Fleming: College is putting arena hopes on pause //
Coun. Parnell says Morrow Park, rejected by council in the past, is now the easiest solution to get the twin-pad rink and pool built as quickly as possible
Fleming College supports the city’s decision to look at moving a proposed twin-pad arena to Morrow Park.
Fleming was part of a joint application with the city for provincial and federal infrastructure funding for a $52.5-million twin-pad arena to be built next to the Sport and Wellness Centre on college property. The complex was to include a swimming pool in Phase 2.
Once the funding request was denied by the province, Fleming president Maureen Adamson said the college informed the city it was hitting pause on the project.
“Fleming is in no position to fund an arena at this point,” Adamson said. “We’re working on a response to the pandemic so what we told the city is we were pressing pause on our end until we got to the other side of the pandemic. We certainly didn’t make any suggestions to the city of where they should look to next for a partnership.”
Had the funding been approved, Fleming was “all in” on the project, she said.
A city staff report to be discussed by council Monday night suggests switching the focus to Morrow Park since it could be several years before Fleming is in a position to revisit the project.
The report recommends council look to Morrow Park as a potential location for the twin-pad.
Staff also recommends having consultants at Perkins + Will Architects — the designers of the twinpad that was going to be built at Fleming — examine the possibility of Morrow Park as the alternate site and develop a preliminary design.
“It’s a city project and it’s well within their purview wherever they think is the next best place,” Adamson said. “They want to proceed more quickly than we are in a position to do so I wish them all the very, very best
“We’re really pleased the city is not abandoning the project and is pushing ahead and finding creative ways to offer this community the kind of facilities it deserves so I’m very happy to see them move ahead. I wish it was Fleming, I wish we weren’t in a pandemic and I wish we got the funding but I congratulate the city on their tenacity,” she said.
Coun. Lesley Parnell, the city’s arena, parks and recreation chairperson, helped negotiate the partnership with Fleming after a previous plan to locate the arena on Trent University land fell apart.
“I’m devastated,” Parnell said. “It was a great alternative. They are dealing with a whole bunch of other issues to deal with COVID. It was kind of an expensive location for servicing, not more than Trent, but still expensive.”
Mayor Diane Therrien said it’s understandable Fleming is unable to commit to a quicker timeline.
“We’re not able to continue with that planned partnership at this time but we still want to be moving some of these large projects forward,” Therrien said.
“That’s the impetus for why we’re exploring other options.”
Parnell said Morrow Park is the easiest solution, especially now that the Morrow family and agricultural society back redevelopment are there for recreational use. “Morrow Park is our saving grace,” said Parnell. “We own it and it’s not contaminated so let’s use it to the maximum benefit of our citizens.
“We do have to save some green space and we have a master plan but now we have the opportunity to do something at Morrow Park. Will it be the new OHL arena? Will it be the new twin-pad or triplex with a swimming pool? Or all of it right beside the Memorial Centre? That’s all up for community discussion.
“It’s fair to say we’ll be making better use of our huge community asset at Morrow Park.”
Parnell wants the city to move as quickly as possible.
“We need to build at a minimum a twin-pad arena in this community as fast as we possibly can because we need it,” Parnell said.
“The capacity is there and the city is growing and we’re literally holding back leagues from growing because we don’t have ice capacity. Now COVID-19 has made this even worse because we’ve lost three hours of prime ice-time in every arena.”
Therrien said that, whatever decision council makes, it’s important they get it right.
“The feasibility of these largescale projects needs to be looked at. I expect there will be a spirited debate about it on Monday,” Therrien said.
“I’m looking forward to having that conversation,” Therrien added. “There have been talks that if we are building a new multi-sport and entertainment facility does it make sense to maybe combine and look at putting the two pads with that facility?
“I think there are a lot of ideas that are going to be discussed and I know council is interested in talking about all the options.”