Decision about flower program’s future to come soon
The fate of Prince Albert’s flower maintenance program may be decided in the next council meeting.
The program has been under fire from Coun. Lee Atkinson, who recommended the program be curtailed during Monday’s executive committee meeting. He modified his motion after Mayor Greg Dionne requested a friendly amendment to allow community services director Greg Zeeben to look into the cost to continue to maintain flowers at the cemetery and at the golf course.
“I think it becomes obvious during budget deliberations all the needs we have in this city for all kinds of things, all good causes, all good wishes, external agencies with all the things they’d like to do. I think relative to the list of all the needs in this community, in excess of $40,000 annually, and when I add that up over the last six years, it’s a quarter million dollars we’ve spent on floral decorations,” Atkinson said after the meeting.
“Really? Does anyone feel that much better? And if they’re not there, I don’t think for the most part most people will miss them. And we’ll have some dialogue hopefully with the community and if people think they’d like to put something in, I think we’ll have an opportunity. And if this motion passes, perhaps in next year’s budget we can put some money in to buy some of the material to put in some of the ideal locations,” he said.