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Castor council approves new recreation bursary policy

Castor’s town council has approved a new recreation funding policy recommended to them by the Castor Recreation Board.
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(File photo)

Castor’s town council has approved a new recreation funding policy recommended to them by the Castor Recreation Board.

The proposed policy was presented to council in the agenda package for the April 11 meeting and presented by chief administrative officer (CAO) Christopher Robblee.

Focusing on the recent success of the Town of Castor’s youth sports teams, the policy will allow the Castor Recreation Board to award bursaries of up to $50 for individual players or $200 for teams who are competing in sports at “provincial level or higher tournaments.”

Up to $1,000 a year from the Castor Minor Sports (programming) account will be used to fund these athletic bursaries, and berths to the tournaments must be earned through regular season play.

While town council normally approves these grant requests, minor sports put forward the request for this policy as a team recently competed at provincial level and there was no time to get the request before council.

Council approved the policy in a motion by Coun. Kevin McDougall.

Snow removal private contracting

At the request of Mayor Richard Elhard, administration has sought a quote for the private contracting of snow removal in Castor.

Town costs to remove snow over the winter using municipally owned equipment and staff were around $14,600, not counting fuel costs or amortization of equipment.

These costs include snow removal at the cemetery, ball diamonds, town walking paths and airport.

Using the rates supplied by a potential contractor based on the time it took town employees to remove the snow, the cost for the same snow removal would be around $27,000 for a contractor according to Robblee.

“I can’t see that hiring a contractor would be any cheaper than having the town doing it,” said Coun. Don Sisson.

“Maybe we need to get more efficient.”

Town staff getting more efficient was a thought agreed upon by councillors Cecil Yates and McDougall as well, though McDougall suggested the possibility of the town shifting to a hybrid model of snow removal, using contractors to get rid of the windrows on Main Street during winter months.

Ultimately, Coun. Sisson put forward a motion that there was to be no private contracting of snow removal at this time, which was carried.

Castor Rodeo

Council has approved a request by the Castor Rodeo committee to provide photocopying services to the organization.

To assist the rodeo, the town has provided photocopying at no-charge to the organizers for the creation of programs and other materials.

“You’ve approved this every year, it would be my recommendation to approve it again,” said Robblee.

The request was approved in a motion by Coun. McDougall.

Paintearth Lodge Requisition

The Town of Castor has received it’s Paintearth Lodge requisition for 2022.

Based on equalized assessments of $77,317,121, the town Will be paying $40,443.

The amount is an increase from the approximately $38,000 paid by the town in 2021.

According to Robblee, the increase is due to the increased assessment value in the community.



Kevin Sabo

About the Author: Kevin Sabo

I’m Kevin Sabo. I’ve been a resident of the Castor area for the last 12 years and counting, first coming out here in my previous career as an EMT.
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