South Bruce Peninsula is moving away from the idea of a sport or recreation use for the second half of its town hall project.
Public input favoured recreational use for the extra 10,000 sq ft of Town owned space in the former Sobeys grocery store on the Wiarton waterfront which will be partly used for a town hall.
A survey from the Town had 158 responses, 146 of which were local residents. 93 respondents preferred recreational space for pickleball, yoga, and other programming, 60 preferred a new library location, 54 preferred governmental services. Of the recreational options, multi purpose ranked highest (98), followed by yoga & pilates (63). 49 people wanted pickleball there.
For non recreational use, top answers were fitness centre (45) health related offices (28) daycare (22) and real estate or law offices (2) indoor pool (15) community centre or hall (10). Other ideas included a farmers market, museum or cultural centre, youth centre, a shelter, warming centre, electric vehicle charging centre, bike rental area, community kitchen, a skills training facility or a recreation and lounge space with free wifi and vendor booths or food court.
Mayor Jay Kirkland says the the town is finding the space doesn’t meet some recreational needs well because the ceiling is only 17 feet high there.
“Limited recreation was all we were going to be able to supply because of the roof height,” says Kirkland adding, “You wouldn’t be able to do basketball or volleyball or those type of things.”
During council discussion Tuesday, Councillor Kathy Durst said, “Clearly the results indicate once again that this community is desirous of something recreation. I also recognize that our conversations around whether or not the additional space would be suitable for a multi-sport or a multi-activity facility is fine, but it doesn’t allow for the future considerations for anything that would need ceilings higher than 17 feet. Thereby, it would probably be foolish to spend money on something that perhaps wouldn’t have the shelf life that we would want it to have.”
Council directed staff to look for a potential recreational space somewhere else and bring a report to council this fall.
Durst added, “I also would like the public to know that we are committed to this by establishing a time-frame for which that report should come back.” she added, “I just do want to send the message to the public that this isn’t just going to go into the ether world and it is part of our commitment to actually respond to other master plans and as well to this survey.”
Mayor Kirkland tells Bayshore Broadcasting News, “We listened to the people that recreation is important. The number one thing. We just decided because 20 years down the road we’re probably not going to be happy that we did the recreation in the building where it’s limited. With that, we thought it would be best to do a proper recreation facility,” says Kirkland.
South Bruce Peninsula doesn’t have a town run gym. It does have a community centre in Sauble Beach and the Wiarton arena which also offers pickleball and summer sports. There’s also a curling club in Wiarton.
In the past, the Town used space for recreation in the public school in Sauble Beach, which it no longer does partly due to concerns over the public coming through the school.
Some people had wanted yoga and pilates in the new town hall building, and Kirkland notes you could do that, but adds, “It just limits your use. I’d rather build one facility that does everything and is full.” He prefers that alternative to having two facilities that are half-full.
Kirkland says options for the second half of the town hall space could be the library, some Bruce County administrative space like the planning department, Service Canada, or Service Ontario. He adds they could be open to something from the private sector as well.
“We’re trying to get something now that it’s not completely revenue neutral but it sure helps with the cost of the building and the ongoing operations,” says Kirkland.
