Mount Community Centre housing a model in innovation: Clarke
Council voted a final time at a virtual meeting on Monday to help fund 10 new apartments for people experiencing homelessness.
About $682,000 in waived fees and taxes will be offered to the two projects combined, as well as about $1.1 million social service money the city received from the provincial government.
Eight of the apartments will in a planned new private development on Rubidge Street, and two more would be multiplebedroom units at The Mount Community Centre on Monaghan Road.
Coun. Henry Clarke, the city’s housing chair, noted that The Mount is a smart conversion of the former convent on Monaghan Road into 65 affordable apartments, offices and community centre space.
“The Mount has shown incredible initiative and innovation in how to create housing,” Clarke said. “It’s a model all across Canada. And it continues the mission of the Sisters of St. Joseph — I think it’s a wonderful thing.”
Also at the council meeting on Monday:
Peterborough Memorial Centre
Since there may be no fans allowed in the stands at the Memorial Centre when hockey games resume, council voted a final time Monday to make it up to the arena’s concession operators as well as to long-term holders of private box suites.
The city-owned arena has been closed since March as a safety measure in the COVID-19 pandemic, and when hockey games resume they may be broadcast with no fans in the area.
To make up for the loss of business for the concession operator, council voted to offer Compass Group Canada Ltd. a break on its commission to the city: rather than the agreedupon sum of $132,104 between June 2020 and June 2021, Compass will pay the city 10 per cent of food and beverage sales.
For fans who’ve reserved 14 private box suites over multiple years, council plans to waive fees from Sept. 1, 2020, to Aug. 31, 2021 (for a loss of $162,145 for the city).
Economic development board
Council voted a final time to appoint two new people to the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development (PKED) board.
Burton Lee, the executive director of business operations for the Peterborough Petes, and Ian Almond, a former senior manager with Siemens Canada Ltd., will serve from May 1, 2021, to April 30, 2024.
Fire dispatch
Council voted a final time to allow Peterborough Fire Services to continue providing fire dispatch services to Northumberland County for another five years.
Peterborough Fire Services submitted a bid on a contract to provide the services from 2016 to 2020, and now all seven municipalities in the county want to renew the agreement until the end of December 2025.
It’s going to mean a total of $2.3 million over five years.