Harbour Grace completes sale of old stadium
The old S.W. Moores Memorial Stadium in Harbour Grace is again under new ownership.
The town council finalized the sale of the stadium for $319,640 to local business Harbour Grace Ocean Enterprise at its regular council meeting Monday.
“It is another big investment into Harbour Grace,” said Harbour Grace Mayor Don Coombs.
This marks the second time the former S.W. Moores Memorial Stadium has been sold by Harbour Grace in the last several years. In 2017, the town sold the building to Fitz Mobile Welding Inc. for $400,000.
That company subsequently retrofitted the entire building, and things were going well for it until last year when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
During the pandemic, Fitz’s Mobile Welding entered bankruptcy and the property moved back to town control.
At the meeting Monday, there was some concern about the vote on the sale. The meeting for that took place at a previous meeting a month ago, when the sale passed 4-1, as some councillors were deemed to be in a conflict of interest with the vote.
It was requested that that information be sent to the Department of Municipal Affairs to sign off on the vote. It was, and the department approved it, Coombs said.
“Business attracts business,” he said. “There are a lot of good things happening.”
The sale of the old stadium checks one of the boxes town officials said was necessary before they would be able to pass the 2021 municipal operating budget.
Now that it’s done, the town is expected to table the budget at its next meeting in three weeks, on June 1.
As the calendar drifts toward the next round of municipal elections in the fall, it becomes increasingly important that Harbour Grace vote to pass its budget as soon as it can.
During Monday’s meeting, a motion to proceed with the first phase of a planned splash pad in the community using money from the gas tax and the sale of the stadium was defeated when the vote ended in a 3-3 deadlock. One councillor was unavailable for the meeting due to work commitments.
“It disappoints me that we couldn’t get four councillors at tonight’s meeting to do something good for the town,” said Deputy Mayor Sonia Williams, who made the motion.
The councillors who voted against the motion said it was not about not wanting a splash pad — something they recognize is needed — but about not wanting to approve anything before the budget has been adopted.
At previous meetings, council had struck down or rescinded motions that involved the money from the sale of the stadium.
“I think we really need to sit down, get the budget done and find out where we are from there. Then maybe that can go through, but we need to see what funding is available,” said Coun. Lyda Byrne, the chairperson of the town’s finance committee.
Now that the stadium sale is finalized, there is some hope the town can proceed with the budget process and finalize things heading into the summer.
“The focus now is on the budget,” said Coombs.