Scout Island Nature Centre has been awarded a $12,500 fee for service agreement for a 3 year period following Tuesday night’s regular City Council meeting in Williams Lake.
Executive director Sue Hemphill says it was astounding to hear some of the comments that were made.
“To repeat once again that we’re getting money from the school district for the nature kindergarten-we don’t get a penny. I have just a spent an hour and a half every morning with those kids, the school district doesn’t pay me. Scout Island pays me or I do it as a volunteer.”
Hemphill says another comment read by Mayor Walt Cobb from some emails he had received, that are not true were that the foxes were removed.
She says the foxes moved themselves due to there not being enough rodents, which is a food source for them.
All members of Council except Mayor Walt Cobb voted in favor of the fee for service, reversing a 3-2 Committee of Whole Council report which recommended that the $12,500 be denied.
Hemphill says although the fee for service represents 15% of the staffing costs, that is how she is able to leverage the remaining $85,000-$95,000 in funding that is needed from other organizations.
“Yes, I’m happy for that and I’ll do the best I can with it, but I think if people took the time to see what the other fees for service are for other groups they would find out that we get one of the lowest amounts and we are sometimes multiplying that by ten.”