BARRHEAD – In lieu of allowing the Barrhead & Area Regional Crime Coalition (BARCC) to use the Dr. Charles Godberson Multi-Purpose Room for free, the Town of Barrhead will instead provide the group with a $500 donation that had already been budgeted for but never given.
Town councillors passed a motion at their Aug. 22 meeting to deny a request from BARCC to waive the rental fees for using the multi-purpose room in order to host a three-day certification course in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).
As explained in a letter from BARCC chairman Ron Kleinfeldt, the CPTED course is targeted at “curators of public and community spaces” such as municipal staff, community hall operators, campground owners and others.
Mayor Dave McKenzie noted that, from the perspective of the Town of Barrhead, it’s primarily targeting staff in departments recreation and public works.
“They’re the ones that are creating parks and walkways and stuff like that, so the training … would be very beneficial,” McKenzie said.
In fact, the Town of Barrhead had originally planned to put on a CPTED course in 2022, but it was postponed for various reasons.
However, BARCC received an Alberta Crime Prevention Grant last year and the group intends to use that money to revive the project.
The grant will allow BARCC to subsidize registration costs for participating municipalities, but not the rental fees for using the Dr. Charles Godberson room.
“The (room) would be an ideal location and is well set up to hold this course, since one component of the training involves going on class site visits of public spaces in town,” Kleinfeldt stated.
Chief administrative officer (CAO) Edward LeBlanc said renting the multi-purpose room for three days would cost approximately $459.14, excluding GST.
LeBlanc said the town has received a number of similar requests to waive the fees for the use of municipal facilities, but council has generally denied those requests out of fear of setting a precedent.
However, in those cases, council has also opted to make a donation of funds equivalent to the request. He then pointed out the $500 line item in the town’s budget to make a contribution to BARCC.
McKenzie said the town has continuously set aside this $500 but it had never actually been called upon, so this was a good opportunity to have the funds “coming out of the right budget.” The rest of council agreed.
Incidentally, the crime prevention grant will also allow BARCC to host a number of short crime prevention workshops for the public in the Town and County of Barrhead, as well as Woodlands County. Dates and locations have not yet been determined.
