Now that the reality that it could cost every person in Cornwall over $600 to build the new arena and over $17 per person per year to maintain it I’ve started to look at alternatives.
I know I’m late to this party, but it’s not too late to pull the plug on this mess.
It marked the start of a gradual increase in the number of community-run outdoor rinks in the city. Over the past decade, outdoor rinks have become a fixture in communities throughout Halifax. The North End rink is often used as a model for other HRM districts that want to establish their own outdoor rink. There are now 12 rinks operation in HRM.
Commons Watch, a group of volunteers that are trying to improve safety around the Halifax Commons, built an outdoor rink this January at the swimming pool to draw more people to the area. The Commons was the site of a couple of high-profile assaults in 2007.
Volunteers also collect skates, sticks and other equipment for people who can’t afford their own. Blanchard says that just because you don’t have access to arenas or money for equipment, it shouldn’t prevent you from experiencing our country’s national pastime.
That’s interesting to me. Make those that want this service sort of earn it. Heck; help them; give them funding like we do amatuer football in town; but do we really NEED to spend close to $40 million dollars to build an arena when we have the ones we have, and then spend over a million dollars a year to support it?
Is this the best bang for the buck we can get?
And while I’ve listed the cost per person the reality is that the actual amount of people paying taxes in Cornwall isn’t anywhere near the population.
Is it really fair to burden these folks (myself and wife included) with such a burden for a service we never would use or most likely visit?
It’s time for some sanity to return to city hall and for this plug to be pulled or at least ask the voters in a referendum as we are the ones that pay the bill, and for something this expensive that’s far too big a bill.
What do you think Cornwall?
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I think that this was a rallying call to the public to take ownership of their commons and demand that skating services be spread throughout the neighbourhoods. There is no development plan for neighbourhoods to this day in Cornwall, this place is locked down in some kind of a frozen time warp when it comes to community development. Using the model provided in London Ontario of developing neighbourhood community action groups who consult at that level with their neighbours about their needs and how to achieve a sustainable pattern of growth. The City works closely with these groups in order to oversee fairness in asset development towards each part of the City. It makes a big diffrence. They have several public libraries for instance, around which people can build connected resources and organizations.