Headline misleading the public re Arenas

The July 27th Independent headline read " Town to Spend $40K to Find Best Site For Arenas". Unfortunately this is not actually the case and has lead to a number of irate responses from residents. One resident called it a complete waste of money since he could easily find the sites himself. I would like to clarify what has really been approved by council and why we did it.

Pictured above are the current arenas in Georgetown, Moldmasters Sportsplex on the left and Memorial on the right. Memorial is on its last legs and will need to be replaced as soon as possible. Additional arenas are also badly needed and we must also consider that we are a growing town. There are several options available to meet these demands. We could build a twin pad at the Gellert Site or we could build an additional twin pad at MoldMasters or we could add a single pad to the Acton arena.

In all of these options there are cost considerations and it is normal to assess the servicing needs of the site before deciding on a site or beginning the design of a building.

A Functional Service Plan is an engineering assessment of the sites servicing requirements.

If you look at the Moldmasters Site above you will see that there are tennis courts as well as a major soccer field behind the courts that will need to be relocated. Constructing a new building will completely change the drainage on the property. New water lines will need to come into the building and that access point and pipe size must be determined. Hydro capacity will be required and perhaps a transformer upgrade. New parking must be located and drainage from the new hard surfacing must be dealt with.

It is this engineering work that has been approved by Council. It is a certainty that we need to replace Memorial arena and it is equally certain that it will not be replaced at its current site. Therefore this work will be required even though the decision about where the arena will go and how many pads will be built has not been made. The next Council will make that decision.

If you have questions about this expenditure please let me know and I will have the town staff call you to provide more details.