Rec board issues key priorities

The tallies are in for identified priorities for the Taber Recreation board as Town of Taber council starts to head into its 2014-2016 operating/capital budgeting process.

Town administration asked the board at its October meeting to identify five priorities they feel are important to the community, as it relates to programs, services or projects.

“You guys have a feel for what’s being said  in the community. If you were to spend more time or money on something to do with recreation, what would it be? That’s really what we are asking for the operation budget,” said Greg Birch, CAO for the Town of Taber, at the recreation board’s Oct. 3 meeting. “This is just the starting process, not the end. Going into next year we’ll make it more refined, but going into budget, this can be part of the process where you guys have a huge representation across the whole community, as sports advocates or councillors and the M.D.”

The top two priorities Taber Recreation Board noted after administration tallied their votes were a multi-use sportsplex to maximize the use of singular facilities and finishing off Ken McDonald Memorial Sports Park, including the washroom facilities.  

Other priorities that received votes included a water spray park, maintaining current levels of user fees, completing the trail to the M.D. of Taber Park, aging infrastructure, tending to green space better, offering more swimming lessons, converting the arena to indoor soccer, more visible volunteers, cost- recovery formulas, single-field turf at Ken McDonald, BMX track, additional soccer fields, a joint-use agreement with schools and more facilities for seniors and a recreation master plan.

“It’s ideas that are now on the table, where you have a ranking of them. Now council can see these are ideas that you are thinking about,” said Birch, adding with financial restraints not everything on a wishlist can be fulfilled at once, but identified priorities can be shown where funding should be utilized in the next number of years.”