City of Powell River staff will share a report with Powell River Logger Sports (PRLS) in connection to correspondence sent by logger sports regarding matters of concern.
At the August 25 special council meeting, councillors voted to receive and file correspondence from Arthur Lloyd, vice-president of PRLS. In the correspondence, Lloyd stated that city works crews did a great job of setting up the venue and accommodating the event’s needs. He added, however, that in applying for a city grant-in-aid, there were complications. He said PRLS had never been billed previously for use of city services to put on the event and was surprised to learn that it would be this year.
Lloyd stated that chainsaw carvings stored from the 2019 event were sold at auction without PRLS being informed. He asked for accounting of how much was generated by the sale and some consideration of funds being applied to their city bill, which amounted to $1,084.21.
Lloyd added that his organization would be willing to meet with city representatives to resolve concerns.
City corporate officer and acting chief administrative officer Chris Jackson wrote an extensive report for information for councillors detailing relative background information to help any decision-making moving forward.
Councillor George Doubt said he’d read both the correspondence and Jackson’s report. Doubt said the report goes through all discussions between logger sports and various city staff about the grant applications, and how the timing and information systems work together.
“It’s unfortunate there wasn’t enough time in this process and enough information provided to get a grant for logger sports,” said Doubt. “Everyone appreciates the event. I think we can do more as a city for communications and for simplification of our grant procedure. Council should look into that.
“I’d like to suggest we share this report with the logger sports people so they can totally understand what happened.”
Councillor Rob Southcott said he received Lloyd’s letter when he sent it to the city.
“He’s a friend from way back,” said Southcott. “We chatted. I feel the information provided to us [by Jackson] really does outline what should have happened and it very diplomatically outlines what didn’t happen. If Art is still involved in this next year, I’m confident it will be sorted out.”
Councillor Cindy Elliott said she is super-supportive of logger sports and that it is an amazing event.
“I’m hoping we can do a much better job in the future of making sure all our event organizers understand where all the avenues for grants are, plus deadlines,” said Elliott. “Some simple information for folks holding events would be super-helpful. I’m open to talking with members of the community that need help with that. I’m hoping we can avoid this kind of confusion in the future.”
Jackson, in his report, detailed that PRLS was unable to provide sufficient documentation to support the late grant request to council, or for the grant-in-kind for the use of city facilities. Jackson added that the carvings auctioned by the city were accumulated carvings that were donated to the city as sponsors of the event over the years. He stated that proceeds from the auction went back into the city’s general revenue.
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