It’s official. Barrhead will have a swimming pool, after a tentative agreement made between Reeve Bill Lee, and Mayor Gerry St. Pierre during a joint council meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 10.
The County of Barrhead has agreed that they will contribute $5 million towards the capital costs for the Barrhead Aquatic Centre project, and for the next three years will contribute what they can toward operational costs.
Town Councillor Ryan Warehime said the county should contribute what they see as fair for operational costs.
“I can’t speak for our council, but my opinion is, we will take it ($5 million) as capital, you guys pay what you feel is fair for operating costs,” Warehime said. “You are the leaders of your community. If you feel that your people aren’t using the pool 50 per cent, pay accordingly.”
Lee said he was concerned with the authenticity of the proposal.
“We have had suggestions like that before, we need to have them in black and white,” Lee said.
St. Pierre told council the town is willing to put it in writing.
“We are prepared, to sign a document tonight saying if you are prepared to contribute $5 million capital we will allow you the option of paying whatever you feel is a fair rate for operating costs, until the end of our term,” St. Pierre said. “I want to see a deal done tonight.”
County Council needs to discuss the agreement during a regular council meeting prior to signing any documents, Lee said. The next meeting is on Tuesday, Dec. 16.
“If you are going to do something that is official than it has to go to council,” Chief Administrative Officer for the County Mark Oberg said.
Warehime advised that the meeting take a short recess, so both councils could meet, to discuss the proposed agreement.
“My belief is that a gentleman’s agreement is just as good as a contract written,” Warehime said, adding a contract would come later.
County Councillor Darrell Troock said that a recess may not be necessary.
“I have to believe that a handshake between the mayor and the reeve is as good as gold in my books… I trust both of them to hold their word,” Troock said.
Warehime said both councils would work together on the project.
“I would like it to be clarified that we are going to build a conventional building, but we would have the county’s involvement, on some sort of a committee… for the building of the project,” Warehime said. “The operations of the project would be determined based on your funding.”
Warehime said it is important that everyone is involved in this project, including Woodlands County, who are also contributing.
According to Lee, Woodlands has agreed to contribute anywhere between $1-$1.5 million for capital costs for the project.
County Councillor Bill Lane said his main concern is Alberta’s current economy, and what this could mean for the future of Barrhead taking on this amount of debt.
“We make the best decision we can… because we know that we are talking about a project, first of all, that isn’t going to be finished for 18 months,” Town Councillor Leslie Penny said.
The tentative agreement includes the construction of a conventional building, using the design proposed by the Town of Barrhead, and will cost a total of $12,752,756.
The design for the aquatic centre includes a six-lane swimming pool, a hot tub, a lazy river, and a learning pool.
Barrhead doesn’t need the Cadillac of swimming pools, Lane said.
According to St. Pierre, when both councils were looking into the design of the pool, they started at the Cadillac of pools and worked their way down.
“We started at what, $27 million… and it had all the bells and whistles,” St. Pierre said, adding they eliminated amenities from the concept, and agreed on a design for over $14 million.
“We have cut back even more now, we have gone down now to $12.7 million,” he added. “We are compromising a little, we are not quite building what this community needs but we are going to be able to make it work, the only thing is we want to build it right.”
