ELORA – After much discussion, Centre Wellington’s facility closure schedule will remain as presented in March.
On June 17, staff presented a comprehensive report about the cost of opening township recreation facilities on statutory holidays.
The report took six staff a combined 111.5 hours to put together and was based on a March 18 motion that passed in 4-3 vote.
After taking it to the Community Services Advisory Committee, staff brought a recommendation to council to change nothing from the original March 18 report.
The new motion also states if revisions to the closure schedule “are recommended by staff or directed by council, they are to be considered during budget deliberations, as any change impacts the facility operations budget.”
However, if there’s a significant event or someone wants to open the facility when it’s closed, the managing director of community services or designate can make the decision.
Councillor Bob Foster spoke out against the staff recommendation. He said he has photos that show the Fergus sportsplex was well used on Easter Sunday this year. He also said people in the weight room often ask him why the facility isn’t open on statutory holidays.
“My view is that recreation is a weekend and a holiday business and we ought to be open,” Foster said. “And my view is also that our role is to serve citizens and citizens want access to recreation on [statutory holidays] and for all of the above reasons I speak against the recommendation.”
Mayor Kelly Linton said he doesn’t understand why staff did the report if Foster was always going to advocate for the facilities to be open on statutory holidays.
“If we wanted to just move ahead and tell staff to open up on statutory holidays we could have done that without any of this information,” Linton said. “So I think when we send staff away to do work, we’ve got to know what we’re saying we want to do.
“If we just want to change the policy then just move that ahead; it doesn’t matter what comes out of the report.”
Despite Foster’s examples, Bruce Parkin, acting manager of community programs and customer service, said the township has not had specific requests for recreation facilities to be open on statutory holidays.
Managing director of community services Pat Newson said a survey of sport user groups showed they don’t want to use the facilities on statutory holidays.
“The teams want the break on Boxing Day and Christmas Day and New Year’s Day,” Newson said. “They want time away and they said we don’t want ice.”
Yet Foster maintained the facilities should be open on statutory holidays, saying the township could make money if the ice pads are rented all day.
Information presented by Parkin and Newson showed that on the few holidays township facilities are open, many ice pad time slots go unused.
For example, in 2018, the ice pads were open on Family Day and only 25.5 ice pad times were rented out of 36 possibilities; on Easter Sunday just one of 12 ice pad times was used; on Thanksgiving Sunday 10 of 24 pad times were rented.
At one point, Linton had to call for order because Foster was talking over the mayor and was told not to “fire back” questions at staff.
“This is a perfect example of a discussion that council should not be having,” Linton said. “This is an operational discussion.
“The report is in front of us and we can do what we want with this report but we don’t have to go back and forth with the details and information.”
Foster replied, “Advocating for our citizens is exactly a discussion we ought to be having.”
The committee of the whole passed the recommendation to retain the March 18 schedule for closures. It was subsequently passed at the July 24 council meeting.
The Centre Wellington Community Sportsplex in Fergus will be closed on New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Victoria Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Monday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
The Elora Community Centre will be closed on New Year’s Day, Easter Monday, Victoria Day, August civic holiday, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Sunday, Thanksgiving Monday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Victoria Park Seniors Centre in Fergus will be closed New Year’s Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, August civic holiday, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Sunday, Thanksgiving Monday, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve.
