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WATCH: Red Deer city council debates cost-savings versus quality of life

Majority of councillors decide certain services are worth preserving
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Coun. Ken Johnston (Photo by Lana Michelin/Advocate staff).

Less snow plowing, lower park maintenance and shortened recreation facility hours were all considered by Red Deer city council during Wednesday’s budget talks.

After much debate about the benefits of achieving these proposed cost-savings in a tight budget year, city council opted to follow the city manager’s advice and leave these items alone.

As Coun. Dianne Wyntjes summarized, the city is in the public service business – and quality of life comes from having clean streets, beautiful parks, and accessible recreation facilities.

Although councillors Ken Johnston, Lawrence Lee and Vesna Higham had initially argued for saving $197,000 by not setting aside funds in the rare case residential streets have to be plowed three times this winter, the majority of council wasn’t willing to take that gamble.

While money would remain in the budget for two residential plows, and it’s been a dry winter so far, clear roads are highly important to the community, stressed Coun. Tanya Handley.

Manager Craig Curtis agreed most of this money is not used if not needed. But he said having it – just in case – is part of the city’s snow clearing policy, which was developed after several high-snowfall years and many, many complaints about the poor state of city roads.

Council similarly resolved not to reduce the hours of operation of the Kinex Arena, Collicutt Centre, and the G.H. Dawe Centres, even though a total savings of $170,000 could be achieved.

Coun. Handley had argued shutting either the Collicutt Centre or the Dawe on low-use stat holidays wouldn’t present a huge hardship since residents could still go for a swim at the other facility.

But Mayor Tara Veer said where people live in the city may present barriers to access. Coun. Frank Wong instead favoured Calgary’s approach of boosting facility usage during stats by giving out free rec. passes. And Coun. Ken Johnston said he could not reconcile Tuesday’s decision to freeze drop-in rec. fees at 2017 levels with the proposal to shorten operating hours.

Another cost-savings of $128,000, through reduced shrubbery maintenance, was also passed up when council agreed with City Manager Craig Curtis, who said Red Deer residents love their parks too much to see them deteriorate.



lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com

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