OLDS — Olds Institute (OI) officially no longer exists.
“The receivership for the Olds Institute for Regional Community Development has been completed, effective a few days ago. So that organization has now been wrapped up and no longer exists, for all intents and purposes,” said Brent Williams, the town’s chief administrative officer during town council’s policies and priorities meeting earlier this month.
OI was created in 2001 to enable town leaders and volunteers to improve the community in various ways.
Over time, that included the creation of several committees that looked after things as diverse as technology, lifestyles and making the community age-friendly. Mountain View Power (MVP) came under its umbrella too.
However, a couple of years ago the town decided to move the assets of OI, including O-NET, into a municipally-controlled corporation.
At that time, town officials saw the corporation as a way to solve a big problem, debt and a line of credit totalling $18 million.
The town incurred $14 million worth of debt and a $4 million line of credit to help Olds Fibre Ltd. finance the installation of fibre optic lines in the community.
During the P & P meeting, Williams announced that Mountain View Power has also now been officially “assigned” to the town.
Williams said he understood from council that any funds arising from operation of MVP have to be “100 per cent community-driven.”
He said the town doesn’t plan on spending any of those funds until the 2023 budgetary year.
During an email discussion with the Albertan, Williams said as far as he can tell, the only committee formerly under the wing of OI that currently exists is the Community Lifestyles Committee (CLC).
“They are an autonomous group, so they do not report to the town," he wrote, adding that the Age-Friendly Initiative still exists and is a subcommittee of the CLC.
"Thanks to the Chamber of Commerce we have an address, telephone number and a place to meet. We pay all of our own expenses," Rita Thompson, who co-chairs the CLC along with Bernice Lynn, wrote in an email. "We have been able to get grants by working in partnership with Rural development."
Williams noted that the Health Professionals Attraction and Retention committee is in the process of being restarted again in conjunction with the town, the province’s Rural Health Professionals Action Plan and the Peaks to Prairies Primary Care Network.
He said OI’s technology committee no longer exists.
Williams said committee funding has not yet been determined but that his “initial thoughts” are that they would be funded directly via the town or through Mountain View Power revenue.
