Lloydminster council is considering changes to a bench policy.
The bench dedication program policy allows community members the opportunity to recognize friends, family members or important events. This also helps contribute to beautifying Lloyd’s green spaces.
The document is regularly reviewed every few years and administration identified a few changes that could be made.
The removal of part of the policy which says the dedication plaque is not intended to serve as a memorial marker with birth or death dates not allowed on it.
“We do have the customer or resident paying for the plaque, it really doesn’t impact us one way or another if there’s a date of decease or date of birth on there,” said Jordan Newton, manager, parks and green spaces. “As well as from a personal note I did have to meet with a family who lost a loved one, I know the family, and it is hard to tell the family in that circumstance that they can’t really use it as a memorial marker.”
The other section includes a rewording of what is being paid for.
“It is really hard to calculate what the cost of a bench will be, graffiti, administrative costs, even costs for me to meet with the family shouldn’t be included that’s why I propose that it’s just the cost of the bench and plaque,” said Newton.
Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers asked for clarity surrounding 4.2.3 of the document, which states text is subject to approval by the city.
“Does it fall to the city manager, does it fall to you as the manager, does it fall to executive managers, just wondering about the process and who would have that call,” asked Aalbers. “If the call is made and somebody doesn’t like it where does it go?”
Newton said it would be himself looking at it, the city manager is also able to look at it at any time. He said they would take the document back to look for consistent wording within other policies and bylaws.
Discussion also revolved around the issue of no logos being permitted on plaques. This pertained specifically to service clubs in town that may want to put their logos on a plaque.
“We can reword that, logos of any kind are at administrations discretion or the city’s discretion we could always have that,” said Newton.
He said on applications or in the department-specific procedures they could clarify no advertising on the benches.
The plaque size, font and design specifications will be determined by the City. Text is subject to approval by the City.
The item has been accepted as information and will return to a future council meeting for approval.
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