The Simcoe Recreation Centre will be staying as a multi-use floor space – at least for now.
Our elected officials have held off making any formal decision about possibly putting ice back in at the facility until the receive the upcoming Recreation Master Plan.
One of the councillors advocating to have ice return to the Recreation Centre is Ward 5’s Alan Duthie.
But at council he expressed some frustrations with the report that was put in front of our elected officials.
One of the comments in the report refers to local hockey groups being “unwilling” to go to different facilities where ice time may be available, noting Langton does have free ice time more frequently than other locations.
He also questioned how information, like how many people asked for the return of ice at the Simcoe Rec Centre during a county issued survey, was not in the report but other documentation from user groups who are against ice returning was.
The report referred often to the upcoming Rec Master Plan, and waiting to see what the future of recreation in Norfolk will look like.
Some hockey groups Duthie has spoken with, who have been consulted as part of this Plan, felt optimistic that changes were on the way and that could include a new Sports Complex in the county.
To that, Duthie said it just may not be possible.
Staff confirmed that the county is almost maxed out with the amount of debt it can take on, meaning if they wanted $30 million to do a new complex, they’d have to cut $30 million from the budget elsewhere – meaning if user groups need more ice they will have to look at alternative solutions, such as returning ice to the Simcoe Recreation Centre.
Duthie moved the report, which ultimately will see council hold off making any formal decision regarding ice at the Rec Centre until the Rec Master Plan is complete.
Duthie added one final note about the report, talking about the difference between the one he had hoped to receive compared to the one that was turned in and delivering a message to ice users all around Norfolk.
The entire council meeting can be viewed below.
To watch the discussion regarding the Simcoe Recreation Centre, skip about to 6:54 in the meeting.