The library board chair and library director pointed to survey results from last fall in the wake of a council decision this week to ask taxpayers to rank proposed capital projects.
A 400-person telephone survey, plus a general online survey, were completed last year to help inform the city’s facility priority matrix. The matrix is meant to help council make decisions about the timing of new city facilities.
That survey included a question about willingness to pay extra tax dollars to support building more of or expanding a number of pieces of city infrastructure, from the library right down to the compost depot.
“St. Albert Public Library was No. 1,” library director Peter Bailey noted. The telephone survey saw 63 per cent of people agree they were willing to pay more for more library infrastructure.
The survey proposed by Mayor Nolan Crouse and agreed to by a majority of council will seek to target taxpayers instead of the general population. The plan is to ask people to rank their preferences between a library, a sixth ice rink and a new pool or more lane-swimming space.
Crouse also wants to know more specifically how much extra tax people are willing to pay in the name of each project rather than agreeing to the general idea of a tax increase.
“There’s an important decision to be made by council,” he said, when it comes to deciding on the next big spending item. He said he wants to make sure that if the city does borrow to build another project, council picks the right thing.
He’s hoping they can calculate some potential tax impacts based on some project estimates.
The library and ice rink made it into budget 2016, with some money put aside to begin planning this year and 2017 and 2018 featuring heftier amounts for design and construction.
Crouse said that since the budget was completed, there’s been a lot more heard from pool users. Swim lesson waitlists and a swim club seeking more room to grow have both been topics in council chambers this year.
“These are the most imminent decisions that we’re faced with,” Crouse said.
Bailey, on the other hand, and library board chair Charmaine Brooks said that in their facilities’ case, the public has been heard.
“This kind of survey has been done,” Bailey said. “We were happy when the public engagement for the facility priority assessment model came out last year.”
Bailey predicted that the library would once again be a top choice of survey respondents.
“We’re always happy to hear from St. Albertans,” he said. “St. Albertans love their library … we just think it’s not necessary to go to them again.”
He noted that the library got money in the budget for 2016 for a study on the proposed new community branch, and that work has been ongoing this year. Earlier this month there were focus groups on the topic.
“I’m a bit puzzled,” Bailey said, noting the vigorous campaign that went on to get the project moving forward. “We feel the people have spoken and council listened and council made a decision.”
Brooks agreed with Bailey that the public has spoken and echoed his note that planning has begun.
“The horses have left the barn,” Brooks said.
The Gazette reached out to the president of the St. Albert Minor Hockey Association, which was key in asking for a sixth ice rink for the city, for comment but did not hear back by deadline.
In last year’s facility priority assessment research telephone survey, 32 per cent of the respondents said they’d be willing to pay additional tax dollars to support more indoor ice surfaces.
Council approved $50,000 in the 2016 municipal budget for preliminary work on a new ice arena.
A letter from the mayor to Gill Hermanns, the president of the association, is posted on the group’s website noting the funding decisions along with a need to figure out how the city and ice users will collaborate to further the project.
When it comes to indoor swimming or water parks, 53 per cent of the survey respondents said they’d be willing to pay more taxes to build more or expand current infrastructure.
The facility priority matrix model was presented to council again in October 2015. Council has since asked for more tweaks to the model.
Recommendations made in the model results suggested a new indoor pool for 2023, a new ice rink for 2018 and a new library for 2021 based on the idea that the city should provide an average service level for the community.
