Coronation’s Frontier Hotel manager Minji Ong visited council chambers.
On Mon. March 8, he asked for a grace period in local taxes and a look at their assessment as it may have been marked too high.
The Frontier, a 30,000 square foot building, was assessed at $15,000 in the past.
Ong has faith in this investment and has proved so by having investors put almost $150,000 in roofing alone since purchasing the building.
The 50-room hotel has had “a lot of surprises” for the new business owners in terms of replacements and renovations.
Only four of the furnaces in the rooms were working and the roof was leaking to a great extent.
The bar attached to the building was reported to only bring in on average roughly $200 in a single night.
“I’m hoping you can help us by lowering taxes and giving us a discounted rate for a few years. We would greatly appreciate it,” said Ong.
“After that, I can also share with my investors that the Town of Coronation is very proactive and pro-business and want to get more projects in Coronation on the horizon to get the economy going,” said Ong.
“Every dollar that is spent in the economy gets it seven times over from payroll to taxes and all of that,” added Ong.
As for timelines on renovations, Ong explained that they will hopefully be done within six months with the kitchen being done in three.
The gallery of councillors agreed.
“It’s definitely time,” said Coun. Brett Alderice.
Council agreed to have administration conduct some research on the hotel’s actual taxes and then get back to the manager for a potential new assessment.
“We definitely want to work with you though,” said Coun. Vickey Horkoff. “We would like more background so that we know what we are talking about.”
Council took the presentation as information.
Lions Rec Centre renovations
The Town of Coronation in January had agreed to allow the Wellness Society to rent the Hall and operate their gym out of the building.
It was also discussed that in order to facilitate their equipment, some renovations would need to be completed and some electrical changes required for the treadmills and light switches.
The quote from Thornton Electric was focused on replacing the current burned out lights with LED lights, but not for replacing the ballasts.
It will also include the bowling alley as most lights in there are not currently working and the moving of some electrical lines to accommodate the removal of three walls.
The quote came in at $7,700 which Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Quinton Flint found to be “higher than they thought”.
An additional cost of $850 for a 20 amp service and two receptacles for the treadmills was not included in the quote.
Lastly, the floor in the hall will need to be looked at prior to the Wellness Society moving into the facility.
The floor has badly heaved during the cold weather this year and will require attention and or replacement of the flooring in the areas damaged.
The current recommendation is to replace it with a rubber mat that can be used in the gym, and the cost is estimated to be around $2,500 for the rubber matting needed for 550 square feet or 16 pieces to cover the needed areas.
Golby’s Hardware mentioned they could possibly get a much cheaper price as they also get the same materials as UFA from the same supplier.
Since most of the current problems were not too dire at the moment, council passed a motion to accept only the 20 amp service and two receptacles for the treadmills while prices are further investigated for the other projects.
RCMP presentation
Corp. Chad Salmi and Const. Olivier Desy-Marion of the Coronation RCMP detachment came to council to give an update and ask questions.
A new detachment building has been at the top of the list for both local and provincial RCMP for awhile but Corp. Salmi explained that a land purchase is in the works.
If their first option from John Deere falls through they have another place they can look at further. Corp. Salmi has made it a mission to have at least one member attend a meeting with him to give councillors an idea of who is working in the area.
This time it happened to be Const. Desy-Marion who moved to Coronation from Quebec with his girlfriend about a year and a half ago.
“It was a big change for us. We were used to being close to Montreal. Now we have cows running around in our backyard,” said Const. Desy-Marion.
His favourite part of the job was “interacting with people who all seem gentle and always willing to have a chat.”
Corp. Salmi told council the detachment was underway with planning and goal setting for this year and next.
They asked what council would like to see from the RCMP while also explaining what the province has already mandated including a reduction in crime by seven per cent and increasing their clearance rate to 26 per cent.
Last year, Coronation had exceeded the reduction in crime goal by reaching 15.4 per cent.
So far the 3 C’s (Castor, Coronation, Consort) have mentioned traffic and rural crime as top focuses. Council asked about possibly forming a night watch to help aid RCMP with this but Corp. Salmi had previously run statistics on Castor’s current night watch and found it is not as successful as was hoped for.
“We can’t really say it’s helpful at this point,” said Salmi.
He did mention RCMP making a presence is enough to possibly deter someone from stealing or breaking in though. Council’s main concern after some discussion was the school zone and speeding which Salmi agreed could be beneficial to monitor more.
Video cameras were encouraged by the presenters as some recent break-ins had been solved thanks to the cameras pointed at the right spot at the right time.
“Once we had those pictures and we had surveillance from everyone we could link to other crimes in the area,” said Salmi.
Terri Huxley
ECA Review
