Cheap sports at Garrison
County council cut a deal this week that will net Sturgeon County residents big discounts if they work out at the Edmonton Garrison.
Council voted Tuesday to give CFB Edmonton $300,000 to get county residents preferred rate access to on-base fitness facilities and programs.
The cash comes from the money council used to spend to have Edmonton Transit run bus service to the Garrison. Council voted last August to end that service due to lack of demand and shunt the money ($330,279) toward recreation.
As of this Tuesday, Sturgeon County residents who present their government-issued ID with their name and address on it when they buy a membership at the Edmonton Garrison Fitness Centre will get a 50-per-cent discount on a core membership and 25 per cent off an inclusive (facilities plus programs) one. For a family, that works out to $40 instead of $80 a month for a core membership or $104 instead of $130 a month for an inclusive one. Residents will also get cheaper rates at the Garrison’s golf club, said county general manager of infrastructure services Scott MacDougall.
Membership grants access to the garrison’s many fitness facilities, which include an indoor running track, rock climbing wall, equine centre, hockey rinks, basketball and squash courts, and an 11,500-square-foot aquatics facility.
MacDougall told council administration would track the county’s use of Garrison facilities this coming year and plans to make this an ongoing arrangement.
The cheaper rates kicked in Nov. 12. Call 780-973-4011 ext. 4392 for details.
Farm plastic forum
Are grain bags piling up on your farm? Sturgeon County wants your suggestions on how you can responsibly get rid of them.
Sturgeon County’s agricultural service board is holding an open house this Friday on farm plastics and recycling. They’ve also launched an online survey on the subject.
Alberta farmers generate up to 11,384 tonnes of plastic waste a year in the form of twine, wrap, grain bags and other items, CleanFarms estimates. A 2012 study by Alberta Agriculture suggests just 17 per cent of farmers recycle any of that waste, with most of the rest ending up burned, stockpiled, or landfilled.
Alberta Agriculture launched a pilot project this year to recycle plastic grain bags and twine and has set up 20 collection sites for those items throughout the province.
County council voted last June to try and join the pilot, but wasn’t picked to host one of the sites, said county agricultural services manager Angela Veenstra – the closest site is in Barrhead.
A typical grain bag is the size of a hay bale rolled up, and farmers might go through 10 to 12 of them in a year, said David Kluthe, a member of the county’s agricultural service board.
“A lot of farmers have no place to get rid of them,” he said, and many end up burying or burning them – neither of which is a good idea. It’s illegal to burn plastic waste in Sturgeon.
“We’re trying to get something set up so people actually have a place to dispose of this (waste).”
While Sturgeon hopes to join the provincial pilot when it expands next year, Veenstra said CleanFarms (the company running the pilot) was in the meantime willing to haul the county’s plastic to one of the current pilot sites. The agricultural service board wants to ask farmers this Friday if they’d be interested in such a service and what form it should take (a monthly round-up event, for example, or a 24/7 drop-off site), as well as how they currently dispose of their farm plastic waste.
“If we’re going to pursue a program, we want to ensure our local producers are going to utilize it,” Veenstra said.
The forum runs from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Nov. 15 at Cardiff Hall. The online survey runs until Dec. 31. See www.sturgeoncounty.ca/Services/Agriculture-Services for details.
