ATHABASCA — The capital and operating budgets for the Athabasca Regional Multiplex (ARM) will include lighting upgrades, roof repairs, and a new ice plant condenser as well as a modest fee increase for ball diamond users.
At the Jan. 17 meeting of the ARM society, general manager Rhonda Alix presented the capital budget, projecting spending of $170,476.30 on projects like spot repairs to the roof and upgrading the LED lighting under a Municipal Climate Change Action Centre (MCCAC) grant, as well as funding for the ice plant condenser under a Community Facilities Enhancement Program (CFEP) grant.
“They’ve had some changes over at the grant office unfortunately, so I’ve contacted them a few times and e-mailed them a few times to get the ice condenser on the CFEP grant,” said Alix. “But we do have $200,000 in the CFEP grant to put toward this.”
The members also chose to increase the rental costs for the five ball diamonds as there has not been an increase since a three per cent bump in 2019.
“(Adult) slo-pitch season runs May to the end of July, games are four nights per week on two diamonds, last year they had 15 teams, and we currently have a price cap of $1,700 for them which works out to about $10 per game,” she said.
ARM staff float the diamonds and re-chalk the lines for adult ball which takes up to 45 minutes per diamond and Alix noted Slave Lake has a rate of $34 per hour for adults and $17 per hour for youth. Westlock youth pay $13 for two hours and adults $19.50 for two hours.
After some discussion, the decision was made to increase the fees to $30 for three hours for youth and $45 for three hours for adults with a cap of $2,500 and $5,000, respectively. The full-day rate for diamonds went to $100 per day per diamond and there was no increase on other user fees.
“So, we prepare the 2022 proposed budget," said Alix. “We believe this is a conservative budget because of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The only thing that's not included in the budget is cost of living adjustment on wages.”
Increasing the operating budget with a one per cent wage increase would cost $13,108.60; two per cent equals $26, 217.20; 2.5 per cent would be $32,771.50 and three per cent would be $39,325.80.
“Do we follow the county and the town as far as COLA (cost of living adjustment) increases?” asked Town of Athabasca Coun. Dave Pacholok, who also chairs the society.
The managers have followed the increases, but the staff have not gotten a raise in a long time, so long, Alix said, she couldn’t even find information.
“It’s been a little while since they got a COLA increase, yes,” she said.
Director and Town of Athabasca Coun. Jon LeMessurier said he supports giving staff a decent COLA increase, suggesting three per cent.
“I just think there’s been so much missed for so many years and there’s people on staff that have worked for a lot of years at this place,” he said. “I’m sure there’s frustrations and there’s pretty good staff here that we don’t want to lose.”
The society directed ARM administration to figure out how to cover the cost of the wage increase and will decide how much it will be after the town and county each decide on their own staff wage increases.
