of those are gobbled up. So, we want to build new family homes, but we also need to get some apartments and condominiums and things along those lines.”
The Town of Lanigan has been responding with rezoning to accommodate those types of dwellings, and also by bringing in modular buildings that allow for a quicker turnaround. Mycock admits that the increased cost of construction materials has provided a bit of a barrier. Those are offset by tax incentives and attractive costs for the lots, Mycock says. A new residential lot in Lanigan is tax exempt for the first two years with a 25 per cent reduction over the following two years.
He also talks about Lanigan’s central location on a major trans-Canada highway as being an attractive feature for commercial development.
“We couldn’t really be more central in Saskatchewan. We’re an hour from Saskatoon, an hour and a half from Regina. We have property on the highway which could be an advantage to businesses and the mines around us.”
Another immediate focus for the council is updated infrastructure, which like many Saskatchewan communities, is aging and needs replacement or repair. It’s a bit of a lockstep process where water and sewer pipes need to be assessed or replaced before road repairs can happen.
“If we don’t do the underneath, there’s no point putting new pavement over top,” admits Mycock.
There are challenges for the future, Mycock admits, but with a new pool and splash park, a new school, and a council focused on targeted missions thanks to recent training and its own initiatives, he feels that council and the residents of Lanigan are poised to meet their needs.
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