Times-Advocate, 1999-03-31, Page 1•
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TIMES ADVOCATE
Exeter, Ontario, Canada
Wednesday, March 31, 1999
$1.00 (includes GST)
Stephen council votes down
motion t• expand arena
By Scott Nixon
TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF
HURON PARK -- While every-
one seems to agree the Stephen
Township Arena needs renova-
tions, getting them done may be
a problem.
A motion to pay for work on the
Stephen Township Arena was
recently narrowly defeated by
Stephen council.
Reeve Harvey Ratz, Deputy
Reeve Tom Tomes and Coun.
Anita Riddell voted against the
motion, while councillors Drew
Robertson and Jim Dietrich voted
in favour of it.
Arena manager Rob Funston
said the whole front portion of
the 37 -year-old arena needs to
be torn down and rebuilt.The
four dressing rooms are too
small, he said.
If renovations are done, six
larger dressing rooms will be
constructed. There will also be
an expanded snack booth, bigger
washrooms and a bigger foyer.
Another need, Funston said, is
a warm room.
He said without a warm room,
the arena is too cold for many
seniors to watch their grandchil-
dren play.
He added these improvements
will result in bigger crowds at
the arena.
The motion, presented at
Stephen Township's March 16
meeting, stated the township
commit $250,000 to expand the
arena, with construction to begin
in 2000. The rest of the required
money, at least another
$250,000, would .come from
donations.
Ratz told the T -A last week he
supports having the arena reno-
vated, but thinks the estimated
cost if $500,000-$600,000 is too
high.
"I hated to vote against it," he
said of the motion, but explained
times are too tough to commit
that much money to the project
without a guarantee of public
support.
He also said council needs more
time to consider the project and
get the opinions of the public.
Ratz is also looking for the esti-
mated cost to decrease. He said
original estimates on roof work
on the arena last year started at
about $170,000, but the town-
ship ended up getting the work
done for less than $50,000. He'd
like to see a similar reduction on
the new proposed renovations.
Funston, though, argues that
original estimates are aI
waYs
higher than the actual cost and
the arena will be renovated at
less than the $500,000-$600,000
estimate.
While funds have been raised to
renovate the arena for the last
four years, Funston is troubled at
the motion's defeat at council.
"I don't know where we're
going from here," he said,
explaining that it's hard to ask
the public for donations when
there's no start date for con-
struction. He added, though, that
he won't give up.
Funston said he hasn't heard
any negative comments from the
public about renovating the
arena and said everyone
assumed the renovations were
about to go ahead.
Between fund-raising efforts
and the township's reserves,
there is about $80,000 set aside
for the arena. While there have
been raffles, dances and holes -
in -one contests to raise money,
Funston said a major door-to-
door drive needs to be organized.
Councillor and arena board
chairman Drew Robertson said
he wasn't surprised his motion to
renovate the arena was defeated,
but he said he had to get the
issue out in the open.
problemget-
ting
the with He
the project moving is that
while council wants assurance of
public support before committing
to the project, the public won't
get behind it until it knows coun-
cil will commit itself.
Despite the motion's defeat,
Robertson, who describes the
arena as "a jewel in the crown of
Stephen Township," said fund-
raising will continue and he will
raise the issue again at council's
next meeting on April. 6.
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Ministry's transportation
funding hurts rural areas
SEAFORTH - An effort to
reduce transportation
costs for Ontario school
boards will actually cost
the Avon Maitland District
School Board more
money.
"While it is laudable, it
won't help rural Ontario,"
said superintendent Janet
Baird -Jackson.
The Ministry of
Education established a
transportation funding
g
review committee last
June. However, it does hot
have enough information
to make recommenda-
tions on an equitable'
transportation funding
formula. So, it has asked
boards to establish a
transportation consortium
which would require
boards to share busing to
reduce costs.
"We've been co-operat-
ing for years. The savings
to be achieved are a lot
less than the committee is
realizing," said Baird -
Jackson, referring to the
Huron -Perth Roman
Catholic Separate School
Board.
The consortium would
h.x�• :�`J
be expected to have an
office separate from the
board offices.
"The money is going to
have to come from some-
where," she said.
In fact, it would end up
costing the local boards to
cover the expenses of the
separate entity.
"We have an effective
system and it works well.
It troubles me that we sit
for another year with
insufficient transportation
grants," she said.
The local boards have
been hit hard in the area
of transportation because
provincial funding formu-
las don't consider the dis-
tances rural boards must
cover. Also, a blanket cut
to all boards reduced its
funding again.
Reminder
Move your
clocks ahead
one hour
this
:� -•: ''M Saturday
evening