LAC LA BICHE - If council as a whole won't give them a deal, a Lac La Biche County councillor is offering his own wallet to pay municipal costs charged to a local high school's grad committee.
Coun. John Mondal is prepared to pay for about $750 worth of charges he says is being billed to the J. A. Williams High School graduation committee for use of facilities at Lac La Biche's Bold Center for part of their Grad 2023 celebrations later this year.
"I think we as a county can waive that half day fee as a gift to the graduation kids," said Mondal during a discussion at a recent public meeting of council.
The fee, says Lac La Biche County's associate CAO of Recreation and Community Services, is not for space rental, but for "incidentals" carried out by municipal staff to assist with some events for the day.
"They are things like setting up the stage or the sound system — anything that's associated with staff time for setup," he said.
Last year's graduation day at the high school involved a community parade and a short reception at the Bold Center that Lessmeister called more of a "meet and greet" event than a formal banquet or ceremony.
"We don't charge them any facility rentals," Lessmeister said, explaining that the normal rate to rent both fieldhouses for half a day is about $2,000.
Since the high school is built onto the Bold Center, school and municipal officials have a shared-use agreement for Bold Center areas. Part of that agreement can allow for free use of the fieldhouse areas for graduation purposes
Lessmeister said he has already had meetings with this year's graduation committee, and the incidental costs had been agree to.
Mondal didn't want to see any charges going towards the graduates.
"At the end of the day, we are doing it for our own kids, if we can't do it for our own kids, then what are we doing it for. The building is for our own kids to use. It's for our own kids. So if we charged them, take the money back," he said, going further to make the no-charge option a formal council decision.
His motion to waive the incidental fees was defeated, with only Mondal, councillor Sterling Johnson and Deputy Mayor Kevin Pare voting in favour.
Before council moved on to their next agenda item, Mondal requested "the bill" for the incidentals.
"Can you send that bill to me. I will pay for that ... from my own pocket," he said.
Lac La Biche County council has already approved an annual $5,000 donation to the J. A. Williams High School and the Plamondon high schools for a street-banner project where images of graduating students are displayed on community light standards. In Plamondon, the use of the community's Festival Centre for graduation-related activities is also offered free of charge — as long as students in that year's graduation class contribute at least 50 hours of volunteer work for other groups at the hall.
Coun. Charlyn Moore said she has recently asked elected officials from similar communities about their assistance levels with community grad committees. She said Lac La Biche County already does much more than other communities.
"Not one of them... do free, free, free," she said, thanking the municipal administrative staff for working with the grad committee and providing the services and discounts they do.
