Council here defeated Mayor Lou Maieron’s notice of motion that council express an interest in reviewing the current shared use agreement with the Upper Grand District School Board regarding Centre 2000.
The mayor had also wanted the town to work with the school board to consider a new lease based agreement and to resolve outstanding payments by June 1.
While the mayor commented that his 23-page presentation might be considered controversial, “what I perceive to be going on is a slightly unfair situation and it’s been going on for a number of years.”
He wanted to see if the situation could be straightened out.
Maieron noted that recently Ken Chapman, who sat as a member of the Centre 2000 board representing Wellington County, resigned and will likely not be replaced.
Maieron said there are two outstanding issues with the facility.
He said there are a number of outstanding invoices and a need for ratification of a shared-use agreement.
Maieron said the outstanding invoices go back four to five years.
He said that even though both parties agree the bills should be paid, no payments have been made.
Most of the invoices are for shared expenses such as general repairs or those incurred as a result of vandalism.
Normally the town works in conjunction with the school board to identify problems and rectify them.
He requested that council consider significantly altering the current sharing agreement with the Upper Grand District School Board.
The mayor suggested the shared-use model is overly complicated, cumbersome and does not capture costs adequately.
He believed moving to a leasing model for portions of the facility would avoid recurring outstanding issues.
Maieron contended that the sharing of the facilities tends to be “one-way” with the school board sharing town-owned portions of Centre 2000, while the town does not utilize the school-owned areas.
“I suggest a lease arrangement would be in the best interest of Erin taxpayers.”
He commented on the $2.2 million borrowed by Erin to build the theatre-portion and other portions of Centre 2000.
He added that numerous other aspects of Centre 2000 were included in that cost.
“We are still repaying that loan (anticipated to be paid off in 2015).”
Use of the theatre portion of the building by the school board, Maieron stated, is roughly 70%.
“It was supposed to be our facility and now the school board is using it most of the time.”
He suggested talking to the school board about it purchasing the theatre and the town could rent it as needed.
Councillor John Brennan said “This facility was designed to be a joint multi-use facility. This is a wonderful facility which we have, and is not that common.”
He said the facility encompasses high school students, seniors and the very young plus the public library.
“It’s a wonderful bringing together of people in our community and I certainly don’t want to see anything which would destroy that.”
He agreed though, that a review of the agreement was in order and that he wanted a resolution to the outstanding invoices.
Councillor Barb Tocher referred to who-owns-what.
“This is a hard concept to grasp, but in effect when the school board and the town council agreed to construct a building, (they agreed to) pay for certain parts of it for exclusive use, and share the remainder of facility.”
Tocher stressed “neither party owns the shared use portions and both parties have agreed to use them.
“That is the concept we are working with, not ‘draw a line down the centre of the building’.”
She too agreed there are very few shared use facilities in Ontario.
Tocher added “it doesn’t really matter whether the Upper Grand District or the town paid for the entire facility – it is still the same taxpayer.”
She stated it is the people of Erin who use the facility.
“Very few outsiders use the facility. It is our children who go to the school and our seniors who use the facility and local toddlers in the facility.”
Council later turned down the mayor’s motion.
