Town Council considers Pool options

Town Council

To Comment on this article Click Here

Brown presented the final Phase 3 of the pool proposal at Monday's Council meeting.

"The first option," he said, "is to refurbish or renovate the existing Centennial Pool at the Saugeen District Secondary School at a cost of approximately $3million."

As he pointed out, this option would require the Town to work with the Bluewater District School Board.  "There was talk that the Board was looking at decomissioning the high school in 2016 for renovations, but that date may have been moved up to 2012, so the first step is to talk to the Board."

Option two would be to expand The Plex sports complex in Saugeen Shores.  "This option is actually the most favourable," said Brown.  "It would  be more efficient from a staffing standpoint and also a heat exchange from the arena would reduce operating costs somewhat."

According to Brown, the capital cost for this option would be approximately $10 million plus the cost of the land and the operating costs (deficit) that would range from $360,000 to $387,000 per annum.

Finally, the third option is to build a new stand-alone facility.  The capital cost is expected to be approximately $10million with annual operating costs ranging from $480,000 to $521,000.  Brown pointed out that the third option would not be as operationally efficient as the facility would not be able to use the heat exchange option with The Plex.

Brown also recommended that the Town implement an overall Recreation Master Plan to assess any decision making and guiding priorities for future municipal investment in recreational facilities.

In the meantime, he suggested that the Town continue to operate Centennial Pool and enter into discussions with the school board while immediately undertaking the development of a Recreation Master Plan.

Councilor Victoria Serda agreed that a master plan should be part of long-term planning.  She also enquired how increased programming in a new facility would affect the deficits.  "Any revenue generated by increased programming," replied Brown, "would be offset because additional staff would in all probability have to be hired."

Councilor Diane Huber pointed out that the $10million capital cost does not include $900,000 for a walking track.  She also agreed with Serda that strategic or sustainable planning was needed.  "I think," said Huber, "as a Council, we have to determine what is a sustainable financial element."

"I hope," said Councilor Luke Charbonneau," that we can move forward with a long-term debt financing study. I don't think there is any way however, that the municipality can move forward without forming partnerships."

"Unfortunately," said Brown, "partnerships are very difficult to obtain when it comes to an aquatic facility.  They are very complicated and many are losing propositions."

Once again, Brown stressed the importance of taking the first step by entering into discussions with the Bluewater School Board.

Mike Myatt, Director of Community Services, will prepare a staff report outlining recommendations for the proposed next steps pertaining to the pool replacement or renovation planning process.

In addition, a public meeting is to be scheduled to review the Phase 3 presentation.

^{for world news, books, sports, movies ...}

Tuesday, February 09, 2010