County of Lethbridge council meeting briefs from Dec. 7

Posted on December 14, 2023 by admin

By Heather Cameron
Southern Alberta Newspapers
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The following are selected briefs from the council meeting that Lethbridge County held on December 7, 2023.

Town of Coaldale Summer Games Update to Council

During the County of Lethbridge Council Meeting on December 7, 2021, Jack Van Rijn, Mayor of the Town of Coaldale, and Russ Tanner, Director of Community Services, presented an update on the Southern Alberta Summer Games to Council.

Tanner said that Coaldale will be hosting the 2024 Southern Alberta Summer Games and took Council through some slides that showed the organizational structure that the Town and Community Services were working on establishing to be able to successfully accomplish this task. This structure, Tanner said, has been proven and tried with previous host communities. They, Tanner said, were part of the expectations of the host community.

Tanner said that the Town and Community Services will also provide the necessary facilities, equipment for the sports and the cultural events that are involved. They will also submit a budget and list of all the sports and cultural events to the Planning and Administration Committee, Tanner says, which is the Southern Alberta Recreation Association. Coaldale, Tanner said, will also submit games logos and will review the rules and regulations for each sport as well as have chairs for each sport and event.

Coaldale, Tanner said, will keep all records relating to expenditures and revenues incurred and Coaldale will also be responsible for award ceremonies and protocols and presentations and things related to it. Tanner said that they will also provide significant or sufficient liability insurance for all volunteers, officials and participants. The Town of Coaldale and Community Services, Tanner said, will ultimately provide the Southern Alberta Recreation Association with a detailed final report. 

“This is really critical ‘cause each following host community, they’ll be able to look at these records and see what the town of Coaldale and their experiences and then plan for it,” said Tanner. “This will be the first time the Games have been hosted since 2019, so we’re kind of bringing ‘em back and trying to get ‘em going again.”

Currently, Tanner said, the Town and Community Services has put it out there in the community that the Games are going to happen and now they are advertising that the position of Summer Games Coordinator is open. That person, Tanner said would come on and be employed from January through the first couple weeks of July and besides that, the games logo will also be one of the early focuses because the Town and Community Services want to start getting the word out about the Games in February. March, Tanner said, will focus on finalization of sports and events details while recruiting of additional volunteers will happen during April through June. Registration among the 11 regions will also take place around that time, Tanner said. Other positions that will be supporting the coordinator, Tanner said will be a communications team, volunteers that include a social and activities events chair, a Food Services chair, a sports chair, a medical chair, and a medals and results chair. Tanner went into detail about the duties each chair would be expected to take on and who they would be coordinating with before and during the Games before elaborating that sports organizations and other organizations within the area have already communicated to him that they are willing to do their parts in terms of holding events to ensure that the Games are successful.

Mayor Van Rijn then spoke to Council regarding the letter that he sent out back in November respectfully asking if Lethbridge County wants to participate as a regional partner and based on the budget of $53,500, Van Rijn said, the Town of Coaldale expressed hope that they could ask Lethbridge County for 25 percent of that, which amounts to $13,375, towards the success of the Southern Alberta Summer Games coming up in July 2024. 

After Council and the Town of Coaldale engaged in a brief discussion regarding the request, Councilor John Kuerbis made the motion to direct Administration to provide a report on the Town of Coaldale’s 2024 Southern Alberta Games hosting request made to Lethbridge County Council and that will be Brought forward at the next Council meeting on December 21, 2023. The motion was carried.

Alberta Municipal Affairs

Reeve Campbell reported to Council that Lethbridge County Council received correspondence dated November 9, 2023 under the signature of Minister Rick McIver Municipal Affairs saying that Lethbridge County has been approved to host an intern in the 2024 Municipal Internship Program for Land Use Planners and the municipality will receive a grant of $50,000 on the municipal internship component of the AC program for that purpose. CAO Beck stated that Lethbridge County is really excited to be selected again for the internship program, as it was a really successful opportunity last year and last year’s intern. Planning and development, Beck said, is thrilled as well to be able to mentor and develop and seize the opportunities to participate in and give back to the future of municipal administration their role in supporting governance.