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Skateboard park a priority

Town council has directed Rimbey’s Recreation Board to speak with the City of Lacombe about their skateboard park in

Town council has directed Rimbey’s Recreation Board to speak with the City of Lacombe about their skateboard park in hopes of creating a vision for the town to build one of their own.

“That is probably one of the number one things that the town wants,” said Mayor Rick Pankiw.

Pankiw brought up Lacombe at council’s Feb. 24 meeting because he says the youth in town feel Lacombe’s park is the best in the province.

He wants the board to find out who constructed Lacombe’s park, the cost, and other details. “I want the rec board to come up with that vision.”

Other high priorities for the town and the recreation board include trails and playgrounds/parks. The board is also working on a plan for the unnamed park on 46th Avenue; a general, non-definitive list of equipment the board they want to see in the park.

The project is in the town’s budget and council has committed $50,000 to help purchase equipment.

Area structure plan repealed

Due to its redundancy, town council decided to repeal the bylaw area structure plan, (839/09), which was created in 2009 and move ahead with the also previously created municipal development plan.

The municipal development plan is the document most situations fall under, between the two. “And that’s how we base things. And then when somebody comes in with a large development there is an area structure plan for that larger area,” said Melissa Beebe, assistant CAO and development officer.

She also informed council the area structure plan is in fact holding the town back from new development opportunities.

Peter Lougheed Community Centre rate increase

Across the board, the Peter Lougheed Community Centre is increasing its rates for a variety of offered amenities and services.

Peter Stenstrom, director of community services, researched the rates of other centres in similar communities and concluded Rimbey’s are quite low. “ If you analyze our numbers you can notice that we’re covering less and less with our user fees as the years go by.”

“It’s kind of an extension of what we’ve been talking about the last couple of years,” he added.

Stenstrom looked through each item in the community centre, making recommendations as he went along.

There will be an approximate 26 per cent total increase of combined rates, with individual programs and amenities receiving different increases depending on factors such as use frequency. “For example the Lions Rooms doesn’t get a lot of use so we would increase the rates at a lower percentage than perhaps the main auditorium.”

Stenstrom assured council the new rates would remain reasonable for the community.