Barrhead County is not operating in good faith in regards to the pool.
That was the consensus the Town of Barrhead councillors expressed on Tuesday, Oct. 14 at their regular council meeting.
In the Oct. 14 issue, the Leader reported that in the Barrhead County council meeting on Sept. 25, county councillors decided to put the aquatic centre on hold until after a report on the possible amalgamation of the town and county is completed.
At the same meeting Barrhead County councillors instructed administration to draft a letter explaining the county’s position. The Town of Barrhead received the letter on Thursday, Oct. 9 and Tuesday’s meeting was the first time town councillors had a chance to respond to the letter as a group.
The letter, signed by Barrhead County Reeve, Bill Lee, said that although the county councillors could see a need for a new swimming pool for the Barrhead area it was not willing to release the $5 million it had earmarked for a new aquatic centre until both parties knew what the affects of amalgamation would have for a potential new combined municipality.
“With the prospect of amalgamation of both municipalities, and the uncertainty as how current debts, which may be added to a new municipality from other organizations, such as the Barrhead Regional Water Commission could affect the new municipality,” Lee wrote in the letter. “Our council feels it is prudent to delay the increasing of debt for both parties until after amalgamation is fully considered and decided on.”
Councillor Don Smith said it was his understanding from the initial information the town received from Alberta’s Municipal Affairs department is that both municipalities should continue to ‘carry on business as usual.’
“It is my understanding the county has passed a motion that would delay any new expenditures on capital projects until the amalgamation report is completed,” Smith said. “To me that isn’t business as usual.”
Smith asked administration if the town should forward the letter to Municipal Affairs as an example that the county is not acting in good faith and carrying on business as usual.
Martin Taylor, Barrhead chief administrative officer, said Smith interpretation was an interesting one and that he was not sure if it was one the ministry would agree with.
Councillor Ryan Warehime, who chaired the meeting in his position as deputy mayor, found it interesting that the county council passed a motion to freeze all capital expenditures.
Mayor Gerry St. Pierre said he was not surprised that the county decided to freeze all capital expenditures.
“It did not come to a complete surprise to me that they (county council) would use the swimming pool project as leverage in the amalgamation process,” St. Pierre said, adding that the action demonstrates that the county is not acting in good faith. “Amalgamation and the swimming pool are two separate issues and they should be dealt with accordingly,” he said.
St. Pierre said he will be attending a meeting of northern Alberta mayors later this month and he intends to bring up the issue with municipal affairs minister, Diana McQueen.
He said he would also bring up the issue later this week when representatives from the town and county meet with municipal affairs officials in an amalgamation information centre.
“We are committed to this project and we are going to continue to pressure the county to release the funds as was mandated by county residents in the plebiscite that was held last year,” St. Pierre said, adding that the vote was on a conceptual drawing of a new aquatic centre.
On July 14, in a joint town and county council meeting, Sprung Structures Ltd. suggested during a presentation that the costs of building a new aquatic centre could be reduced dramatically from the estimated $12 million to about $6 million.
A sprung structure is a building that uses aluminum arches as a frame. The frame is then covered by a strong, puncture resistant fabric.
St. Pierre said the county’s idea of possibly housing the new pool in a sprung structure building as a way to reduce the costs of a new pool is just a way to deflect attention away from the real issue.
“The residents of both the town and county voted on a conceptual plan as presented by an architect and not a sprung structure,” he said.
Another issue the town councillors were irritated about is the county’s assertion that they had limited amount of input in the pool project.
St. Pierre said three years ago, with the help of the Agrena Society, the town hired an architect to come up with a conceptual drawing for the pool and that the county agreed to share in the costs of the drawing.
“Once the decision to have an architect in place to develop a conceptual drawing, everyone had equal input, from the public to both councils,” St. Pierre said, adding that the county only brought it up as an issue after both councils started to negotiate on each other’s share of the facility’s operating costs.
Warehime agreed saying the town has offered to set up a joint committee that would oversee the operation of the facility.
“These things that are still on the table,” Warehime said. “We would welcome their input.”
Councillor Penny said during the three-year process of creating a conceptual plan there were a number of joint meetings, that not only included the town and the county, but Woodlands County as well.
St. Pierre argued that it is the county that has decided to act unilaterally when they started to talk about using a sprung structure.
“That was something they did on their own,” St. Pierre said, “The sprung structure, after talking with our architect as well as other contractors and project managers, was not a direction we were willing to go. This was their way of hijacking the project and delaying it.”
Smith agreed saying that by reading the reports in the local paper, along with the minutes of their meeting it looks like the county has decided on its own to cancel the project.
“It is like they want to throw out all the work that has been done and start the negotiation process for a pool all over again,” Smith said. “We have gone through a lengthy process and it is not fair to the residents of both communities.”
