Council moves Alliston Arena off death row, accepts government funds

Posted January 15, 2013

New Tecumseth councillors were near unanimous last night voting in favour of pushing forward with planned repairs to extend the life and uses of the Alliston Memorial Arena, while at the same time removing any time lines that would trigger its future review outside of natural causes.

Several factors played well in its favour including a 100 per cent increase in usage over the past couple years, access to $125,000 in federal funding toward the upgrades, and a projected operating deficit of $69,000 in 2013. And that's expected to come in lower if the usage trajectory continues upward.

Last night, about a year after an arena task force was established to gather information and consult the public and provide a final report to the Town, councillors finally got around to making a concrete decision. The timing was spurred by the federal government's grant program, which will be matched by the Town to create a pool of $250,000. However, the strings attached to the money also weighed because the facility accepted for the funds must remain in use for six years after the work is completed.

The initial recommendation put a three year time span on the Arena decision, which would have provided time to review its use and place in an updated Recreation Master Plan study.

Prior to the council debate and vote, representatives of the various arena user groups made final summations in favour of keeping it open.

Sam Williams, who chaired the arena task force, but last night speaking on behalf of the Alliston Firefighters Association, said they agreed with Parks and Recreation Director Ray Osmond's recommendations, except for the three year rider.

"Our group would like to see that figure removed from this," said Mr. Williams. "If you're like me and you pulled out a calculator when you saw the sheets, you know you're about $24 away an hour from breaking even, which is not really the time to shoot and move away from something. Because, if I recall from the task force, there's not a whole lot of recreation buildings that break even. That is a plus to a building that has not been marketed, or angled for what it is, a dry use facility. And you own it. You don't make payments on it, there's no mortgage there, or debt assigned to it. So putting money into your own pockets is a smart decision for the town."

Fran Fagan, one of the leading voices and organizers of the Save the Alliston Memorial Arena movement which grew to include lawn signs around town, told councillors she has met local businesses "who want to renovate the kitchen as a donation to the arena, and donations of money to update the snack bar."

"It's time to stop writing these reports and get on with repairs needed and promoting all of our rec centres," said Ms. Fagan. "I would like to have a mural on the west side of the arena of the army, air force and navy to compliment the cenotaph of the war veterans, with the council's permission."

TJ Pelletier, representing the roller derby league, which is now the arena's largest user group, chalking up over 600 hours in 2012, with more already booked this year, reminded council that the usage has increased even when the Town spent little to promote it.

"There appears to be an upward continued movement there," said Mr. Pelletier. "There hasn't been as much focus paid to the arena by the parks and rec department in the last several years because you had the NTRC, and this arena was kind of left off to the side, and its flourished on its own. It's an amazing little phenomenon."

Glen O'Leary, whose business is fire systems, focused on the list of proposed works, suggesting first that the sprinkler system in the arena building, may not need to be completely replaced, and it should be flushed and tested first. And at worst case scenario, approximately $50,000 could set it up for 20 years.

Mr. O'Leary pointed to plans to replace the community hall's floor with vinyl, as a waste of $60,000, and suggested most of the issues are directly related to "neglect."

"First off, that floor is a dance floor. Who wants to dance on vinyl? Who wants to teach kids to dance on vinyl? That floor has been neglected for the past four years," he said. "Ever since this place has been open, that floor was always sanded every year, and varathaned every year, by the arena staff. So now it's neglect, that's the problem, it's all neglect. Same with the roof. You've got a roof leak between the two buildings, it's a minor fix, it's neglect. We are neglecting it, and it seems to me someone wants it to fall down, so we can get rid of it. And the heating, so now we can really utilize that floor if we can heat it. There is 11 miles approximately of 3/4 inch pipe under that floor with two headers. All you have to do is buy two boilers, and get a small heating company in, doesn't have to be the biggest company in the world, doesn't have to be Ellis Don, and get a heating system in there. You heat that floor, that'll heat that whole arena. And if you don't believe me, ask Lou Biffis, that's how he heats his arena. It's the cheapest form of heat, and we're overlooking that."

"The vinyl floor," continued Mr. O'Leary, "we can save $60,000 by sanding the floor, and I think everyone wants the hardwood. The heating system would accommodate everyone. To take this building down, let's say we sell the building, and I know the numbers, you'd be lucky to get $700,000 or $750,000 for it. You take it down, you sell it, by the time you do an environmental clean up and everything else, and there's going to be problems, we know that, there always is. So we tear it down, sell it, get half a million dollars, that building is 30,000 sq ft. to replace that, that's 7.5 to 8 million not with site services or any other thing. So in my opinion, you don't just throw a good piece of real estate away."

When the debate turned back to council, Ward 8 councillor Jim Stone wondered why the memorial arena was being labeled "old" and "useless."

"I live in a home that was built in 1894 and it's in good condition, and hasn't been repaired, and it's made out of the same material that the memorial arena is made from. I don't know why they say it's old and useless now, it isn't," said Mr. Stone. "Some of the staff reports say the building is in poor condition, and we hire an engineer to analyze it and the engineer says it's in generally good condition. So it makes no sense to me to take this building and tear it down. (...) They don't make land anymore, this is in the best location in town, and I don't think we'd have to spend nearly the amount of money we're talking about. To me it's a no brainer to keep this arena going. It's used by more and more people all the time. I don't think we're advertising, or utilizing it to its fullest. There isn't a facility in town, except maybe for the Tottenham Community Centre, that makes money. We don't make money on the parks, and ball fields, and places like that. We don't make money in Beeton.Why should we be using that as a hammer on this situation and saying yeah, this is costing us money. Yeah, this is costing us money, yeah, all our facilities are costing us money. I don't think this one costs us a lot of money, and I think this thing will be here another 50 years."

The only dissenting view was from Ward 1 councillor Bob Marrs who said the Town should stick with the original plan that deemed the arena redundant after the New Tecumseth Recreation Centre opened six years ago. He suggested spending more than $2 million to add a dry-pad to the NTRC as a way to accommodate all the uses in one facility.

"About the only thing that can't be done right now is the roller derby, and last time I checked only one or two people from New Tecumseth that are involved with that, and come from other places. I don't have a real problem with that because there are other things that work in our favour," said Mr. Marrs. "If we let that go, yes, I don't think that's worth a lot, but if it's done, and there are condominiums put in there, then you have development charges. They'll bring in a million or so, and after that, taxes coming in on an annual basis of about $50,000 and that money can be put in to the make the other arena, give you everything you need. (...) So I'm adamantly against maintaining the arena for those reasons. I think the best business decision we can do is make sure everything goes to the (NTRC), that we get development put in there so we get a good high end development put in to draw more people into the downtown and it will help the downtown area because people will be living in the downtown, they'll be buying in the downtown. It's a win win situation. We're looking for more density, and that's the way we'd be getting it."

Grudging support was provided by Ward 7 councillor Bruce Haire, who mentioned how happy he was that the federal government rejected the $2 million application attached to the arena upgrades.

"Now we only have to put up $125,000. I think I can live with that," said Mr. Haire. "I don't say I'm thrilled about it, but it is serving a purpose, and hopefully, the Town grows the way we hope it grows, and this facility will also get more use."

Last night's decision will be ratified by council next Monday night.

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