Town to address MoA with The Vault Cultural Collective

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Town of Strathmore has waived some of The Vault Cultural Collective’s expenses until the end of the year and council has directed administration to take another look at their Memorandum of Agreement (MoA).

Mark Pretzlaff with Town administration, explained following a previous presentation to council on June 1, several funding requests had been made by The Vault.

“Administration met with The (Vault) Cultural Collective following their presentation to council. They identified a couple of concerns and identified some funding requests of council,” said Pretzlaff. “One of their concerns is that their current MoA would expire in September and they would be without an agreement in place for the standard shoe building.”

Administration has recommended that the Town extend the current MoA to the end of Dec. 31 to allow The Vault Cultural Collective to remain the active tenant of the space, as well as to direct their other requests as a part of the Town’s 2023 budget process.

Pretzlaff also suggested the Town consider waiving the $5,000 rent payment for the remainder of 2022.

“We identified some challenges through 2022 about designating that area as a visitor information centre and I think it’s probably not the best location for it,” said Pretzlaff.

Councillor Brent Wiley moved to extend the MoA with The Vault Cultural Collective to the end of December 2022, directed administration to waive the $5,000 lease payment and to refer the $50,000 funding request from The Vault Cultural Collective to the 2023 budget planning process.

Wiley’s motion also directed administration to renegotiating the lease agreement for The Vault’s location at 136 2nd Ave, until Dec. 31, 2026.

The motion deviated from the original recommendation that was put forward by administration and was inquired for elaboration by Councillor Jason Montgomery. 

“The original recommendation from administration was to simply extend the MoA until the end of this calendar year, and I know that there is an army of volunteers working with The Vault Cultural Collective that would find that limiting on their ability to look forward,” said Wiley. “I know that they are ready to hit the ground running into the 2023 year and they just want to see that Council … is committed to working with them. These items in the new motion are showing them that, in a way, we have got their backs.”

Council passed Wiley’s motion unanimously, following brief discussion.