Until the province commits to providing cash to help with the operation of the Bowden Heritage Rest Area, the Town of Bowden will keep the facility closed.
Until the province commits to providing cash to help with the operation of the Bowden Heritage Rest Area, the Town of Bowden will keep the facility closed.
In a 5-1 vote at its April 14 meeting, Bowden council passed a motion not to open the rest area for the 2014 season unless prior funding arrangements with the province are in place. Coun. Wayne Milaney, who cast the dissenting vote, said he does agree with the position of his fellow councillors that the province should help shoulder some of the bill of operating the rest area.
"Having said that, that's not happening," he said. "So what do you do?"
Milaney has argued continuously that the rest area is a major benefit to Bowden businesses and drivers travelling south on Highway 2.
If the area remains closed, or is shuttered for good, it will hurt the town, he said.
"I just don't want to see another abandoned building on Highway 2 in the confined parameters of our town," Milaney said, adding he believes the facility will be vandalized if it is closed.
Christine Way, a spokeswoman for Alberta Transportation, told the Olds Albertan on April 11 the department's regional staff in Red Deer will provide cash for the operation of the rest area this year but that pledge had not been "formally communicated" to the town at that point.
The money, she said, will come out of the department's Red Deer office's current maintenance budget but Way did not have details on a specific amount.
Staff from Alberta Transportation's Red Deer office will speak with town officials this week about funding for the rest area, Way said.
She added Alberta Transportation will evaluate whether it will continue to fund the rest area's operation on a yearly basis until "longer-term plans" for rest areas along Highway 2 are executed.
Right now, she said, the department is "reviewing an overall strategy for safety rest areas along Highway 2."
"The location of the Bowden rest area is unlikely to be a long-term solution because it only serves southbound motorists and we have plans in the longer term for an interchange at Highway 587. However, we recognize that a short-term solution is needed because we do recognize that in the meantime before that interchange is built that this is useful for motorists along Highway 2."
Andy Weiss, the town's chief administrative officer, said since the April 14 meeting, provincial government staff have contacted him to say they are prepared to "address some level of funding."
"I think their desire is to see it opened year-round if they're going to fund it but I haven't received anything formal from them," he said.
Weiss added the town provided its 2013 expenses for the rest area, along with projected expenses for 2014, to the province.
He said council made its decision to hold off on opening the rest area in the interest of town taxpayers.
"Council is entrusted with public money. So they feel, rightfully so, that they need to be prudent with their expenditures from the public purse," he said. "Council feels, as do I, that the rest stop is more of a service for Albertans than it is directly for the citizens of Bowden and as such, the province should bear some responsibility towards the costs associated with running that facility."
Once the province finalizes a funding plan for the rest area, Weiss said, he will present that offer to council.
He added he anticipates receiving information from the province regarding rest area funding before council's next meeting.
If such information does not arrive before the last council meeting prior to the May long weekend, when the town traditionally opens the rest area, the town could call a special meeting to deal with the matter, Weiss said.
The town has budgeted $30,000 for the operation of the rest area this year.
Last year, the town learned it would no longer receive a grant from the Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation that it has relied on since the 1990s to run the facility.
The town typically puts roughly $30,000 into the operation and maintenance of the rest area, which opened in 1984 and includes a campsite often used for picnics located just north of the Bowden Golf Course and adjacent to a rest stop on the southbound lanes of Highway 2.
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