Plans for Sundre’s new community gazebo are coming along.
However, chances are construction on the project, which will be built at the Greenwood Campground, is not likely to be finished before next spring, council recently heard.
“Is it going to be built in 2018?” Coun. Cheri Funke asked administrative staff presenting an update on the initiative during the Aug. 20 meeting.
“I was confident back when I did my presentation in June that we might be able to, but I’m less confident now,” said Jon Allan, economic development officer.
However, there is the possibility of getting a foundation graded before this year is out, he said.
Allan, along with Barb Rock, Sundre’s community services assistant, had outlined the progress made to date, which included a community survey seeking input from residents to get feedback on, among other considerations, a preferred architectural style.
Among the questions the municipality received was whether the gazebo would have a user fee, which Allan said would ultimately come down to council’s approval. Since this type of program creation and delivery comes under the purview of the community services department, he offered Rock the floor.
Through correspondence with other municipalities such as Okotoks, which has picnic shelters at various parks, she told council that town has an hourly rate.
“It was kind of along the lines of what I was thinking of,” she said, explaining that Sundre charges for the use of the Greenwood Campground’s cookhouse.
“It’s $12 per day, or it’s $4 if you have a site rented,” she said, adding a site costs $28.50.
In Okotoks, there is a two-hour minimum with a rate of $9.43 for local as well as non-profit groups, or $21 for profit or business rentals, she said, adding that represents a similar rental rate structure to what Sundre offers for the community centre.
“They only do these rentals if somebody wants it exclusively. Otherwise it’s open to the public,” she said, adding staff mark the site as reserved when a group has rented the space for private use.
“I can see something like that potentially working. When the campground is open, the camp hosts could monitor that, so there would be really no extra staff charges.”
Coun. Todd Dalke wondered whether any caveats were included with a donation commitment from West Fraser.
“They want to be able to use it for a couple of their company functions they have, like an employee appreciation. So that was what they were requesting with their donation,” said Rock.
Funke said she was not necessarily inclined to agree with charging a rental fee.
“If there’s power, I could see charging a fee to cover the power,” said the councillor, who was not convinced a rental fee should be charged just to use the gazebo, even if for exclusive or private use.
Mayor Terry Leslie said deciding on specific details associated with using the gazebo at that point in time was still premature, and that further conversations would be beneficial.
“There would be folks that would share the position of why would there be a fee, but if you wanted exclusive use for a wedding, there might need to be,” said Leslie, adding those are questions to ask as the process moves forward.
Allan agreed with the mayor that setting fees at this stage was too early and would be full of conjecture. However, there is also the question of whether people who already rented a site at the campground would get first choice to use the gazebo, he said.
“Or will it be like the camp kitchen, and not be for day use,” he said, adding the decision will be up to council based on the community services department’s proposal.
“This is my personal opinion, but it would be open to anybody,” he said, adding to his mind the gazebo would be available year-round leaving open the possibility of placing a reserved sign for special bookings or events.
But otherwise, the gazebo should offer a park-like setting that’s open to the general public, he added.
“I’ll just put my two cents in,” said Linda Nelson, chief administrative officer.
“We should have a formal booking program because it would eliminate confusion of two people showing up at the same time — first-come, first-served, so booking in advance.”
Allan said that makes perfect sense, and that the gazebo would be for the public to use and book as required.
Responding to an unrelated question regarding what the $10,000 budgeted by the municipality for the project would be spent on if there is already a major donation commitment to make the gazebo a reality, Allan said those funds were intended to cover the cost of the project’s planning and preparation, not the structure itself.
“The gazebo, if we were to pay for it, would cost significantly more than $10,000 to create, unless we just got a small one,” he said, adding that something more suitable to accommodate larger functions and features a more iconic architectural style would run up a higher tab.
The $10,000 is being spent on drafting a design — which as of the time of council’s meeting remained a work in progress — the site planning as well as engineering to make the site as safe as possible for public use, he said.
Another inquiry about the project stemmed from a concern that if the gazebo is intended to beautify Sundre, why companies that submitted drawings were not directed to follow the municipality’s downtown theme, he said.
“Currently, the town does not actually have any sort of architectural controls or guidelines — at all,” he said.
“What people might be getting confused with is the existence of the storefront improvement program guidelines.”
Although administration is in the planning process to introduce architectural guidelines in the municipality’s land use bylaw, there are as of this point in time none in place, he said.
“The (gazebo’s) whole design process is still a work in progress, and we’re going to have something great. It will be reflective of what we would expect our standards would be downtown, even if there is not a current overlay existing just yet.”
Coun. Charlene Preston also wondered about the results from the public survey, which is now closed, in terms of numbers of responses as well as design preferences.
“We had 210 replies, which is actually significant compared to so many other surveys,” said Allan, adding 33 people took time to provide additional comments.
The favourite design, by far, was a river gazebo option, he said.
“There’s still a work in progress to refine the size, the site plan, the scope, the materials. But we have an idea now what the public kind of liked and we can still move forward.”
The presentation was an update for council and did not require a motion, although Dalke added the survey’s results, as well as answers to the additional questions, should be shared online.
“We don’t have a website yet, so we’ll have to make a special posting for it” on social media, said Allan.
He told the Round Up last week that the designers are working together to come up with final specs to work with the winning option, which will be brought back to council for approval.
