Castor Council: No free rent for local group

A request for rental fee waivers and other council notes were discussed at the regular council meeting of the Town of Castor on July 8.

Council reviewed a request from McMan Central Alberta asking that rental rates be waived at the Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) building to run summer programming, which would include cooking with children and a before school bake day.

Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Donna Rowland noted that after speaking with the Castor and District FCSS administrator, it was understood that the FCSS offers similar programming at no cost to participants and pays an annual rental fee for the building.

CAO Rowland also noted that rental rates have not been waived for any other local organizations and expressed concern about the loss of rental income and cleaning costs.

Mayor Richard Elhard noted that this may pose a conflict.

“Once we open the can of worms,” noted Coun. Don Sisson “everyone else will want free rent.”

Council denied McMan Central Alberta’s request for free use of the space.

Sidewalk tenders

Sidewalk tenders were received with costs totalling $53,000 for the three sections of sidewalk approved for replacement at the council meeting on June 10.  The amount is $3,000 over the budgeted figure.

As noted in the last council meeting, the sidewalk replacement is funded from the Gas Tax Fund (GTF), with a budget of $50,000 set aside for the 2024 project.

Council approved an additional $3,000 from reserve funds to complete the project.

Adult learning 

Council reviewed a request from Paintearth Community Adult Learning Council to paint the boardroom in the Castor Office to match the light grey and navy colour scheme of the front and back offices with Paintearth Adult Learning supplying paint and labour.

Paintearth Adult Learning also requested to have the carpets and chairs professionally cleaned after painting, with the organization to cover the entire cost.

“It will freshen the space up quite a bit,” noted CAO Rowland.

Council moved to accept the request of the Paintearth Adult Learning to paint the space and clean the carpets with the group accepting costs and labour to do it.

Cheryl Bowman
Multimedia reporter
ECA Review

About the author

Cheryl Bowman

Cheryl spent most of her childhood in Stettler, growing up on a quarter section north of town. After graduating from Stettler Composite High School she moved to Calgary where she worked in various industries, attended The University of Calgary and raised a family.

She enjoyed volunteering and contributed in a variety of ways, such as writing articles for the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre and covering charitable events as a photographer.

She moved back to Stettler in 2023 where she still has family.