Dear Editor:
Last week’s Review article, “Ratepayers grant opposed” deserves a comment.
Reporter Treena Mielke quoted Joe Anglin, a new town councillor, as saying that the Rimbey Ratepayers Association should not be eligible to receive funding for its Enviro-Fair. His reason: it supported present council during the election, and in doing so, it should not receive funding because of a perceived conflict of interest.
The Enviro-Fair, by the way, was held on June 4. Councillors Gail Rondeel and Paul Payson, Mayor Sheldon Ibbotson, and representatives from Cast-A-Waste were there to answer questions from members in the community about garbage collection and recycling. By all accounts it was very successful with many citizens going home satisfied that their questions were answered.
Anglin’s opposition to granting this funding is wrong on two counts.
First, on a practical level, town council received enormous support from our community at this fair for a program on which they were getting a lot of negative feedback. It’s hard to buy this type of publicity for only $500.
And secondly, we must point out that, although it is true that individual members of our group did support certain members of the current town council (as is our right as private citizens of Rimbey to do so), the Rimbey Ratepayers Association did not propose a list of acceptable candidates during the election. Nor did it, as a group, campaign for any council member. By the rules of our association, council members and their families are prohibited from joining our association. Therefore, there is no conflict of interest.
The Rimbey Ratepayers is a volunteer group that supports the efforts of town council to move into the future on the issue of recycling, reuse, and becoming more environmentally friendly. This is long overdue in our town. It is all good that community volunteers and elected officials can come together and work to catch up with the times, have common goals, and make Rimbey a progressively forward looking town that is the best it can be.
To find out more about our group, visit our website: www.rimbeyratepayers.ab.ca. Or better yet, come to our meetings held every third Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. in the basement of the Beatty House. (No meetings for the months of July and August.)
Jim Moore,
Rimbey Ratepayers Association