The sale of O-NET to TELUS stands out as a key moment from the past year for the Town of Olds, according to Mayor Judy Dahl.
She notes administration and council reached a deal with TELUS Communications to buy Olds Fibre Ltd. – known as O-NET – a municipally controlled corporation.
Mayor Dahl says we just could not justify the continued and growing cost to maintain and upgrade the network to the standard to compete with TELUS Communications – that was a difficult one. The sale of O-NET marked the end of the era for our community members from the past that worked so hard to plant the seed. Mayor Dahl says “we just could not justify the continued and growing cost to maintain and upgrade the network to the standard to compete with TELUS Communications.That was a difficult one. The sale of O-NET marked the end of the era for our community members from the past that worked so hard to plant the seed.”
Mayor Dahl adds, there was also the sale of the administration office to Westview Co-op which allows the municipality to consolidate two underutilized Town of Olds owned buildings. She points out that they found out they had quite a lot of space that wasn’t being used and they wanted to save some tax dollars for the citizens as well as the Town. Mayor Dahl says “with the sale of the current building that we are in, or course, and moving over to the operations centre now we are utilizing space which was empty – which is great – and we are giving Westview Co-op a home. We’re really looking forward to the renovations that need to be going on for that current construction just to pre-qualify for the project. It’s good for everyone. It’s going to save money for everyone, combining the two underutilized spaces.”
She is also really proud to say that with Mountain View Power grant program, the Town of Olds has given $247,000 of an investment back to the community since June of 2023.
