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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1974-11-14, Page 15Crossroads the weekly Woos Irot Liston* Banner, Whighaes► Advance-. Times and Meng r Celle derabe 1* r, by 200* fesige' the 1artla• it Midwestern (Based i' MMS readers • sack '1d SAO homes.) Pfsbishod evory and 'T . In Th. Listowel Banner, r, ' Winghain Advance -Times Forest Confederate by Wenger as Limited. ---Crossroads—Novomber fd, On a snowy Saturday morning, early in October this, year, dele- gates to the annual conference of the Lake Htiron Zone if the On- tario Municipal Recreation Ass* dation met at the Coliseum in Hanover. They were men- and women, young and old, from small towns and hamlets in the 'Middle of farms.. They had one thing in common: an interest in finding ways through 'which people of all ages in their communities can best spend the ever increasing leisure time. But on this occasion they had a special mission: to eore how all communities cap Spend their money and use their facilities for maximum recreattonal benefit. For three hour they. went through all the motion* Of an an- nual conference—read and ap- proved minutes of previous meetings, elected new .officers and ;.pass d resolutions". During the lunch hour the delegates ex- chan8ed jokes and related avec* dotes that had taken place since the last time they met. Rarely did the 'main Issue in the agenda emerge: "Area Recrea- tion ' Cost Sharing". Those who ventured to refer to it, like Donald Melburn, a member of the Port Elgin recreation com- mittee, did so hesitantly. "I am not happy with the way it is," Mr. Melburp said. "It" means the relationship between urban and rural commu- nities in the use of recreational facilities. When all the verbiage and dip- lomacy in set aside, the issue be- comes: who should use whose recreational facilities and at what cost, if any? It is a touchy issue. Involved are money, community control of its affairs (autonomy) and fear of oversize organizational wets. Traditionally, urban areas have been in the lead as far as the development of recreational faci- lities is concerned. Also, tradi- tionally, peoplefrom the rural areas have . always used these facilities at the same fee as resi- dents of the urban communities where they are located. But so have passersby from as far as Timbuktu and Vladivostok. In recent years though, there, have been Sentiments in urban areas that outsiders .$ sing ;tom. facilities regularly should Boat* bute to their establishment and maintenance. In Lake Huron Zone this would mean that township residents should contribute tothe con- struction and maintenance of recreation commodities. As a OPPORTUNITIES—Young people, Listowel Mayor David Kilberg says, should not be denied the opportunity to enjoy any recreational facilities just because the municipalities they live in do not contribute to their construction and maintenance. Some municipalities, however, do not agree, and impose a surcharge on all outsiders using their recreational facilities. rule, they don't at the r and that is the situati like Mr. Meer " 't happy with." Some com unities have bee very unhappy with this$ltutttian and have imposed "a surelusrsr, e for the use of their facilities ` outsiders;. This ianot only in Lake Huron Zone but in major cifi+gs and even countries. This concept was put bluntly ,b ► Listowel Mayor David Kill g, "All of us should pay our Win this life." To' introduce the delegates at the conference to the topic of area recreation and cost sharing 'were representatives from St. Marr, where area recreation and est sharing has been going on anaogg five municipalities for five years. Len Love, St. Marys' recrea- tion director, told the del how the idea of area recrea and cost sharing started. It started with his realizatii that about 50 per cent ofthose using the town's recrea 'til facilities, such as the arena ,and swimming pool, 'came fi ooa , the surrounding municipaliti: ' Blanshard, Downie and West ai$d' East. Missouri townships. • The area, Mr. Love told` the delegates, has a population of .- proximately 10,000 people wit the first five -mile radius, with St. 'Marys as the centre. But more significant was tbat- each area had some natural recreational facilities that' it, could offer the hd Myr ote�• '�'>� �i atlon and U iriatritey siri ce vi►a'$`` going up. That was five years ago. Money was longer the issue to Mr. Love as much as the use of commodities in St. Marys was concerned. The issue, that was money, branched into the 'use of facilities in the entire five -muni- cipality area jointly. The way Mr. Love reasoned was that it would be cheaper overall, better programs would be developed and more use made of the existing facilities. This, needless to say, would benefit St. Marys by taking off some of the pressure in that area. Rural residents are sometimes suspicious of urban residents who, they feel, not only want to dominate them but also get their money. Thus, Mr. Love's first steps wereto lobby the influential councillors from the surrounding townships. Interestingly, money, which is what set off the spark, became a secondary issue. There was fear that if • money was mentioned, townships would shy away. The result was a conference in which all the townships were rep- resented and in which an area recreation committee was formu- lated. The townships maintained their committees from which rep- resentatives to the area recrea- tion committee are appointed. In addition, the township