Council and the Drayton Skatepark Committee will split the difference on a $33,000 funding shortfall in an effort to get a facility built in timely fashion.
Council approved a plan to put a skate park at the Kinsmen Park in Drayton in October of 2014. A funding plan for the facility called for one third of the estimated $100,000 cost to come from the municipality, with a third each to come from community fundraising and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
However the project has been in limbo since December, when the municipality learned its Trillium application was unsuccessful.
At the Jan. 27 meeting, council defeated a resolution proposed by councillor Michael Martin that would have seen the municipality contribute an additional one-third to cover the shortfall.
On Feb. 9, Dahl Atin of the skate park committee asked council to consider pitching in half the shortfall, if the committee raised the other half.
“Our committee has been fundraising and gaining support for this project for four years,” states a letter from Atin and co-organizer Jo-Anne Brown.
“The community often asks us about the progress of the skate park. We do not want to wait for another Trillium Foundation application to be approved or rejected.”
Atin pointed out the committee has already raised the original one-third share it had pledged.
“Our community is very much supporting us,” she told council. She added the committee considered other options, such as reducing the size of the proposed facility to lower costs or setting up portable ramps at the old arena property or PMD arena parking lot.
“What I think these options fail to provide us with is a facility for our older youth, which I think is a third of our township,” she stated. (A recent comparative study of Ontario municipalities by BMA Management Consultants indicated 37 per cent of Mapleton residents are 19 or under.) She said the committee’s goal would be best “achieved by a permanent concrete pad.” Atin said the committee has also considered offering naming rights for a major contributor.
Councillor Marlene Ottens agreed the naming rights might help attract a major donor. She also suggested “another easy way to fundraise a large amount of money is a hold a raffle for a big ticket item.”
Councillor Dennis Craven suggested council could consider contributing the extra money “if they get the other half fundraised.”
However, Mayor Neil Driscoll suggested a firm commitment from council would give the committee “their second goal.”
CAO Brad McRoberts pointed out the 2016 budget contains an allocation of $20,000 for the municipality’s 50/50 fundraising program and a portion of that could be used to top up the skate park fund.
A resolution that council commit funds from the 50/50 account to match the remaining outstanding portion of the skate park funding passed unopposed.
