The County of Paintearth council approved a revision to its policy involving grant funding during its most recent meeting held on Jan. 5, 2022.
At the Dec. 14, 2021, council meeting, council had requested that administration review Policy AS 009, Grants to Local Organizations, to create an equitable funding model for the three libraries within the county.
Administration noted that upon reviewing the funds granted to do different organizations, some of the costs “wouldn’t be realistic” in today’s economic environment, and as administration was reviewing the library portion of the grants they instead reviewed all the organizations and funding.
“This brings it more in line with what costs would be,”said chief administrative office Michael Simpson.
The policy stabilizes library funding at $7,500 per library, and also includes regular support for the cemeteries, fair boards, and rodeos in the region.
One area of increase was the support of the fair boards, which was increased from $150 to $300.
The various rodeos, which previously had to request annually to council for funding, are now included on the funding list and will each receive $500 in support from the county.
“This helps them in their budgeting process,” said Reeve Stan Schulmeister.
The various cemeteries in the region also included maintenance funding increases to help offset the rising cost of fuel.
With the new spending totalling around $11,750, the total grants budget will now be around $33,000, up from $22,300.
The motion to approve the increase was put forward by Coun. Terry Vockeroth.
Degelman mower
With supply chain snarls driving up the cost of everything, the County of Paintearth’s Agricultural Service Board found themselves to be on the receiving end of bad news.
A new Degelman REV 1500 mower had been budgeted for in the 2022 budget at the amount of $40,000.
After receiving quotes for a new mower, director of environmental services Jeff Cosens found that not enough had been allocated with quotes coming in closer to $45,000.
In a motion put forward by Coun. George Glazier, council approved the extra funds to come from reserves for the new mower to be purchased from Dion Co. Sales for the amount of $44,995.95 plus GST.
Windshield
Council has denied an administration recommendation to create a policy surrounding the replacement of non-county owned vehicle windshields.
The recommendation was made when another request for a windshield repair was made by someone who met a county owned gravel truck on Highway 9 around 9:15 a.m. on Oct. 29, 2021.
According to the director of public works, Bryce Cooke, the investigation into the incident corroborated the person’s complaint with GPS showing the county truck being at the approximate location of the incident at the time, and the driver remembering the incident.
In lieu of a policy, council has always had such incidents brought to a meeting to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
“I think is has worked pretty well in the past to investigate each case as it comes,” said Schulmesiter.
Deputy Reeve Maurice Wiart motioned to pay for the windshield repair at a cost of $278, which was carried.