Town of Fort Macleod accepts offer on 320 acres

The Town of Fort Macleod has accepted an $8.5-million offer on the 320 acres previously designated for the police college.
Council made the decision last month at a special meeting.
No details of the offer were released.
Mayor Rene Gendre, Hoskin, councillors Gord Wolstenholme and Brent Feyter, chief administrative officer David Connauton, economic development manager Virginia Wishart, development officer Keli Sandford and lawyer James Possin were at the meeting.
The meeting was called to order at 12:05 p.m.
After the agenda was approved the meeting went into closed session for 54 minutes.
When the meeting was opened at 1 p.m., Wolstenholme made a motion to accept the offer for the 320 acres as presented.
Gendre, Hoskin, Feyter and Wolstenholme voted in favour of the motion.
That decision came two days after council held a closed session discussion at the end of a regular meeting.
After a closed session of an hour and 23 minutes, the regular meeting was reconvened.
Council then approved Wolstenholme’s motion to accept an offer of $8.5-million for the 320 acres, pending legal review.
Council then approved a motion by Coun. Michael Dyck to hold a special meeting at noon two days later to discuss the sale of the land in a closed session.
The provincial government planned to build the $122-million Alberta Public Security and Law Enforcement Training Centre on the 320-acre site in the southeast corner of Fort Macleod.
When Calgary and Edmonton police forces announced in August they would not train recruits in Fort Macleod, the Redford government cancelled the project.
The construction contract awarded, the design completed, the development permit issued, utility lines were being placed and construction crews were on site when Redford killed the project.
In 2013, the province paid the Town of Fort Macleod $10.26-million in compensation for the cancelled project.
The province compensated the Town of Fort Macleod for contract commitments, including $4.54-million for water and sewer; $454,950 for engineering for water and sewer; $341,000 for electrical service; $26,185 for electrical engineering; $63,200 for easement acquisition; $4,200 for highway crossing agreements; $600 for surveys; and $10,097 for miscellaneous costs.
The province gave the Town of Fort Macleod $4.18-million for costs associated with the waste water treatment plant built in part to support the police college project.
The town also got $102,343 to cover out of pocket expenses incurred since 2005.
In addition, the province returned to the town ownership of the 320-acre parcel.