The issue of waiving fees for individuals or groups using municipal halls is as challenging as deciding what events, organizations or causes deserve free advertising or sponsor pages in the newspaper.
Our sympathy goes out to village council who was tasked with making that kind of decision recently.
The reality is it’s a very rare occasion - if ever - that a municipal hall would make enough money off rental fees to pay for the operating, capital and maintenance costs associated with running said hall.
So, that being said every dollar counts because the money it doesn’t make to offset costs is paid for by the taxpayer.
Recently a volunteer in the community that received a grant to hold a multicultural pot luck type event requested that fees at Victory Hall be waived.
The rental for the hall for a day for an individual is $260. The grant was worth just $500.
Councillor Arlene Arlow was one of the applicants on the grant and is one of the organizers of the event.
Councillors Jason Wiebe and Jeremy Evans were in favour of waiving fees because they see the validity of providing more opportunities for the entire community to come together and wanted to encourage those types of events.
The request was denied by a tie vote with Mayor Manfred Bauer and councillor Sherry Philpott-Adhikary being against the waiver of fees.
Both cited concerns that precedent would be set and it would be difficult to turn down anyone that came to them asking for a waiver claiming to be holding a community event.
Fair point.
What stops a wedding from being a community event if everyone is invited. It’s a gathering of people that involves a meal or refreshments of some kind.
Or what stops someone who wants to have a concert at the hall from having fees waived if, again, everyone is invited.
Last spring council did agree to provide a donation to the Ambassador program to help offset the cost of a two-day rental at the hall.
The ambassador program has a group of volunteers that meet regularly throughout the year with a common goal of encouraging children to speak publicly and proudly about their home community at different events locally and throughout the province.
Is that the same as two individuals in the community deciding to hold a potluck?
-T.B.