By Heather Ryan
As is reported elsewhere in the Albertan, earlier Olds town council passed a bylaw to borrow $10.7 million to finance construction of a new operations centre replacing three aging buildings and to reclaim wastewater treatment centre land.
The money to be borrowed exceeds the town’s debt limit, so town officials applied for — and received — special permission from Municipal Affairs Minster Kaycee Madu to exceed that limit.
Coun. Heather Ryan cast the lone vote against that bylaw. Councillors Wade Bearchell and Mary Anne Overwater were absent from that meeting.
The Albertan asked Ryan why she voted that way. Here is her response.
First, let me say that I joined council on a tour last year of our various operations facilities and while I recognize they are both old and not necessarily designed for what they are being used for (such as the old fire hall), I felt they were still functional and able to be used for a few more years. We have enough empty buildings in town I didn’t see a need to add to that.
Second, and most importantly, I didn’t feel we as a town should exceed our debt limit, and felt the operations centre could be put on hold for a couple of more years.
However, in saying this, it is important to know that council also discussed this fully.
The operations centre had been identified as a need for several years, even before I came to council, both due to the current buildings being old and inefficient, and not equipped to accommodate all of the town equipment or additional growth.
The majority of council made a decision to move forward on the operation centre because of those reasons and the borrowing bylaw passed, and I respect and support the democratic process and the will of council.
