North Battleford council discussed CUplex rates at its meeting Monday. (file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

In the chambers

City approves CUplex rates including a couple increases

Feb 11, 2020 | 3:16 PM

Those who use the CUplex recreation facilities will want to note a couple of adjustments this year for family and birthday party rates, as well as a new rental rate for a new aquatic inflatable.

City council approved the rates for 2020 at its meeting Monday.

All other rates and charges will remain the same. These rates will stay in effect until March 1, 2021.

Leisure Services Director Cheryl DeNeire said in her report the increases will help the department achieve revenue projections for 2020.

She mentioned administration factored in market comparisons while still trying to keep costs affordable to users.

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Mayor Ryan Bater said, as the recreation director explained, a great deal of thought goes into establishing rates.

“Leisure facilities do have a significant operating cost,” he said. “Council expects that those costs are recovered through a variety of means including rentals, and then rates – user rates. So tonight we were specifically talking about user rates.”

Family memberships rates (for a family of four) will increase by five per cent or $3.60 more per month.

On the need for the family membership rate increase, DeNeire indicated there is currently a 21 per cent gap between a single user rate and the family rates per person. She suggested the gap should be eventually reduced to around 10 per cent instead, in an effort to help make the cost more “financially sustainable” for the city.

“A slight discount for purchasing a family membership is an industry accepted practice, with the norm being around 10 per cent,” she said in her report.

“It’s a small increase to help recognize that the initial rate was too low,” DeNeire added. “But it’s still competitive in the marketplace.”

Birthday party event rates will rise to $165 from $135.

The rate for the party which includes cake and hot dogs, and space rental is still competitive with birthday party packages in other communities, DeNeire said. The booked parties are supervised and organized by the facility attendants so the cost also includes staff time.

She said the current rate is below cost and needed to be corrected immediately for the city to be able to recover all the costs.

The rate to rent the new aquatic inflatable will be set at the same rate as the rock climbing wall inflatable which is $126.25 for the first hour, and $60 for every additional hour, plus a general rental fee.

The original resolution was for all the rates and adjustments to remain in effect until December 2020 but council amended that date to March of next year to give the next city council some time.

“We felt that was a bit of a tight timeline between the election and when that discussion would happen,” Bater said.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow