At its regular meeting on Feb. 18, Municipal District of Smoky River council decided to maintain recreational setbacks surrounding the Whitemud community hall location. Requests were made to amend the bylaw concerning the recreational setbacks for confined feeding operations around the recreation area of the former Whitemud Hall. However; after the first reading of the amendments, council decided unanimously to maintain the circles around the area. “The people of Whitemud want a hall and I think we should be supporting that,” said councillor Richard Aubin at the meeting. “The community of Whitemud has supported curling rinks, arenas and other projects around the region, and I think we should support their hall.” Not only wanting to preserve the area in its natural state, there was concern about eliminating the history provided by the location in Whitemud. “The community wants to protect the history in the area,” says Reeve Donald Dumont. “The decision that was made today should have been made a long time ago.” Council decided unanimously to keep the land available to the community to develop a new hall. “The bylaw was defeated after the first reading,” says CAO Lucien Turcotte. “The circles will remain in tact around the Whitemud hall.”