By Brent Bosker

Children’s group launches public campaign to have foster home open

Nov 16, 2010 | 5:33 AM

Patience is running out for a children’s group anxious to get a foster home for young children started, south of Prince Albert.

Rising Stars Children’s Ranch built a ten-bed foster home in the Rural Municipality of Prince Albert, but it can’t open until the RM approves a necessary permit.

The permit issue goes back to when the group first approached the RM about the development. It has dragged on for more than a year.

A new application is before council but the RM wants to hear from the public in January, before making a decision.

The entire experience has been frustrating, said Dave Hobden, executive director of Rising Stars Children’s Ranch.

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“We just don’t see the rationale for waiting. We’ve had numerous public meetings — we’ve met with council a number of times,” Hobden said.

Council has been hesitant to approve the permit because of the fierce opposition the development has sparked within the community.

“At the second public meeting … I heard someone say ‘go ahead and build it, we’ll just burn it down,’” said Jeff Bergen, treasurer for Rising Stars during a presentation to the RM council on Nov.5.

The main concerns from residents where the ages of children staying at the home and their backgrounds.

Rising Stars has said the home will not be place for young offenders, but a place for vulnerable children.

Hobden said they have listened to the public’s concerns even though they didn’t necessarily agree with them.

“We have lowered our ages so that our age will now be a maximum of ten years old so the children will be from five to ten,” he said.

“The other thing they asked us to do, is to place a permanent family in the home and we did that (at a cost of $50,000),” he said.

Hobden said he’s baffled by the municipality’s refusal to grant the necessary permit to allow them to operate.

Rising Stars has started a Facebook page so people can get the facts about the home and their dealings with the RM.

There is a lot of the support for the project and they need those voices to be louder, Hobden said.

Rising Stars is asking the public to phone or write the RM to insist they allow the home to operate immediately.

bbosker@panow.com