Council to hear from engineers on PMC work

City councillors must decide whether to repair or replace arena floor

Engineers from Toronto are expected at City Hall on Monday to answer questions from councillors about the structurally unsound floor at the Peterborough Memorial Centre (PMC).

The engineers are from Entuitive, a structural engineering firm in Toronto.

They recently wrote a report to city council outlining a series of repairs that could be done to fix the PMC floor and potentially save the city from doing a $3.5 million floor replacement that would begin in June for completion Nov. 1.

The floor replacement would displace the Century 21 Lakers for the entire 2019 season (the lacross team would have to play somewhere else, like perhaps the Evinrude Centre).

Although there are no cost estimates for the repairs contained in the report from Entuitive, city staff has estimated it would cost $1 million ($250,000 for a new steel frame, $400,000 for new dasher boards – as required by the OHL for player safety – plus design costs and contingencies).

Nonetheless, a city staff report recommends replacing the floor instead because it’s less “risky”.

The staff report states that the repairs leave original 1950s pipes and systems in the floor, which could leak during the repair job – and then an emergency floor replacement becomes necessary.

But at a meeting on Dec. 3, some councillors had questions they wanted answered by Entuitive engineers before making up their minds whether to repair or replace the floor.

They voted to invite the engineers to Peterborough to the council meeting on Dec. 10 – and on Thursday, city clerk John Kennedy confirmed they’ve accepted the invitation.

Citizens will also be allowed to speak to council before Monday’s debate on how to fix the PMC floor.

Also on council’s agenda Monday:

Arena deferral

Councillors will vote a final time to put off building a twinpad arena and aquatics complex at Trent University until 2020 since a provincial government grant of $18 million isn't expected after all.

The money was going to be

applied to the construction of a $53-million arena and aquatics complex planned for Trent University.

The facility on Pioneer Rd. was meant as a replacement for the aging Northcrest Arena, which will close as soon as the new arena opens.

Originally the city intended to build a twin-pad replacement arena, and then added the pool. But now the finances are in question. On Dec. 3, councillors gave preliminary approval to delay building the complex until 2020 (rather than starting in 2019). A final vote is expected Monday.

Peterborough Distribution Inc.

Council will vote a final time to have staff prepare a new city report, due Jan. 21, as an update on the status of a planned deal to sell Peterborough Distribution Inc. (PDI) to Hydro One.

In late 206, city council of the day voted 6-5 to sell PDI to Hydro One for $105 million. Although a deal has been struck, the sale hasn't gone through yet.

The deal includes only the city’s delivery infrastructure — the wires, poles and transformers of Peterborough Utilities, which deliver electricity to 37,000 customers in Peterborough, Lakefield and Norwood. Other divisions of the utility will stay in public hands.

Coun. Dean Pappas, a longtime opponent of the deal, said he expects the new staff report to explain if there's now "a chance to kill the deal.”

Brock Mission

The new design for the Brock Mission emergency shelter for men is still overbudget by about $1.75 million, but councillors will vote a final time to go ahead with the plan anyway since federal funding for the project is expected.

At a meeting Dec. 3, councillors gave preliminary approval to build a new shelter for $9.3 million (following a new design from local firm Lett Architects.)

That's $1,753,000 higher than the city's budget of $7,547,000.

But the city has applied for $5.3 million in loans and grants from the National Housing Strategy, and a new city staff report states that the city has prequalified for the money (and can expect a final decision by March).

If the city gets that $5.3 million, they can combine it with $1,250,000 in fundraising (which is ongoing), plus other grants and money set aside by the city, for a total of $9.3 million.

A staff report states that construction can start in spring for completion in late summer 2020;

Farmers’ Market

City council will vote a final time to put off granting the board that operates the farmers’ market in Morrow Park an extra year on its licensing agreement.

The city is planning to launch a bidding process to invite all organizations who’d like to run the market.

But it’s unclear when that process will happen: it was expected in May 2019, but city staff has asked council for an extra year to research and prepare.

The Peterborough and District Farmers’ Market Association (PDFMA)’s licensing agreement – which allows them to operate on city-owned property – expires in May 2019.

That’s why city staff asked council to extend the agreement by a year.

Yet at a meeting on Monday, councillors voted to order a new city staff report – due in early February – to outline what the bidding process would look like, and how citizens might be consulted about what type of market they want.

After that report is delivered, councillors would be expected to consider whether to extend the PDFMA’s agreement to 2020.

Cannabis Retail Stores

City council will vote a final time to allow cannabis stores to set up shop in Peterborough.

Now that cannabis has been legalized, Ontario municipal councils have until Jan. 22, 2019 to vote on whether they'd like to allow privately-run cannabis retail stores to operate within their boundaries.

Opting out of having cannabis stores isn't recommended, states a new city staff report, because it would turn away investors.

On Monday, councillors gave preliminary approval to accept the stores.

The city council meeting starts at 6 p.m. on Monday at City Hall.