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Renting out grad tables breeches bylaw

Safe Grad 2017 of Houston Secondary School requested from the District of Houston to rent tables from the Houston Community Hall for June 17, 2017.

Safe Grad 2017 of Houston Secondary School requested from the District of Houston to rent tables from the Houston Community Hall for June 17, 2017.

The requested was brought to District of Houston council on June 6, 2017.

Though there is a bylaw that states tables from the community hall are not available for rental outside of the facility district staff recommended council to approve the request as a one time rental as staff was unable to find suitable tables to rent.

“In our leisure services bylaw it says that we are able to rent tables for $5 per day, but they are not to be the tables from the community hall,” said Tasha Kelly, manager of leisure services for the District of Houston.

“We don’t have any tables right now for rent. All the tables that we used to rent are either disappeared or are broken,” she added. “So we are asking for permission to use the tables from the community hall.”

“So we have a bylaw that says we can not rent the tables from the community hall, how do we rent them out without changing our bylaw?” asked counsellor Rick Lundrigan.

“We do have to take a look at that bylaw in consideration of the recent decision with the Pleasant Valley Horse Club,” said Gerald Pinchbeck, Corporate Service Officer for the District of Houston. “So this component can be looked at then. But for right now we are asking permission from council to use the municipal asset for this purpose.”

Pinchbeck added that the District of Houston would still be collecting the fee to rent the tables out and emphasized that this would be a one time use.

“How do we say yes without changing the bylaw, legally?” asked Lundrigan.

“In full compliance with the community charter, we can’t,” said Pinchbeck. “That being said I would recommend that we would look at that section of the bylaw considering we do not have tables to rent.”

The recommendation was reworded to include that the tables would be allowed for rent on this one time use on the premise that the bylaw be reviewed further.

Houston council agreed to the recommendation.