The County of Barrhead discussed during their regular council meeting on Friday, Nov. 21, a document they received from Barrhead Town Council about contributions made by the county to recreational services.
The document included a letter from the town, discussing the past contributions made on both parts, and the request for further assistance.
Also included was documentation listing the various recreational services provided to the community, and a list of the percentages contributed from both councils.
The document from the town lists some of the services provided by the two councils, this includes items like the Agrena and pool operations, with a total of $128,016 contributed by the county, and $581,595 contributed by the town in 2013, according to the document.
The document also states that the county contributed 45 per cent, a total of $27,477 in 2013 towards the youth summer program, with the town contributing 55 per cent, a sum of $29,548 in 2013.
In total, the county contributed $358,509 in the year 2013 to the various recreational operations and services provided to the community, with the town contributing $1,143,152.
The document said that the county has contributed 21 per cent over the past three years, with the town contributing 79 per cent.
A third and final portion to the document was the recreation operating costs 2015 proposed budget summary.
The proposed budget for the county was to split the costs 50 per cent on all services, including the Barrhead curling rink, which the county currently does not contribute to.
“This doesn’t mean nothing right now,” Councillor Darrell Troock said, adding that he doesn’t want to make a decision on the information until it has been investigated further.
Deputy Reeve Doug Drozd said that if the county is going to look into the idea of contributing more for the services, council should look deeper at the budgets for the facilities.
“If we are going to seriously consider giving more to the town of Barrhead for recreation in the Agrena, or the other facilities, we are going to get the working papers and more information,” Deputy Reeve Doug Drozd said. “We are going to need to get down into the actual budgets of those departments and have a look at them instead of a summary.”
“But based on a quick summary like this I am not really quite sure of the accuracy of the numbers, and there are even things thrown in here like the curling rink, which is kind of a flyer… we do contribute to it,” Drozd said, adding they contribute through the capital costs.
“We need more information, and we need the actual budgets,” he added.
The information was presented to the county during a joint meeting on Nov. 6, and Drozd said maybe the town was expecting the county to accept the information as fact, and not look into it any further.
“The night that they presented it to us, I guess they wanted to try and catch us, and have us accept this as a truth, and guilt us into giving them more, but we need to go back and study this a lot more,” Drozd said.
“It is their costs, but also if we can figure ways to reduce those costs isn’t that beneficial too?” Reeve Bill Lee said.
Councillor Marvin Schatz suggested council make a motion to accept the document as information.
The motion was passed unanimously.
