A profit of $42,000 and a host of reduced expenditures, led by lowered utility bills, helped put the Woolwich Memorial Centre on healthier footing last year. The entire recreation and facility services budget was in much better shape by extension.
Having concentrated on costs in 2012, the department will focus on boosting revenues this year, director Karen Makela told councillors meeting in a special budget session January 17.
Overall, expenditures in the department are expected to rise by 4.6 per cent to $4.02 million from $3.8 million in last year’s budget. On the revenue side, the $2.1 million approved last week is actually down from the $2.15 pencilled in for 2012, a drop of about 2.2 per cent.
Outside of the WMC, Makela expects her department to focus on a number of facilities, including major upgrades at the park in Conestogo. For the longer-term, planning will get underway with the recreation association with a new community centre in mind. Similar work is expected in Heidelberg.
In the meantime, the roof of the existing building in Conestogo, home to the Children’s Place Nursery School, will be replaced.
Given long-term plans to replace the building, Coun. Mark Bauman was hesitant about the roof project.
“I’m questioning how much we want to invest in that facility,” he said, noting a new roof would be expected to last well beyond the 2018 timeframe for a new building.
That date, said Makela, acts as a placeholder in the capital budget, with an actual replacement schedule to be determined with community input, as residents would be expected to foot a third of the cost.
The existing structure is otherwise fairly sound, the result of work done in the past few years, she noted.
“There are still years left on that centre.”
A new roof with allow for continued use. The nursery school, for instance, pays $2,300 a year in rent for the space, with the money going to the recreation association.
At the community centre in Breslau, meanwhile, an architect will look at upgrades to the former Empire Communities sales pavilion required before it can be used as a public building.
The building was turned over to the township last summer, well ahead of the original 2017 timeframe, forcing the rec. department to do some scrambling to put the facility into service. Thus far there has been poor response to its request for public input, though the consensus seems to be for multi-purpose recreation space, Makela explained.
She’s also speaking to the region about the possibility of introducing library services there.
Other projects on the books include a skateboard park in Elmira, introducing an off-leash dog park and upgrades at the library in Elmira.
