Dear Editor:
RE: More office space to be added at sportsplex, Aug. 1.
Thanks for your article about conversion of Fergus sportsplex weight room space to offices. Public awareness of such matters is so important. It points to so many questions about decisions in our beautiful township.
Why spend $160,000 to replace existing recreational space with offices before completion of a parks and recreational plan – a plan meant to identify future recreational needs?
Why spend $4.8 million to purchase 90 acres of farm land next to the sportsplex on speculation of future needs, in advance of a plan which will determine parks and recreation needs in future?
Why spend $90,000 of a $350,000 MacDonald endowment, to assess how many millions of tax dollars an artificial refrigerated outdoor ice surface at Bissell Park will cost? Instead why not use all $413,000 (including funds raised) to enhance Bissell Park in an environmentally responsible way, without adding unnecessarily to emissions, maintenance, staffing and already-excessive tax pressures?
And why put a 2023 tax revenue surplus of $1.7 million into capital reserves when it could be used to offset the record-high 2024 tax rate increase of 7.38%? Why not provide council with projected actual 2024 expenditures in the 2025 budget direction document, especially when it recommends another near record 6.3% tax rate increase next year?
Why no mention of the $5 million of new revenue from the sale of lots in the Fergus Industrial Park in 2024, when proposing significant tax rate increases for 2025?
And then there are the designated levies! One for asset management (2%), one for termite control (1%) and one for bridges and culverts (9%), all on top of the base tax rate increase. So many questions.
Peter van Vloten,
Fergus