by Tristan Turner
Morinville News Correspondent
Morinville Council had a light agenda to deal with after the Christmas holiday Jan. 10.
Library Board full-up after multiple appointments
Following a unanimous vote from Council, four new members will be appointed to the Morinville Library Board, bringing the organization up to its 10-person capacity. Councillor Rob Ladouceur declared a pecuniary interest in the vote as his mother, Linda Ladouceur, was one of the potential appointees.
The members appointed to the board are Shawn Belisle, Linda Ladouceur, Betty McGrath and David Purkis, all with terms set to expire October 2019. Library Board members are responsible for overseeing financial and governance decisions for the Library. Additionally, they are often advocates for the organization both within Morinville, and the surrounding region. Members are paid a small honorarium from Morinville taxpayers for their service at regular board meetings.
Following no debate or discussion, Council unanimously approved all members, as is typical for library board appointments where council usually differs to the decision of the board itself on appointing new members.
Town seeks $50,000 grant for arena land servicing with County
The Town is going ahead with a grant application to the provincial Alberta Community Partnership (ACP) grant program through Alberta Municipal Affairs to develop an inter-municipal funding framework for the lot of the new arena project. The application is made jointly by the Councils of Sturgeon County and Morinville, a requirement for the ACP program, which encourages inter-municipal cooperation on regional projects. The County has an interest in the site because of plans to construct a new office for Sturgeon County employees on land they purchased beside Morinville’s. They have already dedicated that they will contribute to servicing costs on the Morinville owned lot, just East of East Boundary Road.
The site, technically located in Sturgeon County, has already seen the initial stages of development and grading ahead of the construction of the Town’s new multi-million-dollar arena and rec facility. The new facility, yet to be named or finalized in detail, has been a multi-year project for the Town, who recently got the County to cooperate on a Joint Business Case for the site that allowed the project to meet requirements for some Provincial and Federal grants, including the ACP.
The grant requests $50,000 of provincial funding, all to cover costs of hiring consultants and conducting a legal review to establish an agreement between the municipalities that will allow them to proceed with funding the project through their Joint Servicing Committee.
Council rapidly and unanimously approved the grant application with no debate.
