• Marianne Garrah made a presentation to council on the need for an Arts Coordinator/Council/Director under the Culture and Recreation heading for the town of Jasper. There’s no go-to person for arts in Jasper, said Garrah, and the “arts are being overlooked a bit.” Council requested that she refine her proposal and come back to them in the future, although they are not opposed to having some sort of arts related staff member that would coordinate events for the town. 

• The Municipal Library renovations are also likely to go ahead with assistance from the Canada Building Fund Grant. Costing approximately $4.5 million, the new library will be nearly 10,000 square feet with more space for programming, seating, meeting, collection and computer space, said Judy Krefting and Gail Beztilny-Henderson. The municipality will have to come up with a third of the total cost, which is available from the capital reserves, but library fundraising efforts will hopefully yield around $300,000, reducing the cost to the municipality.

• Municipal manager George Krefting presented his report for the month of February detailing the ongoing discussions the town is having regarding whether to lock in the price of natural gas for the next five years. Currently, the municipality pays $6.36 per gigajoule and the price for locking in for the next five years in $8.33 per gigajoule. Shorter contract periods are being looked at by Alice Letter, director of Finance and Administration. According to the report, each dollar in price difference is equal to about $26,000 per year. Mayor Richard Ireland also suggested looking at ways to reduce consumption of natural gas in order to reduce costs even if higher rates are to be paid in the future. 

• In addition to the issue of natural gas, the municipal manager’s report indicated that the new agreement between CUPE local 1458 and the Municipality is expected to be signed this week. Council has also directed municipal administrators to prepare a draft policy on communications and that this policy will likely be available for the Mar. 24 committee meeting. Krefting also, according to the report, wrote a letter to the Jasper Adventure Club for Kids (JACK) stating that their request for annual funding of $500, which will assist in establishing long-term viability, will be provided by the Community Development fund or from the CFS-COS operating budget. The municipality will also continue to insure the program. 

• Doug Rodwell, chief license inspector and enforcement manager for the municipality, also presented alterations to Bylaw Number 116, which deals with domestic animals. In light of a recent court case in which the defendant was found not guilty under section 7.12, the bylaw has been amended so that intent in animal cruelty cases will not be a decisive factor.