The bell of the ball or topic of conversation for a good portion of Monday nights meeting in council chamber surrounded a bell located at the top of city hall.

According to Crystal Froese, the councillor who brought the motion forward, the bell is rusting and is in need of some attention. 

After participating in a tour the Heritage Advisory committee met and proposed a motion to council stating that if they approved to pay for the rusted bolts that hold the bell in place, they would provide $10,000 the pay for a new clapper which would then make the bell operational once again. 

"The last thing we'd like is to have the bell to come falling down through the building, so it's important that Parks and Rec takes a look at that," explained City Manager, Jim Puffalt. "The Heritage is recommending to council and of course, council has final say on putting an actual clapper into the bell. Realistically we have to deal with the safety issues, and the second issue of using the Heritage fund to make the bell operable again is up to council to decide." 

Councillor Heather Eby quickly jumped in stating that if this a safety issue, this shouldn't have been left up to a community group to find a solution.

"Someone at city hall should have been looking into this anyways if we have a bell that's going to fall through the city I don't think it should be up to an advisory committee of any sort to figure that out. I'm not sure that this motion should even be necessary, I would hope that it would be order of business that we would be taking care of our assets without an advisory committee finding out there's a safety issue." 

Council was on board to have the necessary repairs be arranged for a date in the not so distant future after an assessment can be done to determine the cost. However, what wasn't met with as much approval was the second motion to use funds that were allocated the natatorium up to $10,000 for the clapper.

Council carried the motion to proceed with fixing the bell and will wait for the administration to bring back a report with the figures attached for an appropriate fix. 

Froese also added the idea originated from a tour the Heritage Advisory committee was able to participate in, and want to one day hear the bell chime in downtown Moose Jaw which it hasn't done since the 1960's she added.