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Changes underway with leasing town property

Anyone looking to work out a lease with Town of Ponoka property might have some trouble getting it until a policy can be put together.

Anyone looking to work out a lease with Town of Ponoka property might have some trouble getting it until a policy can be put together.

In one quick motion, council managed to almost double the workload for administration Tuesday, Feb. 24 during a regular meeting by requesting an interim lease policy be put into place until a full policy can be written.

Coun. Carla Prediger made the motion stating she would like to see requests come before council until that time.

“I’ll take an interim (policy) because there is not plan for a long-term . . . I mean how long does it take for a policy?” asked Prediger.

She suggests the interim policy will be used until a full policy can be written.

CAO Rachel Kunz said she was making decisions for leases to last until the end of June next year. She told council there is currently one organization that has a signed a lease with the town that starts March 1 and ends June 30, 2016.

Coun. Sandra Lyon suggested a full policy be written. “We have to put a policy in place because at some point we have to let our CAO do her job.”

Council approved the motion and Kunz responded that she still needs direction on what to do with current requests. “What do I do in the interim until you have a policy?”

“I have no direction,” she added.

Sandra Lyon stated that if someone wants to sign a lease, bringing the requests to council would be inefficient, especially if an organization is under time constraints. She said they would have to wait for the next council meeting, which could take weeks if the timing was bad.

It took some deliberation but councillors appeared at a loss as to how to provide that direction.

Coun. Tim Falkiner made the motion that, in the interim, administration should be allowed to continue as previously in dealing with long-term leases for six months to a year until the interim policy is put in place.

The motion was approved with Prediger voting against it.

The group that has worked out a lease with the town to use the Aquaplex that Kunz referred to is Gunit CrossFit.