City council agreed to jumpstart repairs of outdoor city-owned art projects with $100,000 in funding.
Coun. Carol Watamaniuk brought forward the request, saying the city’s 234 outdoor public art pieces were ignored for years and now risk being damaged beyond repair.
“I think what bothers me the most is that you have fundraising that has taken place, we’ve gone to service clubs and corporations and they have supported, wholeheartedly, the outdoor art program,” Watamaniuk said to council Monday night. “The city was going to maintain it and that didn’t happen.”
According to general manager of community and protective services Chris Jardine, the art was valued at less than $1 million 20 years ago, when the last assessment survey was done on the projects. He said that a new assessment was being done on the art to learn how much it had appreciated.
He added that it would take upwards of $360,000 to fix all of the city’s outdoor art, but said the $100,000 committed by council from the city’s stabilization fund would allow for a head start on the repairs while the city created an outdoor public art restoration reserve in the 2011 budget.
“This has been evolving in the time I have been here,” Jardine told council. “We’re literally creating a life cycle maintenance program for the art.”
Mayor Nolan Crouse questioned the timing of the request, asking both Watamaniuk and Jardine why the proposal was not brought forward during the 2010 budget process.
Watamaniuk said she wasn’t aware of the seriousness of the issue until afterwards, while Jardine said administration did not have all the information at budget time.
“Even now, we don’t have all of the information we need,” said Jardine, adding that city staff were working out the details of all the repairs needed to restore the art.
Cam MacKay, spokesman for the St. Albert Taxpayers’ Association, said that while the art may be in need of repair, council should not be looking to fund the work outside of the current budget or use the stabilization fund.
“That’s supposed to be a rainy day fund. It’s like using your credit card to buy art when you know your paycheque won’t cover it,” he said. “That [$100,000] is the taxes for 25 to 30 houses.”
MacKay said recent issues surrounding the affordability of living in St. Albert come down to municipal property taxes. Council’s decision to start paying for outdoor art restoration could lead to another tax increase, he said.
Council also agreed to spend $40,000 on the restoration of Perron Street last December as part of the first major push to start public art restorations.
