CREMONA – At the regular council meeting on Oct. 18, council approved having the village purchase the Cremona United Church building and land from the United Church of Canada for $50,000.
“It will be municipal land,” said Luana Smith, CAO. “Council hasn't decided what to do with it yet but we know that in the future we would need some land.”
Smith said the church building, which is over 100 years old, would be kept intact.
“It's not a heritage building per se,” she said. “But for Cremona it is.”
Smith said the church and land were sold due to the low number of those in the congregation. “They can't afford to have a church anymore,” she said.
Smith said the land is right across from the village office and has ample area.
“I know in the future we'll have to do something about the fire hall. They're running out of space. Because of the location and that it's the oldest building in town.”
Smith added that the village will work with the church to ensure the members of the congregation are able to still use the church.
“We are going to have a memorandum of understanding,” she said. “They still want to use it on Sundays. The village— I'm sure we won't have any issues with that. We'll have to discuss contents—what they want to keep.”
In other news, council was presented with bylaw 447-13 regarding the tax penalty and tax installment payment plan. Council directed administration to bring the bylaw back with changes to the penalties.
“It'll be eight per cent after June 30 and 12 per cent after Dec. 31 on outstanding taxes,” said Smith. “This bylaw wouldn't come into effect until Jan. 1.”
Elsewhere, council approved the Financial Controls Policy on Oct. 18 as it was presented to them.
“Since October 2013 Mountain View County has had control of the Village of Cremona's financials,” said Smith.
“At the end of September, village staff took over all duties related to financial services. The auditors requested a policy be in place for the financial controls as well as guidelines.”
Council approved the Village of Cremona signing an interim agreement for the memorandum of agreement between the village and the county for the term of one year.
After some discussion regarding the two per cent increase, council approved the 2017 Parkland Regional Library budget.
“There were a couple of councillors concerned about the increase,” said Smith. “The only difference to the Village of Cremona was $72 a year. I think they saw the bottom line.”
Smith said the library and the agreement with Parkland is important to the village.
“We like our library,” she said. “We're getting an extension as well. They purchased a modular building to add on to the side to add 700 square feet. The library is small but it's very popular.”
