So the Rink is happening but the Pond is not
The votes have been consistently 4 in favour and 3 against. Mayor Delanty, Bob Spooner, Dean McCaughey and Bill MacDonald in favour; with Miriam Mutton, Stan Frost and Gil Brocanier against. Agree with them or not, it’s interesting to analyze why they vote this way. Why would they vote as they do?
I suggest it breaks down as follows:
- Peter Delanty asked his Liberal friends for money, got it and now has to follow through or lose face.
- Bob Spooner is a big hockey fan and the more chances for people to play hockey the better
- Dean McCaughey - probably believes he is supporting the silent majority (the only acceptable reason)
- Bill MacDonald - maybe the same as Dean - who knows.
- Deputy Mayor Gil Brocanier - thinks it’s a waste of money - he manages the budget so is more attuned.
- Miriam Mutton - wants to delay to be sure the council really knows what the majority wants - a good thing in this case.
- Stan Frost - seems to share Gil and Miriam’s concerns.
The Rink is certainly not what was originally suggested. Originally a park was suggested with space for a natural rink with no concrete. Then the Fountain, Pond and Artificial rink were suggested when we got the grant (courtesy of Peter’s connections).
Let’s see what happens. The upside is that the Rink may turn out to be a big success - I’d be interested in a count of users through the next winter. We may even get bus tours with people marveling at the “”Rink in a Park”"! More likely it will be mostly deserted except for one or two families on one or two weekends in winter. With no fence, I can’t see hockey being played there.
Another upside is that the next council could spend a few bucks and add a border to the concrete and create our pond after all. Council changing its mind implies the majority would (hopefully) vote for new councilors. However, I understand that at least two of the frink supporters are not expected to run again next time. Something to look forward to!
May 11th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Delanty, Spooner, McCaughey and Macdonald, as well as project supporters Bill Patchett, Dave Glover (the Human Bean) and Bob Marr (Buttermilk Cafe), all believe that the rink will add activity and viability to the waterfront during the winter and perhaps stir up some business. There will be constant promotion of events this winter to attract as many skaters as possible.
Delanty expects that there will be enough activity in the first winter that the rink will be perceived as a success, that he will be “proved right” within months, and that criticism next spring and summer will be muted even though everyone will suddenly realize that we’re stuck with a massive, hot, almost unadorned bare concrete pad throughout all the good months.
Delanty provided professionally prepared illustrations to the public when the pond was included in the design (some are still posted next to Millstone Bakery!) but has failed to provide any illustrations of the current stripped-down plan. Very few citizens grasp the monstrousness of what Delanty has done to get his beloved project through.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
The reason Mr Harris changed the rules about what development charges could be spent on was to stop precisely what has happened here. A dubious project funded by stretching the rules. In this case $80,000 of public money that came from developers to help build infrastructure for the future. Read it here I agree with Mr Harris on this one!!
May 15th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
The logistics of operating this soon-to-be-a-reality facility are challenging to say the least. A Zamboni is a resurfacing machine, not a snow shovel. Snow removal, if we have any winters even close to the last one, will be an interesting aspect, unless there’s a roof somewhere in those flexi-plans. Getting the Zamboni to the rink will be another challenge, given the distance between rink and storage shed. Who do you think is going to ‘earn’ the rights to operate the inevitable conscession facility? Supporting this idea has its benefits, I predict. Just imagine the add-ons that will eventually become part of this facility; where will the capital funds come from? Of course, if you’re sold on this project, these and a myriad of other issues are just so much ‘negativity’ that do nothing to enhance the positive aspects of such foresight.
Makes me believe the speculation that our mayor does not intend to pursue another term, leaving the seat open for our deputy-mayor who invested in that scenario by feigning opposition to the project. Publicly he has opposed the project at every opportunity that it was safe for him to do so, EXCEPT for the one time when his vote against a critical motion by Stan Frost defeated it by one vote - HIS, because he was the only one who was voting contrary to his usual position to that point. If the motion had passed, it would have frozen the project in its tracks. His was the deciding vote and he could have stopped it if indeed he was in opposition to it as he was pretending to be. Oddly enough, I was the only one to call him on it but to most it seemed a minor point - at the time. Now it turns out to have been the only opportunity to actually defeat this lunacy. That I do find extremely frustrating and, unfortunately, typical of how these things get stick-handled by the powers-that-be. As for his caution that future budgets are being affected, many capital projects that are passed with operating cost components have an impact on future budgets, and this is no different - another load of crap from the deputy. The saga continues.
May 30th, 2008 at 7:30 am
I would disagree about Brocanier. When he had the chance to kill the project, on a Frost motion, he voted against it. GB is only in it knowing the numbers held up in his efforts to distance himself from the four dead white men and pick up support from the elites that oppose the project. He needs this apparition to maintain his mayoralty bid
June 4th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Did anyone see the letter by Jim Hamilton in the Cobourg Star on June 4th? He made two points: First the rink would only be used 10 weeks of the year and he asks what’s the value for the other 42 weeks? And secondly, he offers advice (free with no consulting fee) that the proposed fountain should be similar to the one in Brussels, Belgium and be a “piddling mannequin” as being representative of this council’s attitude to taxpayers. I tip my hat to Jim. Maybe he could run for the next council!
June 15th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Politics aside, has anyone thought of building a low retaining wall and flooding this spot next winter, and let nature provide the cold temperatures to make ice? This would be a cheap quick-and-dirty way to test the concept to see if anyone shows up with their skates, and to see if the whole scene becomes rowdy and unmanageable. Or perhaps it’s too late in the process by now.
I don’t understand in any case why we require “ice-making equipment” for an outdoor rink. It gets cold every winter!
RB
June 15th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Rusty, you’re on the right track but there’s no need for a “low retaining wall”.
Let’s review. In 2003, the PUBLIC voted for the implementation of a NATURAL skating rink. COUNCIL then VOTED for the implementation of a NATURAL skating rink. In 2006, a NATURAL skating rink capability was IMPLEMENTED at huge local taxpayer expense. The NATURAL rink is already sitting there, UNUSED.
If you go to the site, you can see that the grass inside the north oval is installed in a concave shape to hold water for a NATURAL rink. There are even a pair of drains in the centre to let the water run out in the spring. This is what the public asked for, and got.
For the last two winters, the NATURAL skating rink was available to be used, if only someone in the Town had gone to the trouble of running a garden hose over to it to fill it up.
Our mayor and his henchmen have blocked the use of the natural rink, however, preferring to spend yet another $1,519,000 of our money to pull the natural rink drainage system out of the ground and replace it with a 12,000 square foot patch of concrete fuelled by chemicals to create a completely unnecessary and wasteful ARTIFICIAL rink which will be used for skating for four months per year and then sit there as an overheated helicopter landing pad for the rest of the year.
The plan for this unexpected and unwanted change was developed by the mayor in secret and was not revealed to the public during the mayor’s campaign to be elected for his third term in late 2006. He didn’t even tell his fellow councillors what he was up to.
The mayor pushed his plan through in spite of incredible public opposition. As a result, our brand new waterfront park (built at a total cost of more than $5,000,000) will now be at least 75% covered by concrete.
Although the mayor thinks that it is too late and no one can stop him, I remind you that the mayor was taunted with boos and catcalls during last year’s Canada Day parade over this issue and that this year’s parade is coming up soon.
June 15th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Will that parade be on July 1? or the following Saturday, July 5? I might be fun if Cobourgers brought along their Super Soakers, and other water arsenal, to “fountain” the mayor as he drives by. Make it a drive-by shouting.