INNISFAIL – With summer not far away and many outdoor public events being planned, organizations could soon have a choice to secure a top-notch mobile event stage in town instead of opting for a costly alternative in either Calgary or Red Deer.
The idea of the Town of Innisfail acquiring its own professional mobile event stage or trailer stems for council’s decision last November to allocate $25,000 in the 2022 operating budget to procure the equipment.
Council was finally able to deal with this issue in greater detail at its regular meeting on March 28 when administration brought it forward for discussion.
Meghan Jenkins, the town’s director of community services, told council she had conducted preliminary research on options and costs and was looking for additional council input.
She noted the municipality could purchase a simple flatbed event trailer for $25,000 but asked council if that was the vision members had in mind.
“Let’s get something that's going to be really well utilized. I don’t really think $25,000 for a stage is going to cut it,” said Coun. Jason Heistad.
Coun. Dale Dunham said the town has experienced past events and festivals to gain considerable knowledge of what the current needs are.
“I think we need to look forward a little bit, and by having something small in scale I think we will find that the community will be renting out larger stages,” said Dunham. “As an individual who is involved in several different festivals, I know we would very much be willing to rent and we'd rather keep the money in the community than take it to Red Deer or Calgary or rent a flatbed trailer, which does suit needs, but not ideal for these situations.”
Mayor Jean Barclay said her preference would be to have a covered event stage. For liability reasons, she said the municipality was best suited to maintain and store it, and to handle all rental bookings by local groups.
“We would be looking after setting it up and taking it down and renting it out to organizations. Canada Day is the first thing that comes to mind,” said Barclay, noting in the past there was a trailer used that came from the Calgary Stampede. “Why are we doing that, right? Let’s have something here. We have enough things going on in this community now to support this. I think we would see even more events if we had a proper stage to host these things on.”
Jenkins told council that $25,000 was not going to get the town much more than a trailer. She said the town could be looking at an expenditure of up to $100,000 to get what is felt to be the best option for the town.
Coun. Don Harrison said he supported the concept of an event stage but wanted more detailed costs, and a management plan for the new equipment.
“I think $25,000 gets us in the door but I think at the end of the day it’s going to be considerably more than that,” said Harrison, adding the town then has to consider the “business case” of how the town is going to rent an event stage, and how it’s going to be managed. “I have been involved with a stage in the past with a previous municipality and it can go sideways pretty quick – the maintenance of it, the set up and the tear down.
“These are very expensive pieces of equipment and if it’s not set up properly you can destroy it pretty quick.”
Council unanimously approved a motion to direct administration to pursue options for the procurement of an event stage, along with creating a management plan for the new equipment.
Jenkins said she hopes to have a full report back to council by June.
