A petition was started over the weekend protesting the Town of High River trying to borrow money for the Aquatics expansion.
The petition was launched over the weekend by a group of concerned citizens.
Long-time resident Bonnie Murray is concerned the project didn't get proper approval before shovels went into the ground.
"This borrowing bylaw... where this financing should have been in place before the project started. Nothing in the bylaw tells us whether it's a debenture or a mortgage just that they're looking at 30 years. There's no percentage there, is it variable? What's the plan?"
Currently, the Town of High River is trying to pass a bylaw to allow them to borrow money for the expansion.
Murray says they have the petition at a number of local businesses, and she encourages everyone to sign it by this Monday as the petition needs to be presented by 4 p.m. on Monday (Oct. 7) in order for it to be valid.
The following local businesses have the petition available to sign.
- Wags Pet Salon
- Art Effects
- Studio D Hair Salon
- Cuts on Fifth
- Blue Spruce Auto Parts
- High River Auto and Glass
- Mike's HiTech Transmission
- Brandt Lake Wagyu
The Town held a plebiscite in 2021 as part of the municipal election, asking the question, "Do you support the Town borrowing $15,000,000 to expand the existing pool facility?"
The plebiscite did not pass, however during a Town Council meeting on Monday, July 11, 2022, a motion was passed unanimously to move ahead with borrowing the $15 million.
Mayor Craig Snodgrass pointed out at the time, that of the 11,000 voters eligible to cast a ballot in the October 2021 non-binding pool plebiscite, only about 4,100 did.
"Of that, I think it was a 364 vote split between Yes and No and what we found with the referendum and what I heard from was a lot of people voted No just because they didn't feel they had enough information," he says.
The Town would have normally held open houses to get that information out but because of the pandemic, it wasn't able to do so.
Since then, the price tag of $15 million has expanded to $22 million.
At a Town Council meeting on July 8 of this year, the breakdown of costs was shared with the public.
The project contract is being split into three elements with nearly $16 million for the new pool, waterslide, and mechanical systems, $3.9 million for the existing lap pool and renovations, and $2.4 million for improvements to the lobby and Zamboni area.
The Town announced any petitions against the borrowing bylaw, which is Bylaw 4633/2024, known as the Aquatics Expansion Borrowing Bylaw, need to be filed by Monday, October 7 at 4 p.m.
Currently, the total costs for the project including contingency funds sit at $26,793,922. Just over $11 million of that is coming from provincial grants, with over $387,000 being used from the town’s aquatics reserve fund.
The balance of about $13.6 million will be borrowed.
Snodgrass acknowledged that this will likely lead to a tax increase for residents but said it should only be roughly $17 more per month.
The expansion project is not expected to be completed until early 2026.