Arena study disappoints Morrow

But Ag Society president not surprised site was top-ranked

The grandson of the man who donated Morrow Park to the city for use as agricultural fairgrounds says he’s unhappy to see the site top a shortlist of potential locations for a new arena/entertainment centre.

Ian Falkner is the grandson of Harold Morrow, who gave the property in trust to the city 80 years ago on condition it always be used as fairgrounds.

But on Monday, city councillors will review a new consultant’s report that recommends building a new, $85.9-million twin-pad and entertainment centre on the eastern half of Morrow Park (immediately west of Roger Nielson Way).

The proposal is to leave the Memorial Centre standing and reuse it, perhaps as a gymnasium or a place to host trade shows.

In an interview Friday, Falkner said it’s “a slap in the face” to his family to consider putting an arena in a public park intended for exhibition grounds.

The plan would trample both the Morrow Trust (under which his grandfather offered the land in, in 1938) and the Peterborough Act, 1984 (under which Morrow’s descendants later deeded the land to the city, for use as fairgrounds), he said.

“It’s very disappointing to see them do this,” Falkner said. “We’ll fight it – because it’s blatant. It definitely contravenes the two agreements.”

The city’s consultant, Toronto-based Sierra Planning and Management, has called the aging Memorial Centre “obsolete” and suggested the city consider replacing it with a new arena/entertainment centre.

Sierra’s latest study offers a shortlist of six

potential sites for the arena/ entertainment centre, with Morrow Park as the preferred option.

Councillors will be expected to choose one or more sites for Sierra to consider in greater detail.

The other considered sites are: No Frills on George St. N., the public works yard on Townsend St., James Stevenson Park on Burnham St., the Canadian Canoe Museum lands on Monaghan Rd. and part of the GE lands on Park St. N.

If it were built at Morrow Park, the new arena would cover two of the four ball diamonds, the small Agricultural Society offices and the Kawartha Gymnastics Club (which has a lease until May 2019).

Meanwhile, the Agricultural Society has a licensing agreement that allows it to use Morrow Park for the annual Peterborough Exhibition.

But the agreement does allow for non-agricultural uses on the eastern half of the park, the Sierra study points out, which would in theory allow a new arena.

If the city were to terminate the licensing agreement with the Agricultural Society without cause, however, it would be on the hook for $500,000 to help the Society relocate the Ex – and it’s not clear whether there are other suitable lands in the city.

Ryan Moore, the president of the Peterborough Agricultural Society, said in an interview Friday he was expecting the new study to recommend Morrow Park as a site for a new arena.

“It makes sense,” he said. When asked whether there’s room to hold the Peterborough Exhibition on half of Morrow Park, Moore didn’t say yes or no.

“We’d have to look at the logistics and see what we could figure out,” he said, adding that a new arena could still be a long way off.