
City of Estevan looks to standardize non-profit helps from rent reductions, donations – DiscoverEstevan.com
The City of Estevan has been having discussions about how they’ll help out community non-profits going forward for those looking to host events in the city.
The list of ways that the city can help those groups involve donations of equipment, volunteers, and a reduction in fees for using facilities such as Affinity Place.
The councillors chose the following options that were recommended by Leisure Services Manager Erin Wilson:
- Maintain Fee Consistency Across User Groups: Continue to apply either the existing fee structure or a revised version uniformly.
- Limit Off-Site Use of City Staff and Equipment: Restrict the use of City staff and equipment to City facilities to avoid the complexities and additional costs associated with external locations.
- Establish Rental Rates for Equipment: Implement rental fees for City equipment to address wear and tear and encourage organizations to invest in frequently used items. Also specify which items are available for rent, excluding items like round tables, linens, skirting, and padded chairs.
Councillor Shelly Veroba talks about what the city is looking for when it comes to help in the future.
“I think for the most part, the management would just like direction moving forward with user groups who are going to come and rent the facilities or also ask to rent the equipment just to make sure that the fee structure is fair and also council, throughout the year, we like to give donations, help out the groups that are using the facilities.”
As a whole, Veroba says the council is hoping to be better coordinated with the city’s management to make sure they have enough resources where those donations won’t put a dent in the city’s capacity.
“I think sometimes, um, we need to check and make sure with management that we have the staff available for those events, that we’re also covering the cost and if not, that were reflecting the true cost of that donation. So sometimes we may think that giving out the pipe and drape or giving out the chairs and the tables are not that big of an expense. But at the end of the day, if we do that two or three times in one month, it becomes a hardship on the budget for the management.”
During the meeting, the council discussed a communication from the Estevan Comprehensive School, which was looking for a 50 per cent reduction in fees to use Affinity Place for its graduation ceremony.
Veroba says that having a better standard for those items would go further to making sure they can support the groups that need it.
“The ECS donation is a prime example of what City Council does do for some of these user groups, and so we do want to make sure that we help out. We want to make sure it’s consistent for all user groups because what happens is if we don’t have consistency, then some may think ‘well, why aren’t I being helped out by the city? What do I have to do?'”
“So we just wanna make it sure it’s very clear, black and white in writing, that everybody is understanding what the fee structure will be and moving forward, what the expectations will be when using the equipment from the city.”
“We mentioned the padded chairs, we mentioned the tables, and we mentioned the pipe and drape because those are the main things that people want to use. We’ve even had requests for people to use the stage and they don’t like for that stage to leave the city facilities just because of the wear and tear on those kinds of items.”