com- mittees and the township councils had control of recreation develop- ment in those areas that they could carry out on their own. Most interestingly, the town- ships do not have to pay St. Marys a .penny, as a matter of policy. They do, however, contri- bute whatever they feel is a proper share. There were problems tobe overcome. One, Mr. Love said, was getting the people in the townships interested in recrea- tion . not just having young- sters play ball but to have a com- prehensive recreational pro- gram. Breaking up clique groups in each township was another prob- lem which was associated with gaining solidarity of the commu- nities -to avoid duplication of faci- lities and programs., The result, Mr Love said, was ae> ti j the communities, `.tlities, sharing of man- power and training of personnel. Following Mr. Love's presen- tation, the delegates broke into small groups to discuss the con- cept of area recreation and cost sharing. The results of these dis- cussio�ns were announced by individualsi representing each group and the consensus weighed• heavily in favor of the concept. Wingham Deputy Reeve Har- old Wild, one of few elected offi- cials attending the conference, summed it all up: "Sharing of costs will have to come," he said, "because of finance. But towns should accept whatever town- ships offer." ' There is no municipality to mu- nicipality arrangement as far as the use of recreational facilities is concerned in Wingham and Listowel. In Mount Forest, what- ever co-operation that exists is only in the arena, for which main- tenance Arthur and Egremont Townships share with the town. Mr. Kilberg, who doesn't intend to seek re-election, said his opinion is that most people in Lis- towel would like to see the sur- rounding. townships share in the maintenance of recreational faci- lities. "The issue has not been raised yet because people are afraid to," Mayor Kilberg said. However, he noted, if the people of Listowel were made' aware of the figures, the issue would be raised publicly. It is not fair, Mayor Kilberg said, for one group to spend money on anything for others. "We have enough problems paying our own way," he added. I dont want to say this situation will continue foirever," he said. Listowel's recreation director, Don Town, said the number of rural people using the town's rec- reational facilities tends on the activity. However, hyo noted that he has used 15 to 20 percentages as the figure. .He emphasized that there ie no discrimination what- soever. This is a point Mayor Kilberg also emphasized saying that youngsters shouldn't be denied the opportunity to participate in any event jtlst because the nm icipatitY they live in does not contribute to the inStallatlon and maintenance ofrecreational fad - Mies. The situation in Wingl auris not different from the one in .. sto- wel. people living in the fur- rounding municipalities did not' contilbute to the capital cost or. any recreational commodity and neither do they contribute to maintenance. Wingham's recreation 'direc- tor, Jim Ward, noted that the use of these facilities by rural people is "an added expense as far as. the pleof the town.. are concerned." The town, he said, bears the brunt as far as the maintenance is concerned. The situation in Mount Forest differs from Listowel and Wing - ham only in that four surrounding municipalities contributed to the construction of the Mount Forest & District Community Centre (the Arena) and that two town- ships, Egremont and l�rthur, contribute to its operation'. As to why the other two do not. contri to whiletheir residents use thacilities, Mayor Johnson pr►tedout that the aroma it not losing money •issue w.ill certainly be when the .4 Starts mThere certain'', oney," isn't..any cation that the residents of towel are bitter about shams their $51,000 (1974 toms oaf the budget) with, ti>e peoPle in tom. lermtading area. Neither are the people of Mount Voraat about sharing their, $35000 (amex+ cluded),nor Wingham's 447 On .the ;other hand, 00 among those interviewed, the , surrounding nutnielpalities bluntly oppoeed 'the idea, .Ws may be,a good omenbecause' of thoi tom Mr. Love .►i SiZed at the Hanover coote wos that towashlos iuihsould a 1C forward in offering ntribMsons and'n wait for the towns to Ask for theM. 'toy Pattison, t Ways township reeve; conceded • the idea of sharing facilities and their costs is "something ing". In fact, Wawanosh.hass= please turn to ":Page x CAPITAL—Construction of recreational facilities, such as arenas, is only one aspect of the burdens towns have to carry. After that comes maintenance and repair. Rural people around Listowel and Wingham have not contributed td the construction costs. In Mount Forest, where they have, not all surrounding municipalities continue to contribute to the maintenance. e 110 UTILIZATION -Swimming pools are expensive to construct and to maintain. They are, perhaps, of all town facilities, the most widely used by people from rural areas, but even then, some are stili not fully utilized. Mount Forest Lions Swimming Pool is an example and Mayor Jack John- FACILITIES—It would be rather silly to ask rural people to sola says he would like to see it used more. Co-ordination of contribute to creation and maintenance of parks, Mount recreation programs would make full utilization possible. Forest Mayor Jack Johnson says. "after all rural people live in parks." One aspect of area recreation cooperation Involves sharing the facilities that exist and avoiding dupli- cation.