Room rental at O'Leary Community Complex jumps

If you want to rent the main room at  the O'Leary Community Complex you're now going to have to pay more.

At the last council meeting, the town approved an increase in the fees to $75 for non-residents and $50 for residents. That's up from a flat fee of $35.

The rate includes a half-day rental and use of the kitchen.

The price hike isn't sitting well with Jim Jones, who regularly rents the space to hold the monthly meeting of the Egmont NDP riding association. 

"For the price to go up that much, it's a little too much for us," he said, adding it is becoming a hindrance to community groups. 

"We're going to have to try to find somewhere else, that's basically it. But there's not a lot of places around here to do stuff like that, but we're searching. "

O'Leary mayor Eric Gavin said he hasn't heard any rumblings of disappointment himself, but said the town had to put the price up to keep the building going. 

"This is the first time we did increase them in 20 years," he said, "since the cost of electricity has gone up and the cost of fuel and everything is going up."

"We also had to hire a person to do the cleaning and we're paying this person say $15 an hour and it's taken them probably two hours to clean the place."

Non-residents pay more

Jones also wasn't happy with the difference in price for non-residents of the town. 

"I live less than three kilometres from O'Leary," he said.

The mayor explained that residents get a break because they help pay for upkeep with their taxes.

Gavin said he doesn't see a problem with the price, and he knows of similar rental spots charging as high as $100 or more. He can't see being able to drop the price even if there are a lot of public complaints. 

"If everything went down and everything else, possibly. I can't see it going down." Gavin said

Jones is going to write a letter to council expressing his group's concerns in the hopes of changing council's decision.

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