Town council agreed at its August 27 meeting to guarantee a $4-million loan to the Olds Institute For Community and Regional Development for completion of the Fibre to the Premise Project.
Council gave first reading to the bylaw on July 9.
The OICRD has researched numerous ways to secure the remaining estimated $6 million that the town didn't help the OICRD secure through the Alberta Capital Finance Authority and after much research, has recommended that the organization enter into an authorized overdraft agreement with Mountain View Credit Union for $4 million. While the town wouldn't be required to pay any of that money should everything go according to plan, the OICRD was requesting the town's backing in case the OICRD defaults on the $4 million. In that case, the town would be required to take on the debt of the OICRD.
There was no discussion on the bylaw by councillors during the council meeting.
Following the conclusion of the meeting, Deputy Mayor Murray Ball said council is confident both that the project will benefit the community and that the OICRD is doing a good job in managing it.
“The Olds Institute has been very transparent in sharing with us where they are and we continue to be optimistic that this project will be a huge benefit to Olds, to its businesses and to its people and will set Olds aside as a very progressive community,” he said.
In a related development, the town office connection has been completed and the Olds Sports Complex and Olds Municipal Library were due to be connected by the end of last week. In total, the town has 14 separate connections to the network, including the old and new fire halls, aquatic centre and the 45 Street lift station, among others. As the exact timing and cost of connectivity were not known in the fall of 2011 when the 2012 budget was being prepared, council also approved last week a $35,350 increase to the budget to pay for the connections. Included in that figure, the town paid a one-time “lite-up investment” of $24,150, plus $11,200 in monthly connection charges.
