The Sundre Regional Recreation Advisory Committee is no more — at least for the time being.
Council discussed at its Nov. 9 meeting the committee's decision in October to be dissolved.
Angie Lucas, who was acting as administrator in Dave Dubauskas's absence, said council had before it a request to repeal the bylaw that had created the committee to begin with.
“The council supported originally the master recreation plan and the creation of this committee with the first reading in Oct. 2013, and the second and third readings in Dec. 2013,” she said.
“However the committee has decided that it no longer wants to exist and on Oct. 1, 2015, the committee voted to be dissolved.”
Coun. Myron Thompson wanted to know whether anybody knew the reason why there had been no success in getting the committee off the ground and why it wanted to be dissolved.
Having first sat on that committee as a member of the public and then as a member of council, Coun. Cheri Funke said, “It never really knew what its job was. It didn't have clear outlines. There was the feeling that there was some people that wanted it to go this way, some people wanted it to go this way. We couldn't even agree on what we wanted to do — it was just not a good flowing committee and no matter what we did we couldn't find our way.”
Coun. Chris Vardas, who chaired the meeting in Mayor Terry Leslie's absence, said what happened was the committee's mandate, which dictates the way the group was supposed to function, was never made clear. There was some confusion about having a master plan without knowing how to address that plan, he said, adding that doesn't mean the committee won't come back at a later time.
Thompson then asked who is responsible for providing that mandate.
“Well, council would be because it's a committee of council,” said Lucas.
“But often what happens is council can request that a committee be put together, and then that volunteer committee has a discussion to form its own terms of reference or bylaws and then they can bring that to council for discussion to determine whether council feels that that is the mandate or not. Or council already has a clear mandate in place, so they strike that committee and form that committee for that one purpose.”
As the committee was struck before she started working for the town, Lucas said she wasn't sure what happened.
“But it seems not to have worked, so the committee has requested to be dissolved.”
As the town has a new manager of community services, Lucas said it would be ideal to have that person in place for at least six to eight months in order for him to get his feet on the ground as well as get a better understanding of community services. The decision could then be revisited if council wants to form a new recreation committee at that point in time, she said.
“I certainly hope that something can come of this,” said Thompson. “Because you only look to history when the recreation board was formed — that was one of the responsible bodies that brought the skating rink to be, it brought the artificial ice to be, it relocated the rodeo grounds and set up an entire recreation area. They all worked together as an advisory group to those who could make the decisions. It worked every year just perfectly, and now there's nothing?”
There's a lot more to be achieved and the community only has the potential to keep growing, he said.
“We need that kind of activity. Whatever we can do to get it going, count me as part of it. I'd like to see it go.”
Vardas agreed and said that's part of the plan — to eventually have a strong recreation committee again.
“But if you don't have the right leadership, it goes astray.”
Council ended up carrying the first, second and third readings to repeal the bylaw that formed the Sundre Regional Recreation Advisory Committee.
