Community halls continue to face numerous challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and nine community halls in rural Kneehill County will receive support following approval from council at the regular Tuesday, December 14 council meeting.
The request originally came before council during the Tuesday, December 7 Committee of the Whole meeting and was recommended to be brought back before council at a future meeting date.
“Our rural hall policy states (Kneehill County) pays them based on how many times per year they’re rented out; due to COVID they have not been able to rent out as many times as they used to, so funding levels would have gone down in 2022 if we don’t provide them with this,” explained Legislative Services coordinator Carolyn Van der Kuil during the meeting.
There are three funding levels for these community halls-Level A used year-round 20 or more times a year, Level B used year-round or seasonally 10 to 20 times per year, and Level C used fewer than 10 times per year.
Currently, there are seven halls classified as Level A-Huxley Community Association, Sunnyslope Community Association, Wimborne Community Centre, Torrington Community Centre, Swalwell Community Association-and two halls classified as Level C-Hesketh Community Hall Association, and Mount Vernon Community Association; there are no halls currently classed as Level B.
Along with the recommendation to maintain community hall funding at the 2020 levels, Chief Administrative Officer Mike Haugen also presented council with a recommendation to use a portion of unused community grant funds to give these halls a one-time COVID relief grant.
While the relief grant will not use up all remaining budgeted funds, CAO Haugen explained council will determine how the remaining funds are utilized, though the most likely course of action will be to put it into a reserve to contribute to a possible municipal surplus.
This relief grant would help these rural community halls to offset operating costs due to reduced revenue from fewer rentals throughout 2021. It was discussed by council the halls will need to provide accountability for what the funds will be used for.
Council unanimously approved providing the one-time COVID relief funds; the seven Level A halls will each receive $5,000 while the two Level C halls will each receive $1,650.
