By Kevin J Sabo
For the Advance
The Town of Castor is on the hook for nearly $1,000 worth of repair costs to the Town owned Library and Paintearth Adult Learning building.
During the April 8 council meeting, council was informed of the March 30 break-in where pproximately $150 was stolen from Paintearth Adult Learning.
Two exterior doors and two interior doors were damaged during the break-in. The RCMP was notified of the break-in after it was discovered and are investigating.
With the break-in, Town administration is looking into the possibility of extending the town’s current alarm system to the library building and will report findings back to council at a later date.
Town administration has been approached by the Castor Men’s Night Out group about putting in some ground level seating and a bar in the northeast corner of the arena in which is space that is not currently being used. The move would bring in some more accessible seating in the arena, and potentially bring in another source of revenue for the arena. n the proposal, Men’s night out has offered to fund and manage the construction of the bar and the new seating, but they would not run the bar.
With the issues that have plagued the arena over the last few months during it’s nearly $1 million renovation, Robblee told council that he would like to see a joint committee with representatives of both council and the rec board define the scope, cost, and timeline of the project, and then have the project guided to completion by administration. “This should be investigated,” said Deputy Mayor Tony Nichols in support of the proposal.
CAO Robblee will investigate the issues for the potential project regarding liability and implementation and bring the information back to council at a later meeting. The town-owned porta-potty in place behind Quality Fitness will be kept in place until the sewage repairs plaguing the main street business can be completed, at no charge to the business.
Council voted in favour of donating the porta-potty at an approximate cost to the town of $1,200 month. This cost accounts for cleaning and maintaining the unit on a weekly basis. Quality Fitness Studio continues to pay the water and sewage portion of their town bill despite not being able to use the service. Mayor Richard Elhard proposed the donation as a way of supporting the business until the repairs can be made.
“Rod (Anderson) is trying to keep businesses on main street,” agreed Coun. Trudy Kilner. “I agree with Richard.”
The gym began having sewage issues shortly after it opened, getting worse as the winter progressed. The Town will not be able to attempt a repair for at least another month, until the frost is fully out of the ground.
Further complicating the repair is that the damage appears to be right on the property line, and if the damage extends further into the mainline on the street, CAO Robblee will have to get Alberta Transport involved as main street is considered to be a secondary highway, and the town could face a $250,000 fine if the work is not pre-approved. The next regular council meeting will be held on Tuesday April 23 in council chambers at the town office.