Taber Communities in Bloom seeks sponsorship from council

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By Kenyon Stronski
Taber Times
reporter@tabertimes.com

A request for decision (RFD) was received by Taber town council by Communities in Bloom (CiB). The request was forwarded by the Arts and Heritage Committee June 21 and concerns a $15,000 in-kind donation by the town to assist CiB in completing three murals during the summer.

Subsequently, the town also received funding for murals through a grant received for Downtown Revitalization — leading to a meeting with CiB where the two parties agreed to work separately, but parallel to one-another.

Taber’s Director of Planning and Community Services, Chris Eagan stepped forward to present the following information to council.

“This RFD concerns a request that was first presented to the Arts and Heritage Committee on June 21. The town has received a grant to do murals in the downtown area as part of the downtown revitalization plan. Communities in Bloom has a similar initiative going where they plan to do three murals in the downtown area. The town administration met with Communities in Bloom in March, discussed the two programs and agreed to work in parallel with each other. Subsequent to that meeting, Communities in Bloom made a presentation to the Arts and Heritage sub-committee to seek funding from the town to assist them in executing some of their planned mural projects,” commented Eagan. “The recommendation after discussion in the Arts and Heritage Committee — the recommendation came from that committee to council and was to provide in-kind support from Town administration and staff to essentially provide some of the resources that they were looking for in a way that would not be problematic for the town’s responsibilities to the granting authorities and so see the two projects through. The request has been reviewed and suggested to council from the Arts and Heritage Committee to do $15,000 – $5,000 per mural – of in-kind support. That would be labour, in-house materials so not paint and artist materials but fencing and pressure washing. Something to help them prepare to avoid costs that might be accrued.”

As it turns out, the Arts and Heritage Committee and CiB had a misunderstanding regarding the murals – which Coun. Garth Bekkering brought to light.

“I understand there was some misunderstanding or lack of communication between CiB and the Arts and Heritage Committee at one point regarding the mural situation. Has that been resolved?”

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