Council will be waiving fees at the Puslinch Community Centre to help local families celebrate Family Day this February.
Councillors here made the decision on Dec. 3 following a request from the Puslinch Optimist Club for a waiving of fees for Family Day events from Feb. 13 to 15.
In his letter to council, Optimist Ken Williams explained that for the past three years the club has held a series of events in the community park over the Family Day long weekend.
The purpose is to get residents of the township to come out to the park and enjoy this special holiday with their family, Willams said.
“We believe it has been very successful with hundreds of people, mostly families, attending,” Williams said.
In each of the past three years the club has asked council to consider reducing the cost of rental to the club so the group can continue this valuable service to the community.
“We are, once again asking for your financial assistance through rental reduction of the park facilities for the upcoming Family Day weekend,” Williams said.
Planned activities include skating, snow sculpting, horse-drawn sleigh rides, fire pit, music, physical activities in the gym, and entertainment in the hall.
These activities are offered without charge to community members.
The Optimists also plan to operate a 4-on-4 hockey tournament to take place in the rink on Saturday and Sunday.
As in the past, this event is used as a fundraiser to offset the costs incurred for the other activities.
Organizers plan to operate a bar under license in the community centre, for Saturday and Sunday, to coincide with the hockey tournament.
Williams stated, “we are somewhat restricted to the amount we can charge per team to attend the tournament so we would appreciate if council can continue to allow us to run the tournament with the reduced cost we have paid in the past.”
In the past the club has had access to all of the facilities of the park for the weekend; the rink, community centre, and parklands.
“This allows us to plan additional activities for our residents. We have a new committee planning this year’s events and it would be important for us to have the same access to facilities as last year so additional activities can be added to this year to improve the experience for those attending.”
After a quick discussion council authorized:
– use of the rink pad and community centre on Feb. 13 and 14; and
– use of the rink pad, gymnasium, community centre, ball diamond and community centre parklands on Feb. 15.
The club will provide insurance of $5 million naming the township as an additional insured party and will also assume the costs of part-time staff on Feb. 13 and 14 and costs for bartenders.
Council waived the fees for rental of the rink pad and community centre on Feb. 13 and 14 – valued at $4,797 inclusive of HST.
In addition council waived fees in association with the use of the rink pad, gymnasium, community centre, ball diamond and parklands on Feb. 15 – valued at $1,486 inclusive of HST.
Those fees are based on the club making use of all those facilities, Lever noted.
