What’s so wrong about Wellness Centre changing rooms?
As Yogi Berra might have said, “Is this déjà vu all over again?”
After a questionable floor replacement at the Memorial Centre and an ongoing debacle over the site of a new twin pad, city staff is at it again.
Sheldon Laidman, commissioner of community services, in a December submission to council’s general committee, proposed the city commit to a $3.25-million renovation for the 15-year-old Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre.
Part of the budget for his proposal will come from a Canada Infrastructure COVID-19 Resilience Stream with city taxpayers on the hook for $2.2 million of it.
Based on the report, Laidman submitted part of the budget be spent on rebuilding the change rooms at the Brealey Drive centre.
His report states: “Renovation of the three change rooms located off the pool/fitness centre into a single universal change room design with increased space design considered.”
It appears the plans call for one large change room to be used by all the members using either the pool or fitness centre. Four years ago, we went through an acrimonious debate into the location of a new twinpad arena. Even though a large contingent of user groups favoured Morrow Park and made a compelling presentation to council, staff was fixated on building the facility at Trent University.
After spending money on a consultant and paying for surveys and ground preparation, staff decided their recommendation for the twin pad at Trent University was not doable.
Next they told us Fleming College was to be the new location. That fell by the wayside as did the grants the city was counting on to construct the facility. Now staff is suggesting the facility be placed in Morrow Park where, if council had listened to user groups in the beginning, the twin pad would be built by now.
As for the Memorial Centre floor, this multimillion-dollar expense came about because of some monster truckers’ concerns whether the floor would stand up to their rigs.
Even though consultants told the city the PMC was obsolete and a temporary fix was possible, staff recommended more than $3 million be spent on a new floor and boards.
This latest proposal to revamp the change rooms at the Wellness Centre has the same questions and concerns as the other two projects staff recommended. How out-of-date can change rooms be that are in a 15-year-old building?
Should we even be thinking of spending money redoing completely adequate change rooms in these times?
One would think just paying for the centre’s maintenance expenses will be tough enough on taxpayers without adding in expensive cosmetic changes to meet some bureaucrat’s idea of what might be a good idea.
Common sense suggests the city hold off on doing unnecessary renovations to the Wellness Centre until costs of the pandemic are under control.
For many Wellness Centre members, the social aspects of the current change room as they are now are an attractive feature of their daily workout. What is so wrong about that?
With a “universal change room” that will disappear. What and who are driving these expensive and questionable renovations?
Is it just a chance to tap into some federal money, even though local taxpayers will foot most of the costs? Or is it another staff ego enhancer?
Council must delve more deeply into what is really behind these physical changes to the change rooms being proposed by staff, the true costs and exactly what is expected to be gained and by whom. And then maybe council should direct staff to clean up the twinpad mess they have created. Don Barrie is a retired teacher, former Buffalo Sabres scout and a member of the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame. His column appears each Saturday in The Examiner.