The Town of Didsbury will have to look elsewhere to help cover the cost of improvements at its pool since Mountain View County councillors denied any additional funding.During last week's regularly scheduled council meeting, councillors were presented with a request for $148,384.06 from the Town of Didsbury.The funds requested included $94,977.15 for repairs to the facility's waterslide and for replacement of the facility's HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) unit.As well, an additional $35,091.91 was requested for repairs to the facility's beams.Deputy Reeve Patricia McKean said the decision to deny the funding request had to do with the fact that the county already gives the Town of Didsbury more than $90,000 per year to help specifically with pool costs.“As stated in our MOA (memorandum of agreement) the costs that we provide on recreation funding is to support operation and maintenance,” said McKean.Under the current MOA between the Town of Didsbury and Mountain View County, the county provides (in addition to other funding) $38.74 per capita for towns that have swimming pool facilities, compared with towns that do not have a pool, said Director of Legislative Services Jeff Holmes.In the case of Didsbury, that amounts to $90,884.04 in addition to about $152,000 in other recreational funding per year.“Section 7 of the county-Town of Didsbury MOA also provides clarity that our annual per capita contributions are intended to help cover the operating and maintenance costs for all indoor and outdoor recreation facilities,” said Holmes.“The agreement also provides the following definition: ‘Capital costs' means new facilities, expansions to existing facilities and intensification of use of existing facilities.”Holmes noted that the county has plans in place to review its regional parks and recreation master plan in 2013.The current plan calls for the establishment of a fund between municipalities for capital maintenance of facilities. That fund has not yet been established.
