Councillor wants to reconsider decision on Bissel Park multi-use pad

CENTRE WELLINGTON – With the environmental impact at the top of her mind, a Centre Wellington councillor wants to rescind the chosen direction on upgrades to the Bissell Park multi-use pad and consider an option not presented by staff.

Coun. Bronwynne Wilton has put forward two notices of motion for the next Centre Wellington council meeting being held on Monday evening regarding upgrades to the Bissell Park multi-use pad, which is in a state of disrepair and considered at the end of its usable life.

At the last council meeting, council endorsed staff to apply for a provincial grant which if successful would allow the township to build a new outdoor, refrigerated multi-use surface including mechanical and storage building plus some accessibility upgrades at Bissell Park for a cost of $4 million in a 3-2 vote.

The grant would pay for half of this project. 

What was endorsed was different from staff’s proposal which included a roof over the pad for an additional $1.7 million but this was defeated in a 3-2 vote.

Wilton, who voted against staff’s proposed option but in favour of the other, has put forward two notices of motion for the next meeting to consider an option not presented by staff.

The first would be to rescind council’s initial endorsement and to waive the usual notice period due to the grant being due at the end of the month and the second would be to endorse a new multi-use pad with a roof but no refrigeration unit at a cost of $2.37 million still contingent on a successful grant application.

When reached by phone, Wilton said she brought this forward because she wants the township to be more thoughtful from an environmental standpoint when building these kinds of structures in the community.

“Putting refrigeration in a structure that’s in the floodplain seems problematic to me and also the fact that we don’t have any plan to recoup the heat being lost from the cooling procedure process,” Wilton said. “I’m not a technical expert on any of that but most outdoor refrigerated rinks would be co-located with a building where they could take advantage of using some of that heat created.”

She said those who spoke of the benefits of multi-use pad at the last meeting for the most part didn’t bring up anything that would require refrigeration such as its use for basketball, yoga or dog training. 

“Those types of things also happen throughout seasons and wouldn’t have refrigeration so from my perspective, I don’t think refrigeration is a priority,” Wilton said, clarifying she thinks an upgraded pad will be a good asset to the community. 

These motions will be considered at the next council meeting being held on Monday starting at 5:30 p.m.