by Colin Smith
The Town of Morinville is looking to borrow $1 million to go toward purchase of land for the new/arena recreation centre.
Total cost of the land for the centre was identified as $1.7 million in the May 12 agenda package, with $700,000 of that amount to come from provincial grants and reserves.
A bylaw to enable the borrowing will be introduced at the May 12 Town Council meeting. The Town will be borrowing the money from the vendors, who will be taking take back mortgage for the balance owing of $1,000,000, repayable by installments of $500,000 on the first of January 2016 and 2017. The loan is interest-free.
The location of the new arena/recreation centre was announced in January, and since then there have been stakeholder meetings and other opportunities for public participation in the design of the project.
The new facility will be built on a 77-acre parcel east of East Boundary Road and north of Highway 642.
One of the conditions of the Town’s purchase of the land was that the purchase price was to remain confidential until the deal closed May 1. In the 2015 budget, $13.75 million was allocated for the land and a replacement arena.
The people who sold this property should be ashamed of themselves, buying the land from their family at a bargin basement price only to sell it for triple what they paid for it. Not only that the Town of Morinville paid double what the last asking price for this piece of land when it was last for sale only a few years ago. Something is shady here when you start looking at it and the people involved.
Maybe it’s just old age on my part, but I do not recall any mention, ever, of borrowing money to buy the land…
I thought the budgeted funds were supposed to be sufficient – and available.
What happened?