Centre of attention
Councillors ponder next move to provide youth facilities
Meetings to get a youth group started in New Waterford have been delayed for a fairly obvious and appropriate reason.
“We’re waiting for the kids to get back from March break,” said Cape Breton Regional Municipality Dist. 11 Coun. Kendra Coombes on Wednesday. “They were heading toward March break when we had our last meeting so we felt it was best to wait until they got back from that to start our grade level meetings.”
Coombes says they will be meeting with children at all grade levels to find out what they want and need in such a group.
“Nothing can be done without them. They should be involved from the word go because they need to feel and they have to know that it is their place — it’s not anyone else, it’s theirs.”
Coombes and others in the community met in late February to discuss the need for a youth club in New Waterford.
Cape Breton Centre MLA David Wilton has said he wants to see boys and girls clubs established in both New Waterford and Dominion with appropriate venues — an addition to the New Waterford rink and at the former elementary school in Dominion.
In Dominion, Dist. 10 Coun. Darren Bruckschwaiger is approaching the issue with caution. While he likes the idea of a youth centre, and appreciates the idea that one could be housed in the former Macdonald school, he’s worried about what happens after the initial establishment of such a centre.
“My hope is that there would be some provincial help to keep these facilities sustainable,” he said Wednesday. “Because that building in Dominion, the elementary school, the last year in operation it was $30,500 for heat alone. So I really think for that operation you’re looking at $45,000 to $50,000 a year to operate it. That comes down to funding. The ones that are successful we haven’t been able to help them very much so that’s a lot of fundraising — there would be a lot of work involved. Mr. Wilton has been so kind to offer this building — it’s my hope that he will help to keep them sustainable, that the province would be on board to help with ongoing costs.”
Bruckschwaiger says until the situation is better understood, it might be an idea to use the smaller halls already available that might be willing to offer space for an evening or two a week, at a minimal or no cost.
“We’ve got the Dominion fire hall, we’ve got the rink in Dominion, we’ve got the legion in Dominion, we’ve got the Italian Hall, and we’ve got the Gardiner Community Centre,” said Bruckschwaiger. “And I can tell you that all of these people in the past have offered their buildings free of charge for an evening a week. Realizing that all these buildings are not in use every night and the heat has to be on so if they want to get going right away — get some programming going — I would suggest that any group interested would contact these departments because I talk to them all the time and they’re willing to put things on.
“I’m very supportive of the idea of a youth centre — it’s just that there’s other requests for similar things and how are they all going to be paid for?”