Council approved a request from Cochrane Lions Football Feb. 23 for an additional $100,000 from the town’s cash in lieu fund to go toward the artificial turf project slated for completion June 1 at the Bow Valley High School (BVHS) site.
The town granted $500,000 last year for the construction of the turf.
The money will be used to purchase and install lights on site, allowing for extended user hours (lights will be subject to town bylaw, shutting off at 10 p.m.); the bases and conduits are already in place for the lights.
The green light on funds puts the club only $50,000 shy of their total $1.65M goal, which they are confident they will be able to achieve at their March 13 fundraiser — especially with the confirmation that they will have their lights, courtesy of the town.
Cam Cote, Dean Lang and Paul McLean from Lions Football presented to council; while one year ago they had emphasized they would not be returning to council to request additional funds, the realignment of Lions Football with other potential user groups in town — including the Turf Association clubs (Cochrane Rangers Soccer, Minor Soccer and the Bow Valley Rugby Club) and the newly formed Cochrane Soccer Club — has opened up the turf to thousands of new users.
Dominic Hickey, formerly with the Turf Association and now head coach of the Cochrane Soccer Club, joined the Lions Football representatives in council chambers to provide his support for the project.
“We all need somewhere to practice and play our games and we (all user groups) should get behind this,” said Hickey, who surprised and impressed council with his support — as the Turf Association originally requested separate funding from the town for a domed field, which has not yet come to fruition.
While all turf users would like to eventually see a permanent indoor structure (possibly to be built at the Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre), the consensus seemed to be that the finalization of the artificial turf at BVHS is the quickest remedy to opening up space for all turf users.
Lions members emphasized that no specific user group would be given preferential booking, and that Cochrane and Rocky View County users would be given first priority; they are currently determining if bookings would be done internally or through a third party.
Rocky View Schools will also utilize the turf and will be taking on some of the maintenance and cleanup costs of the turf, including electrifying of the lights and scoreboard; the school will also hold a future life cycling account.
Some $227,000 currently sits in the cash in lieu account, which is earmarked in the 10-Year Financial Strategy for future field development, as identified in the Open Spaces Master Plan.
Coun. Tara McFadden was the sole councillor who voted against the request — not because she is opposed to the project, only that she is in favour of fiscal responsibility, so that administration would have time to prepare a cost impact assessment for the March 9 council session.
Lions Football remained firm that the approval this month was essential to their success in fundraising the remaining $50,000.
“I think everyone is on the same page,” said McLean. “It’s a real coming-together for all multi sports.”
Council approved Bylaw 01/2015, which included amendments requested by councillors at their last public hearing, allowing for businesses to allow digital signage in designated areas in town.
Clarifications included allowing the signs to be single or double-sided; increasing height limitation from 4.0 m to 5.0 m to limit vandalism; removing the stipulation that there could be only one digital sign per overlay zone to focusing on minimum separation distance not less than 75.0 m between signs; and turning off the signs between 10 p.m.-7 a.m.
Adoption of this bylaw would permit administration to use the $360,000 allocated for the digital sign project for the installation of two signs; further private-owned digital signs would be permitted in designated areas.
Councillors Gaynor Levisky, McFadden and Morgan Nagel all voted against the motion. Concerns such as the signs not being properly aligned with Western Heritage Guidelines and possible unfair advantages for competing businesses were expressed.
Council voted unanimously in favour of declaring Feb. 22-28, 2015 ‘Freedom to Read Week’ in Cochrane.
This followed a well-received presentation by Michelle Toombs of the Marigold Library System, indicating that membership and usage of the Nan Boothby Memorial Library continues to grow.
