NORTH BATTLEFORD - North Battleford city council meetings will be staying put at the Chapel Gallery for the month of September.
At their latest meeting Tuesday, council passed a resolution to hold both council and Planning Committee meetings at Chapel Gallery in September, instead of returning to North Battleford City Hall council chamber as had been previously hoped.
The resolution was passed at the urging of administration, who cited concern about the highly-transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19 as the reason for staying at the Chapel Gallery one more month.
City Manager Randy Patrick told council the Delta variant had some “very significant numbers behind it,” and noted council chambers at City Hall were “very constrained.”
Patrick also said Chapel Gallery is not booked for any shows until October. That frees up the facility throughout September and allows council to be able to continue to use the venue, and keep its audio and visual equipment in place.
Council meetings had been taking place regularly at Chapel Gallery since last November, shortly after Mayor David Gillan and the new council were elected. Prior to that time, council had been meeting via the ZOOM platform. There has not been a full council meeting held in City Hall chambers since the pandemic hit in March, 2020.
There had been recent discussion about moving regular meetings back to City Hall. At their previous council meeting in July, Patrick had indicated it was their expectation that meetings would move back to City Hall chambers in September, but the door was left open to remaining at Chapel Gallery if conditions changed.
