A notice of motion received support at this week’s Alnwick/Haldimand Township committee-of-the-whole meeting to speed up the process for critical repairs at the Haldimand Memorial Community Arena in Grafton.
Councillor Mike Ainsworth’s reasoning for bringing it forward was the time sensitivity of the repairs. Fundraising will still be important to help cover the estimated cost of $3.75 million for the floor replacement project.
Ainsworth wanted to “reiterate the importance of doing this this way instead of fundraising for three years to try to do it. We all know that arena we’re on borrowed time with it. Right now it’s working great.
We’ll keep our fingers crossed that we don’t have any issues this winter, but we need to address this thing immediately. He added every day counts towards starting repairs next spring.
The motion pointed to the existing arena floor infrastructure reaching the end of its serviceable life and requires full replacement.
Numerous temporary repairs have been completed through the years in response to recurring equipment failures, including issues with the ice plant, mechanical systems and rink infrastructure.
A report to council in May identified an immediate and short-term recommendation, the need to undertake the identified lifecycle infrastructure upgrades, including the renewal of the ice pad, boards, in-ground pipes and the ice plant.
The motion also noted that preliminary assessments and staff reviews have identified the immediate need to initiate the design-build process to ensure timely completion of the project for the start of the 2026 operational season a year from now.
With the approval, council authorizes Alnwick/Haldimand staff to secure the nearly $4 million in funding through a combination of debenture financing, municipal loans, capital reserves, development charges, grants and donations and sales of surplus land.
Staff will also continue to engage with the fundraising committee to explore funding opportunities for repayment of loans and reserve replenishment.
The motion calls on staff to report back to council with a detailed financing and implementation plan prior to starting the tender process.
Councillor Mary Catherine O’Neill said council already directed staff to investigate funding models and wondered when that report would be brought forward.
CAO Dave Dawson said Ainsworth asked staff what could be done to speed up the process and the notice of motion was recommended.
Dawson said the municipality has a “considerable amount” of borrowing power available.
“Council has established a fundraising committee, which will ultimately raise funds so the thought and suggestion to council is that we could get going on the project because we will need to get a project engineer, or project manager, to deal with this…so we can go to RFP because if we don’t start now, we won’t stand a chance to get somebody next April.”
Dawson also noted there’s a “significant amount in our development charges account, to the tune of almost funding the entire project. We have alternative reserves as well and we have borrowing power.
“So the ability to move this one forward would be just merely to get it started and then after the first meeting with the fundraising committee, probably sometime in the new year, we would be able to return to council with an updated status on where we are and what we would need to do,” the CAO added.
Deputy Mayor Joan Stover asked if there would be a cost associated with the portion of the motion that stated staff would be authorized to initiate the design/build process for the project.
“That would be starting the project, or the initial stages anyway, so for sure there would be a cost associated with that,” said Manager of Parks, Recreation and Facilities Jeremy Giles.
Giles said, in his experience with these projects, the best way to keep them on time and be most financially responsible is to bundle everything together in one RFP.
“When you start to piecemeal it step-by-step, it slows it down and it does become more expensive,” he said.
He added clarification when asked that his recommendation is to put out an RFP for an engineering firm to manage the project.
Stover asked if making the decision to move forward would put them in a better position for grants. Giles said he couldn’t answer that.
“I guess I’ll answer it because we all know in all the projects if you’re shovel ready and you have studies done and everything like that the government’s more willing to give you a grant or money than somebody’s that just got a pie in the sky thing,” Councillor Greg Booth said.
Logel asked if approval is granted in the next couple weeks if work could start by April 1.
“I can’t answer that today, but I can tell you staff would get going on it right away,” Giles said, adding that being able to start by April or May seems attainable but being completed by September depends on unknown variables once work starts.
The motion was carried and it will be up for final approval at the regular council meeting next week.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
