{"id":3215,"date":"2013-07-24T16:16:27","date_gmt":"2013-07-24T20:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=3215"},"modified":"2013-07-31T09:06:44","modified_gmt":"2013-07-31T13:06:44","slug":"youth-centre-set-for-late-2014-despite-price-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/youth-centre-set-for-late-2014-despite-price-hike\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth Centre set for late 2014 despite price hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Despite the increased price tag of $2.6 million, Aurora\u2019s Community Space for Youth, commonly called \u201cYouth Centre\u201d, remains on track.<\/p>\n

But as some Councillors claimed the Youth Centre as a vital vote of confidence in Aurora\u2019s youth and others claimed this was just a $7 million excuse to \u201cgussy up\u201d the fading Complex (AFLC), it was a decision which continues to divide today\u2019s Council. <\/p>\n

As The Auroran reported last week, Councillors were faced with a recommendation to increase the $4.5 million budget allocated in the 2013 Budget for the creation of the Community Space for Youth at the AFLC by $2.6 million for projects to bring the building back up to code, make it more accessible, and account for some of the requests made by youth helping to steer the project.<\/p>\n

Councillors approved the increased costs 5-4 last Tuesday, with Mayor Geoffrey Dawe, and Councillors John Abel, Sandra Humfryes, Paul Pirri, and Michael Thompson supporting the initiative. <\/p>\n

From the perspective of Mayor Dawe, the increased costs would be necessary in helping to rectify some of the mistakes in the past which lead to the widely criticized layout of the current building.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re paying for some of the latitude that happened,\u201d he said of building standards at the time when ground was broken at the AFLC in 1986. \u201cI think the Youth were impressed with how this is unfolding and I think we\u2019re doing what we need to do to move along and ensure we have the facilities for [future] growth.\u201d <\/p>\n

Councillor John Abel argued there is \u201cno greater investment we can make\u201d than in our youth. The Youth Centre, he added, has been on the backburner for over a decade and it was finally time to bring it into the fore and make it a reality. He had less praise for the building itself, however, noting he mulled over tearing the building down and starting fresh two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to build something that is going to last another 30 \u2013 50 years for our community and that is a very important asset,\u201d he said. \u201cThis site is the best site we have available apart from getting new land and something that might cost $20 million down the road. This is a good central place with public access. To say that the youth won\u2019t come is to ignore the registration we have [in Town programs].\u201d<\/p>\n

He was referencing comments made earlier in the discussions by Councillor Paul Pirri, who questioned the cost difference in building some aspects of public infrastructure today versus what they cost when originally constructed. When told the cost to build the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex would be significantly higher today than what it was built, he said now was the right time to begin building the Youth Centre. <\/p>\n

\u201cAurora has always prided itself on providing for its residents,\u201d said Councillor Pirri. \u201cClearly costs have gone up over the last 10 years. If we don\u2019t move on this tonight, what is it going to cost to build this five years down the road? We also have to remember why we\u2019re building this facility and it is to accommodate new growth.\u201d <\/p>\n

Positive feedback from Aurora\u2019s youth on the Youth Centre has been received by Councillor Humfryes. The awareness level is there and there is excitement, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWill it be 100 per cent for youth? Let\u2019s see where it takes us, but it is a place they can call their own and I think we owe it to them,\u201d she said. \u201cI believe in the investment of the youth in our community and the program speaks to it, the survey speaks to it, and I am looking forward to moving forward on this. It is a great thing
\nto do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questioning whether this would truly be a place the youth will \u201ccall their own\u201d, were Councillors Chris Ballard, Evelyn Buck, Wendy Gaertner, and John Gallo. <\/p>\n

Councillor Ballard, for instance, said bringing the cost of the Youth Centre up to $7.4 million underscores his concern from the earliest days that this is \u201cabout the redevelopment of the Family Leisure Complex\u201d under the guise of building a Youth Centre.\u201d While he said he hoped youth would have \u201cpriority\u201d in the other aspects of the building beyond the 2,800 square feet of dedicated youth space, he said redeveloping the AFLC was a debate which should have happened early on. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy sense is [youth] want a place they can call their own that is distinct from adults, a place where they can call their own and I am just not convinced other than the skateboard park that we\u2019re going to see a high uptake of usage with this centre for youth or whatever we\u2019re calling it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The increased costs also gave Councillor Buck a moment of pause. She said it is hard to argue against the statement \u201cyou have to do it for the kids\u201d, but there was not enough time to inform the public about the increased costs. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe imperative in my mind is you take the time and think about your options as you did in the beginning when you chose this facility,\u201d said Councillor Buck. \u201cThe price is almost double. Take the time and think about what else you can get out of that money. Can you build a new facility? Can you use the Old Library right in the heart of Town where your kids can walk and drop in? There are, and there were, options. We see this figure, we should surely be pausing for second thoughts. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am arguing against spending this amount of money because there might be better ways of spending it and getting more out of our money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Settling down into reading the agenda prior to the meeting, Councillor Gallo said he \u201calmost fell off his chair\u201d reading the report on the cost increase and questioned whether it could be reduced if they lessened the scope of the building and limited it strictly to what would need to be done for the youth component rather than bringing the entire complex up to snuff. He agreed with Councillor Buck that now would be a good time to \u201ctake a step back\u201d and consider the options.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo spend $6 million on a community space for youth which really isn\u2019t a community space for youth, with the exception of a 2,000 square foot space, to me that is not a Youth Centre and that is a very poor dedicated space for youth,\u201d said Councillor Gaertner.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the increased price tag of $2.6 million, Aurora\u2019s Community Space for Youth, commonly called \u201cYouth Centre\u201d, remains on track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-PR","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 10:55:32","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\/3215","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=3215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}