PENHOLD – The town and Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD) are at odds over the fee for using the Penhold Public Library.
The two parties have been engaged in ongoing negotiations since last summer when the CESD board approached the town to renegotiate the joint service library agreement. The board gave the town the required 12 months notice. If a new agreement could not be reached CESD planned to withdraw from the library deal, as stated in a letter sent to the town on Dec. 16.
The original agreement, created in August of 2014 when the adjoining Penhold Crossing Secondary School was built, continues to be in place today but is set to expire on June 30, 2020, said Shawn Russell, the CESD associate superintendent of corporate services.
At a recent meeting on Jan. 13, Penhold council discussed the deadlocked situation after months of back-and-forth negotiations.
Penhold mayor Mike Yargeau said the two sides were at an impasse.
“The more and more I think about that, it’s just not right. Frankly, I cannot believe it got to this point. It’s upsetting that we have, and I don’t think not having an agreement, an option,” Yargeau told council.
At the heart of negotiations is a fee, which the school board would like to renegotiate, said Russell.
“We’ve been negotiating with the town for quite some time now…so we were trying to negotiate a new agreement,” he said.
“The school board is not opposed to paying a fee. The ongoing negotiations are what amount that fee should be and that’s where the council and the board are not able to come to that agreement of what that fee should be,” explained Russell. “The board has their position, the council has their position. The board’s position is based on the best they can do, so going to mediation would not change the best they can do. That’s why they don’t feel that mediation is a way to resolve the issue.”
Mayor Yargeau does believe that mediation is the best route for the situation.
“From our perspective, we want to make sure we’re coming up with an agreement that’s fair to the Town of Penhold and of course to the school board as well. So we’ve proposed mediation as a way to resolve that,” said Yargeau. “The school board turned down that request the first time, so we’ve asked them to reconsider. I really think, in my view, if we’re committed and want to get this done, I think that’s the best way to do it.”
Yargeau said another factor to consider is the two connecting buildings - the Penhold Regional Multiplex, where the library is located, and Penhold Crossing Secondary School.
“We’re a joint facility,” said Yargeau. “They knocked out the wall to our gym, they knocked the wall out to our library, they built the school on. We are connected. I think the responsible thing for us to do is to recognize that, and to know that we have to sit down and come to an agreement that works for everybody,” he added. “There’s just no way to not acknowledge that we are connected.”
Russell also noted the joined layout, adding the school board built onto the existing library and owns a portion of it.
“That portion is open into theirs but there are walls that separate the school from the library itself,” he said. “In terms of the details of what the facility looks like it is open space right now. Part of that is owned by the town, part of it is owned by the school division and that’s why we had the joint use of that space and the agreement put in place.”
Yargeau said as part of negotiations the town looked at other similar agreements in Alberta between municipalities and school boards.
Both Yargeau and Russell want to continue working for a resolution.
“Having that relationship (with CESD) is a very positive thing for Penhold and I want to make sure we keep it,” said Yargeau.
“We want to reach an agreement that works for both parties, but if that’s not able to be done then the next step would be how do we look at moving forward without an agreement,” Russell concluded.
