Woodlands County has decided to take their offer to contribute to the Barrhead Aquatic Centre off the table.
On Tuesday, May 5, during their regular Whitecourt meeting, Woodlands County council voted unanimously to rescind their funding offer for both the operating and capital budgets of Barrhead’s proposed new aquatic centre.
Fort Assiniboine Coun. Dale Kluin made the motion after an in-camera portion of the meeting.
The decision comes less than a week after the mayors and reeve of Woodlands County and the town and county of Barrhead met together at an informal meeting in an effort to come to an agreement over the operating costs of the facility.
Woodlands County tentatively offered to contribute $1.5 million towards the construction of the estimated cost of the $13 million facility and 10 per cent towards operating expenses of the pool.
“The two mayors and the reeve wanted to meet to see if we could come to a last ditch effort to see if we could come to an agreement,” he said, adding that when they didn’t he took it to his council for direction.
Rennie said in the in-camera meeting council decided that they had spent enough time on the issue and it was time to pursue other recreational opportunities for their residents. As part of the motion, council voted to meet with Fort Assiniboine residents to come up with other recreational activities that might enhance resident’s lives.
He was also quick to point out that even if the three municipalities had been able to come to an agreement, there was still a number of steps to take before Woodlands County could formally commit to the project.
First council would have to make a formal resolution for council to vote on. That resolution, with all the information the county has about the facilty, would then have to be presented to Fort Assiniboine residents in a series of public hearings and open houses.
It would be only after receiving input from the public would council have been able to make a final vote whether or not to accept the final agreement.
“I think it’s important that we don’t point fingers at any of the three communities. It is very difficult to get three groups to come together and make an agreement,” Rennie said.
