Mountain View County council has approved a new inter-municipal collaboration framework master agreement and a related recreational and culture funding sub-agreement with the Town of Sundre.
The move came by way of motion at the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
Reeve Bruce Beattie says having the agreements in place “sets the stage for a long-term working relationship” with the Town of Sundre.
“The negotiations got delayed because of the discussions around our gravel pit south of Sundre, where we put the negotiations on hold until we were through that process,” said Beattie.
“We have had our challenges in the past. We are pleased with the way things are headed and we want to be a good partner with Sundre.”
The recreation and culture funding sub-agreement calls for the county to contribute $106.30 for general recreation, $15.60 for library funding, and $58.65 for pool funding per capita based on a town-rural population of 3,471.
“That’s about a 40 per cent increase (over 2017), just as the other towns received starting on January 1, 2018,” he said. “Council has agreed to provide the full funding for 2018 for Sundre. We had paid the first six months at the 2017 rate (during the gravel pit negotiations).
“While politicians may negotiate these things our interest is our residents and the volunteers who work at those facilities, so we didn’t see any reason why they should suffer the consequences of us not being able to get our act together as quickly as we would have liked. We decided to go forward and make it the full allowance for the full year.”
Unlike the sub-agreements with the other towns, the MVC-Town of Sundre agreement identifies pool funding as a stand-alone item.
“Because Sundre is a bit of a unique situation where the pool in Sundre is run by volunteers and not owned by the town, we wanted to make sure that it was clear that this was the funding coming from the county to the pool and we anticipate that to be a straight flow through to the pool,” he said.
Under the master agreement the county agrees to make annual financial contributions that will assist the Town of Sundre with operating and capital maintenance costs of facilities located within the town.
“The purpose of this agreement and the sub-agreements that flow from it is to better serve and provide quality of life to the community that is the Town of Sundre and Mountain View County by ensuring that growth management, land use planning, programs and services are effectively, efficiently and economically delivered and are reasonably available to them,” the agreement states.
Also under the agreement an inter-municipal collaboration committee will be formed that will, in part, “provide a forum both for dealing with issues before they become problems and capitalizing on opportunities that might arise in a mutually beneficial and timely fashion.”
The county now has new inter-municipal collaboration framework master agreements signed with Olds, Sundre, Didsbury, Carstairs and Cremona.
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