Bowden town council will be discussing the rate charged for use of the community bus at budget time in the next few weeks following a brief discussion at the Oct. 22 council meeting.
For now, the rates will remain the same. Currently, each person pays a $5 round trip fee for trips to Innisfail or Olds, $60 for a round trip to Red Deer, $250 for a round trip to Airdrie and Rocky Mountain House, $400 per person for a round trip to Edmonton and $300 per person for a round trip to Calgary. If the bus travels to any other location, passengers are charged $0.53 per kilometre. There was also some discussion about whether to give Bowden Grandview School the flat rate charge of $0.53 per kilometre.
“We just wanted discussion on whether it was realistic or not. For now, we said it is, and we're going to wait to discuss it at budget time. We still haven't really crunched numbers on what it costs to operate the bus,” said Robb Stuart, Bowden's mayor, adding that since the service is less than a year old, the town is still working on best practices for the bus.
Town to work with FCSS on poverty reduction
Council decided to work with Family and Community Support Services to work on poverty reduction strategies. The action was taken in response to the Central Alberta Poverty Reduction Alliance attending the council meeting and talking about its activities.
One councillor will be meeting with FCSS to see about the possibility of FCSS and local service groups working together to see what can be done at the local level. Stuart said he hopes a meeting can take place in the next few weeks.
Council ratifies membership fee to RDRWA
Council ratified a $0.50 per capita charge to the municipality at the request of the Red Deer River Watershed Alliance to fund its lobbying and other activities such as monitoring of the river. The fee is paid by the Mountain View Water Services Commission on behalf of member municipalities.
"We still haven't really crunched numbers on what it costs to operate the bus."Robb Stuart, mayør, Town of Bowden
