Rec Centre Contract
Golden Town Council has decided they would like to renew their operating contract with the Columbia Shuswap Regional District for six months, with a 12 month termination clause for the Golden and District Recreation Centre.
Staff have now been authorized to advise the CSRD that this is what the Town would like to see happen. The CSRD, who owns the building, had previously expressed a desire to extend the contract for six months, instead of the typical five-year term, so that they have time to review the operating model.
Council added the 12-month termination clause, essentially making it an 18-month contract, so that the Manager of Recreation Services for the Town, Jordan Petrovics, could still continue with the season’s operations.
“This is part of a larger conversation, and before we enter into a longer term agreement, that conversation needs to happen,” said Coun. Caleb Moss.
The municipality has been seeking more equitable cost sharing with the CSRD for facilities such as the swimming pool for a long time now, and has a scheduled meeting with Area A Director Garry Habart in September to discuss it, among other things.
“This is costing us over $3,000 a day to operate, it’s a pretty big ticket item. And it’s also very central to our community…I haven’t got my head around what the real benefit is to the Town of Golden for the part we play in this.”
Rec Plex Board
The Town of Golden has received notice from the Mount 7 Rec Plex Board of Directors that the group will not be signing a property management agreement with the municipality.
“Since the inception of this building we have taken pride in our volunteer support based management of the Rec Plex. Since our volunteer numbers are down it is much harder to offer these services through the current board,” read the letter from the board.
Manager of Recreation Services Jordan Petrovics is putting together a briefing note for the next council meeting with some options for council to discuss.
The board had not submitted any comments regarding the new contract, and no negotiations took place. However in the letter it was stated that it was the board’s hope to, “actively participate in any Advisory Boards established in the future for the Rec Plex…We would like to extend out willingness to the Town of Golden to consider the directors for any advisory board positions.”
Community Excellence Awards
In a close vote at the last regular meeting, Golden Town Council voted to continue sponsoring the Mayor’s Award of Excellence at this year’s Kicking Horse Country Chamber of Commerce Community Excellence Awards.
This makes the Town of Golden a Silver Sponsor, for a cost of $500, which is what they have traditionally done in the past.
Coun. Keith Hern voted against the sponsorship, saying he views it as grant-in-aid, which the municipality no longer does. He was also confident that he would be able to find an individual in the community to carry the sponsorship, meaning the award would not disappear.
“I’ll put forward a motion to continue sponsoring this. It would be a little embarrassing if we didn’t support the Mayor’s Award and the Chamber,” said Coun. Mike Pecora.
The award was named by the Chamber of Commerce, as it was the award that was typically supported by the municipality.
Coun. Caleb Moss also voted against the sponsorship, saying he would rather support the event through the purchase of tickets for staff and council to attend.
After the vote was cast, Hern expressed his disagreement with Moss regarding the purchase of tickets.
“The staff are given a Christmas party, and I don’t think they need a fall party as well. So I would not support purchasing a table for staff or for council. If council wants to go, they can pay for tickets,” he said.
In the past the Town has purchased tables, although not every year, for staff members and councillors to attend in a social/political capacity.
Attendance has also varied, with very few seats being filled some years.
There was no vote cast to direct staff to purchase tickets, however Moss noted that if any staff member or councillor attends in a professional capacity, they would submit their receipts for reimbursement anyway.
