{"id":23417,"date":"2019-04-04T19:20:50","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23417"},"modified":"2019-04-04T19:20:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:20:59","slug":"final-library-square-funding-details-will-come-in-time-town-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/final-library-square-funding-details-will-come-in-time-town-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Library Square funding details will come in time: Town Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final details on the\nfull financing of the $38.5 million Library Square redevelopment will come in\ntime, according to municipal staff, but according to Councillor John Gallo,\nthose details should have been on hand prior to any Council vote on the Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Gallo was\none of only two Council members to vote against moving ahead with the\nredevelopment of the Library Square lands last week citing not the\nredevelopment itself, but that concrete details of how the funding will break\ndown is yet to be fully solidified. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As The Auroran\nreported last week, the financial plan for Library Square includes a variety of\ncomponents that will cover the project\u2019s current estimate of $38 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The addition to the\nhistoric Church Street School, home to the Aurora Cultural Centre and Aurora\nMuseum & Archives, is estimated to clock in at over $27 million, and\ninclude a 250-seat performance hall, while the outdoor elements, including a\ntrail-shaped skating rink, is estimated at nearly $8.4 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the first\noptions is a cash infusion of $1.6 million from Development Charges, along with\n$2.6 million from Community Benefit Fees paid by developers, $7.1 million in\nreserves from the sale of municipal lands, a 20-year debenture of $6.7 million,\n$3.5 million from Hydro Reserves, a one-time tax increase of 1 per cent to\ncover the cost of the debenture, and a potential $14 million in grants from the\nFederal Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grant submission\nis currently working its way through the system, and there\u2019s no word whether\nthe Town will be successful in its application and, until this is solidified,\nCouncillor John Gallo said he was uncomfortable approving the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShould we get [the\ngrant], it is an absolute no-brainer that we move forward with this project,\u201d\nhe said. \u201cHowever, unfortunately the way these motions are worded, whether we\nget that or not, we still move forward with this project and we still have to\nsomehow make up $14 million. I have [nothing] in front of me on how to make up\nthe $14 million, half the cost of the addition to 22 Church Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is my\nunderstanding we will know sometime in either June or July\u2026 and my desire to\nmove this forward is huge, but I would prefer\u2026to support these two projects\nsubject to receiving those funds. If we don\u2019t do that, I need a solid financial\nplan on how we\u2019re going to fund that $14 million.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this end,\nCouncillor Gallo proposed two amendments to the motions before Council,\nincluding making the final approval contingent on receiving this grant funding.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe intent is\nobviously to secure the funding and obviously if we don\u2019t have that funding to\nhave a solid financial plan, which would include a capital campaign strategy\nbecause, as it stands, at least publicly\u2026if we don\u2019t receive that $14 million\nwe have no other plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although his motion\nwas seconded by Councillor Wendy Gaertner, it received no further traction\naround the Council table as many members said that should this grant request be\nunsuccessful, the backup plan has always been to make up the shortfall by\ndrawing from the $30 million reserve fund created from the proceeds of the sale\nof Aurora Hydro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see any\nreason to hamstring the motion to say, \u2018subject to receiving the grant funding\u2019\nat this point when there is still going to be a checkpoint in the next report\nand the following report,\u201d said Councillor Michael Thompson. \u201cWe all know in\nthe procurement process you can tender it out and if you\u2019re not happy at that\npoint, still cancel a project. To me, at this point, we don\u2019t need to be too\nspecific on the funding. Yes, we\u2019re certainly going to have a capital campaign\nto try and raise as much as we can. Yes, we\u2019re going to try and reach out and\nget every grant we can and, when all that information is available, we will\nmake a decision on whether we\u2019re moving forward or not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Harold Kim\nagreed that Councillor Gallo\u2019s motion could have the consequence of delaying\nthe Library Square project further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is similar to\nbeing offered zero financing for a car; why would you refuse that if the\nopportunity presents itself, even if you can\u2019t pay for the whole thing?\u201d he\nsaid. \u201cThe other source of funding, and it hasn\u2019t been specifically mentioned,\nthe Hydro Reserve is right there. For us to say that we\u2019re not going to move\nforward unless we get free money from somewhere else, I think it is kind of\ncowardly on us as a municipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we truly want\nthis, are we saying we only want this if we have free money that we haven\u2019t\nworked for? We sold a very important asset (Aurora Hydro) over a decade ago to\nuse it for a very important and critical milestone project for the Town and\nthis certainly qualifies for a significant project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Sandra\nHumfryes said she agreed, noting that Library Square was the \u201cperfect use\u201d for\nHydro Reserve money if the grant application is not successful. Similarly,\nCouncillor Rachel Gilliland said that whether the Feds step up, or if the Hydro\nReserves have to come into greater play, she would \u201creally, really hate to hold\nthis up based on speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hydro Funds,\nagreed Councillor Gaertner, were meant for \u201csomething wonderful and important\nfor Aurora,\u201d but she cautioned that since the interest from the reserves have\nbeen subsequently used to top of reserve funds and cushion the tax rate for\nlocal property owners, that drawing down the funds significantly could have\nfurther impacts down the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am not sure it is\ncowardly to want to explore the opportunity to get funding from different\nlevels of government when that is what they have put money aside for,\u201d\nCouncillor Gallo concluding, addressing Councillor Kim\u2019s comments. \u201cI think it\nis a little ridiculous to suggest that\u2019s cowardly. What I think is\nirresponsible, actually is, funnily enough, the smallest part of this entire\n150-page report is how we\u2019re going to pay for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am jaded because I\nhave gone through this experience before and three of the Councillors sitting\nat this table went through this experience before and I feel a little d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu\nbecause I said in the mic [years ago] having this exact same issue and we know\nhow that ended up with the JOC. Yet, my colleagues\u2026it doesn\u2019t seem to matter\nand I am quite surprised at that. I am happy to hear some things will be coming\nback and maybe there are some more opportunities to refine this and that\u2019s\ngreat. If that is the case, why are we actually putting a number in there right\nnow? It just doesn\u2019t make sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Mayor\nTom Mrakas said it made sense to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor us to secure\nthis Cultural Grant, we need to be firm on two thirds,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas on\nthe funding. \u201cI am the one who is going to have to sit down with our CAO, our\nMPP and the Minister to have these conversations to\u2026try and secure this\nfunding. If we go in and say Council is really not sure unless we get this\nmoney, they\u2019re going to look at [the other shovel-ready applications].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I have already stated, I am comfortable\nmoving forward with the whole budget because I feel this is the right thing for\nthe community, the right thing to do, and I am very, very comfortable in moving\nforward and approving the whole budget.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Final details on the full financing of the $38.5 million Library Square redevelopment will come in time, according to municipal staff, but according to Councillor John Gallo, those details should have been on hand prior to any Council vote on the Square.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-65H","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 03:02:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}