ELORA – Centre Wellington’s committee of the whole has approved moving ahead with renovations to the Elora Community Centre (ECC) but has significantly scaled back what was originally envisioned.
All the improvements will be within the existing building.
The ECC was budgeted for $5 million in renovations, with much of this coming from upper levels of government in the form of a grant the township first applied for in 2019 before being approved in 2021.
Matt Tucker, manager of parks and facilities, explained the original scope of the project was vast and included things such as solar panels, a raised roof and new additions to upgrade the more than 40 year old building to meet AODA standards.
However, the long-delayed project was another victim of COVID inflation and an updated cost estimate put the planned work closer to $10 million.
Tucker said it was a tough pill to swallow for staff, particularly so when upper levels of government declined to increase their portion of the project's funding.
The scale of the project was reduced to a budget of $5.9 million.
While the price tag on the project remains close to what was estimated, Tucker explained there will be no work to the community hall ceiling, the parking lot repaving will be delayed, no solar panels will be installed, the mechanical room will remain in the same location and all improvements will be done within the existing building with no additions.
However, there will still be AODA upgrades, improved change rooms, mechanical and refrigeration upgrades and work done on the ice pad among others.
Tucker said this plan was presented to the Community Services Advisory Committee and to minor sports groups and was received well.
An option to do nothing or just upgrade the floors would cost the township much less but Tucker said this would mean losing out on millions of funding from the province and feds.
Coun. Neil Dunsmore noted the township will be obligated to bring the arena up to AODA standards by 2025 anyways so they might as well proceed with something.
Meanwhile, Coun. Kirk McElwain was disappointed they couldn’t do more for their residents and lamented not being able to find the funding to go with the original plan.
“That arena is 40 years old, it is out of date, it has shortcomings and will continue to have shortcomings after these renovations are made,” McElwain said.
Coun. Bob Foster agreed with McElwain but went further and questioned if a new building would be better in the long run.
“I have this nagging sense we’re putting a new engine and transmission into a 10-year-old car,” Foster said, adding this arena was built for a town of just a few thousand people and not the nearly 10,000 people who live there now.
Pat Newson, managing director of community services, explained the funding is specifically to upgrade the existing building and their studies justified that more so than a new building at the time of applying.
However, she said these renovations don’t rule out future phases of work on the ECC which could include twinning the ice pad in the future.
When put to a vote, mayor Kelly Linton, coun. Ian MacRae, Dunsmore and McElwain were in favour of the presented option. Foster was the lone vote against as councillors Stephen Kitras and Steven Vanleeuwen were not present at the meeting.
Council will need to ratify this decision at a council meeting on Monday.
