Editorial

Worth a sober second thought
Tread gently and carry a big stick.
That’s sage advice that the Town of Slave Lake appeared to be following this week when it was being asked to cough up as much as $50,000 a year for the next who-knows-how-many years? The project is a new wing for Northern Lakes College that will have as its focal point a performing arts ‘theatre’ with 350 seats.
The biggest crowd - since supporters of the ‘new’ separate school flooded council chambers searching for a home for their facility - showed up last week. Most, if not all, supported the expansion at the college and many lined up to tell councillors just how they felt.
But this council said it still had too many questions about the $3.4 million proposal – sort of like a $3.4 million question.
Their big worry, we suspect, is what could be an annual $50,000 commitment they might have to cough up for – for the next 40 years.
At least that was Councillor George Snider’s guess.
“Offering support in principle is easy,” he told the crowd. “But you’ll be paying for it for the next 40 years.”
Of course council doesn’t want to stick out its neck—especially in light of the fact that it’s likely going to stick taxpayers with an extra four per cent in taxes this year.
It’s with good reason, we might add. Sometimes those little costs that are ignored too long will sneak back and bite you in the butt. So can those that predecessors tried to ignore for just a little too long.
No excuses. Stuff happens and costs escalate.
Who today pays less for groceries – or their vehicles, or gas, or even shoelaces — than five years ago, all things being considered? Of course we don’t, so how can we expect taxes to stay the same year after year after year? (Anybody happen to notice we have a beautifully paved community trail and many other new things in our community in the past five years? Sure they were mostly developed by volunteer efforts, but the buck’s gotta stop somewhere, and yes, we’ll be expected to do our bit.)
All that to say many people in the community are more than ready to do their part to ensure the proposed new wing costs Joe Q. Public as little as possible. But if we want nice amenities in our community we’ve got to be prepared to do our part. And if that means paying a little extra here or there, so be it.
And like proponents say, we’ve got people like the King of Ticket Sales Harry Bartlett (by his own admission) “sitting with my fingers crossed that this will go ahead so I can get behind a unique fund-raising effort.” And he’s not the only one.
We believe there’s a train that’s quietly gathering speed in this town and it’s called the Little Engine That Could. It might bear a faint resemblance to the group that decided we’d put on the ‘Best Arctic Winter Games Ever’ more than a decade ago.
Call us dreamers – but we’re not alone.
Congratulations for taking the cautious road. But in case no one’s noticed, there wasn’t a single voice of opposition in council chambers last week. And if there was that much opposition, one would expect the nay-sayers voices would be there just as long and just as strong.
As Kyle Paulson says, the project will be several years taking shape. That’s a lot of time for fund-raisers to do their work. And it’s not like they just starting thinking about this yesterday. Planning is well underway and supporters are merely awaiting the word.
And like we said, with lottery Kingpin Harry Bartlett on side, having enough tickets sold to raise the needed cash almost becomes a secondary concern.