How rural revolt halted arena, hall consolidation
LINDSAY – City of Kawartha Lakes Mayor Andy Letham’s voice quivered as he uttered the words which gave hope to rural communities throughout this municipality. “I had no idea.” For three weeks rural communities rallied, working desperately, meeting daily, calling, e-mailing, and writing letters in a massive lastminute effort to save their moneylosing community centres and arenas.
“I had no idea that it meant so much to a lot of the community,” Letham said from the mayor’s chair in a council meeting where residents had gathered, hoping; praying for the best, but expecting the worst.
“We were at a crossroads as a community. We were at a crossroads as a city,” the mayor acknowledged, explaining that the municipality had the choice of implementing the decisions as recommended by staff who had fulfilled their mandate.
“Or we can call upon our community to become actively engaged in … building a better model.”
For three years staff has been conducting a core services review, looking at areas to cut. On the chopping block were the majority of rural recreational facilities which were costing tens of thousands of dollars more to operate then they were generating.
Instead the mayor of this municipality which still hurts from imposed amalgamation, put forward a motion putting those cuts on hold indefinitely and calling for representatives of the community and facility users to join he and two councilors to come up with a better business model to deliver services more affordably “not under the threat of closing, but because it’s what we all want; and what we all need to do,” he said, his voice wavering.
There was no cheering, though later some admitted that they felt like it as they mayor rolled out a plan which called for “real community engagement,” in the operation and business planning for the existing ten ice surfaces and more than 20 community centres across this sprawling municipality. Council had planned to consolidate six pads into two twin pads based on utilization. The mayor’s plan received unanimous support.
“He’s done something today that is going to be a template for rural communities across the province,” predicted an ecstatic Paul Richardson who had joined former school teacher and beef farmer Kathy Morton in leading the charge to save their beloved Manvers Arena.
“He took everything that was said yesterday, and really listened.”
The result, adds Richardson is a “huge step forward for all rural communities.”
The Manvers group had felt that Places to Grow legislation which was dictating that growth be kept to the city’s three core areas of Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls and Lindsay, was robbing the rural fabric of its gathering places. Enrolment in many recreation programs has slipped like a snowball gathering steam.
While the core services study had been ongoing for three years, residents had for the most part been unaware of the ramifications; that their facilities would close.
“It made us wake up,” Richardson.
“It happened so fast, adds Morton. “We had two to three weeks before the vote and then that was it; it was going to be gone by April 1.
Residents were meeting daily, she said, lobbying, researching and planning.
“When you get cornered,” says Richardson, “You come out fighting.” says
With amalgamation Richardson explained, management of the facilities had been absorbed by the infrastructure in Lindsay.
So more than 100 delegations approached council in a marathon session, turning what Letham had thought was going to be “easy,” into an emotionally fraught potential disaster with rural residents complaining that the decision had already been made.
For his turn Richardson had suggested the community engagement; an example of which continues to work well in Little Britain where hockey, figure skating and a Junior C hockey franchise thrive.
Their pleas were heard. And last week as council gathered for the vote which would spell the death knell for the facilities; instead there arose an opportunity, a challenge so remarkable, so common-sense, that Richardson calls it ‘historic.’
“It was never about cutting and closing just to balance the books,” Letham said in a brief monologue which led to the tabling of his motion. “It was about how do we deliver our services in a better way.”
“From a business perspective,” he explained, the facility cuts “make a lot of sense.”
But, there was a big but that changed the conversation.
Speaking “just for myself…. What I’m going to admit caught me a little off guard was our passion; the passion of our community which was pretty evident last night at our town hall meeting.
“Sometimes I get caught behind the perpetually complaining people…. And sometimes I don’t think we can help but tune out,” the mayor admitted.
Then people stepped forward “not with complaints, but with solutions…. We need to find that balance between our users of our facilities and our non-users of our facilities,” he said. Roughly 80 per cent don’t use the rec facilities “and we have to be responsible to them as a taxpayer as well.” That, he said, is what started the facility review.
“What cannot be argued is that the model that we have is not affordable. We have to change it.” The exercise of conducting the core services review, he said “has exposed our community pride.”
“Your success is our success,” he said. “Your community success is our success… We’re a city whether you like it or not.”