Wheatland County, in addition to renovating its offices in the near future, renovated its senior management.  
    At the regular meeting of County Council on October 1, council approved the reorganization of the county’s upper echelons. Senior management, those who report directly to the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), was reduced from five positions to three.
    “It’s a structure you see in quite a few other municipalities and it solidifies the roles of the staff a little better,” said CAO Alan Parkin.
    In addition, the departments were fused together to create three county departments; Transportation and Infrastructure Services, Agriculture, Community, and Protective Services, and Corporate and Financial Services.
    Dave Churchill will head Transportation and Infrastructure as general manager, and Jim Laslo was named general manager of Agriculture, Community, and Protective Services. The position for Corporate and Financial Services remains vacant.
    Transportation and Infrastructure is remaining relatively unchanged, save for the addition of the health and safety office.
    “We moved it (health and safety), because that’s the department where we have the most exposure to health and safety issues, like with our road crews, construction, and graders. The lion’s share of the staff are in that area as well,” said Parkin.
    The largest change was bringing together Agriculture, Community, and Protective Services under one department.
    “The third is basically a new department, which is an amalgamation of different departments. We took the agriculture section, joined that with community planning and development, and protective services, because there are some synergies there,” said Parkin.
    Corporate and Financial Services remains the same as before.
    Though there would be some cost savings, Parkin stressed that wasn’t why the reorganization was undertaken.
    “There would be minor savings, but that wasn’t the reason for the change,” said Parkin. “We wanted to realign services to be more effective.”

    A suit filed by Rosebud landowner Jessica Ernst alleging water contamination, will go ahead, but without the Energy Resource Conservation Board (ERCB).
    Ernst filed a $33 million suit against Encana, Alberta Environment and the ERCB. The claims are for damaging her water well and the Rosebud aquifer. She alleges Encana’s exploration for coal bed methane in the area between 2001 and 2006 resulted in contamination. Her case drew wide notoriety after it was shown gas levels in her water were so high they could be lit.
    The ERCB was named in the suit alleging it was negligent as a regulator, and it should have taken steps to protect her water from contamination.
    The ERCB made application to have its name struck from the suit. The Honourable Justice Neil Whitmann made a judgment agreeing with the ERCB and removed a number of paragraphs naming the ERCB.  Ernst also had a Charter of Rights claim against the ERCB alleging her Freedom of Speech was violated. Justice Whittman agreed this claim was valid, however the Limitations Act bars this from proceeding.
    Ernst launched her lawsuit in 2007.   This claim was amended twice. In June of last year a “Fresh Statement of Claim” was filed, which was the subject of this most recent application.
    According to a report on The Tyee, a daily online news magazine, Ernst is planning to appeal the decision.
    In August of this year, Encana filed a Statement of Defense, explaining that Encana did not use what is known as hydraulic fracturing, but used nitrogen to stimulate two wells near Ernst’s property. Both wells were deemed unproductive.
    The statements in the above claims have not been proven in court.