Approximately a month ago, Red 19 Entertainment gave a strong presentation on possibly having the town invest in the company by hosting a large musical event under their event planning skills.
The investment of $10,000 was a hot button topic for council as they had similar yet different reasons as to having the show or not.
Opportunities for local groups to man the bar or security could be included as well as filling up hotel rooms and restaurants as an indirect benefit to hosting a professional show.
Stacie Benjamin of the Stettler Board of Trade was asked to give her input.
Given the time of year, their window of opportunity to host would be short as they would only look to fill the May or June timeframe with ice out of the arena where the event would most likely be at.
“Then you also need to take into consideration what is the level of performer that is coming in,” said Benjamin.
“I would also say that our hotels are really quite busy and we tend to have a very active winter too with sports tourism.
“Right now you’re at the point where you don’t want to be over capacity either.”
“The biggest thing too is, is it worth the investment for really not that many people coming into the area. Is it something that the locals really want to have or is it something that’s just a nice-to-have?” said Benjamin.
Coun. Gord Lawlor felt the show hosted by Red 19 Entertainment in Sedgewick last year was “professional and the quality of the sound was excellent.”
The conversation came down to one question: Is this event a need or a want? Council voted to accept the request for information but will consider this again when deciding the 2021 budget next year.
STARS local statistics update
Glenda Farden came to council with an update of Stettler and district statistics by bringing an in-depth version to the previous version presented in the spring.
STARS is celebrating 34 years on Dec. 1 and has flown over 42,000 missions in that time.
On average, there are eight missions per day, five of which are in Alberta.
They are at almost 90 per cent rural community support within the province.
The town does not currently give any funding.
Farden asked the town consider a donation of $1-2 per capita/per year for this coming year with budget deliberations in December.
Beautification budget
Council accepted the Heartland Beautification Committee’s 2020 budget.
Administration noted that their cost of $22,200 has already been included in the town’s upcoming budget as this funding amount has not changed in a few years.
Their goals for 2020 include things like increasing or maintaining their public awareness of committees and projects and to increase youth involvement with the beautification committee.
Terri Huxley
ECA Review