The Athabasca Ratepayers’ Association is gathering members, and will soon be an official association.
After members had paid their fees, bylaws were voted on at the group’s first meeting at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex last Tuesday.
One vote was unanimous in establishing that town councillors or immediate family members living within the same household are not allowed to be members.
“There are obviously times where the ratepayers’ association and the town are sitting on opposite sides of the fence,” executive member Ernest Aleixandre said. “If you do have to have an in camera discussion to strategize how you are going to deal with something, then it’s obviously a conflict of interest to have councillors there, and it’s not necessarily in our best interest to have their direct family members there.”
The group defines a ratepayer as, “A person who pays rates, or local taxes; a customer of a public utility. In the case of Athabasca, this means anyone who pays taxes or fees to the Town of Athabasca.”
The first meeting of the Athabasca Ratepayers’ Association was used to gather numbers and fill out the initial paperwork to start an organization.
Barbara Bell was elected as the secretary/treasurer for the association.
“Now it has come time to make our voices stronger,” Aleixandre said. “It’s time to start a ratepayers’ association, something that will unify our voices and hopefully have a stronger presence when dealing with the town and town council.”
He said it was an opportune time to start the association.
“If there is an opportunity to compile a list of issues that ratepayers have, and potentially bend Municipal Affairs’ ear about it, so be it,” he said. “And we’re just a year and a bit away from a municipal election.”
Executive member Axel Winter said that unless you are an official organization it’s hard to gain traction.
“We’re going to incorporate as a not-for-profit society and get our name registered so that when concerns come up, they can be brought to the executive, and then we can formulate how to go to the town with that,” he said. “When we were opposing the duplex in Cornwall, there was an incredible amount of information, but trying to put that together was quite a nightmare with just the three or four of us.”
As a group, Winter said that they can discuss issues that occur all over the town, and have more expertise because of strength in numbers.
“It’s very difficult to get information out of them,” Winter said regarding Athabasca Town Council.
For more information on the Association, visit their website at http://www.athabascaratepayers.com/cms.
