{"id":33249,"date":"2023-07-06T19:10:21","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T23:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=33249"},"modified":"2023-07-13T18:53:25","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T22:53:25","slug":"new-gym-set-for-sarc-after-council-rethink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/new-gym-set-for-sarc-after-council-rethink\/","title":{"rendered":"New gym set for SARC after Council rethink"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Construction on a new gymnasium at the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex (SARC) is set to proceed following a Council u-turn last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June, while sitting at the Committee level, Council voted down the long-in-the-works project citing a significant rise in costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current price-tag of approximately $14 million is nearly double the budget approved by the 2018-2022 Council with staff citing current \u201cvolatile\u201d market conditions in the price increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA few examples of recreation projects in Ontario have resulted in the tender price for the projects coming in anywhere from 16 per cent to 38 per cent higher than the project budgeted,\u201d said Robin McDougall, Director of Community Services, in a report to Council that aimed to answer some questions outstanding from the June 6 General Committee meeting. \u201cCouncil asked if we could pull out the supplementary spaces to save some costs, however, the tender was a lump sum based on the Town\u2019s and the contract terms and conditions. If Council wishes to reduce the scope, we will need to re-tender the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIssuing a second tender is a significant risk as any changes would require time and money to revise the design, with no guarantee of any cost savings. In fact, we could get into a position with higher costs with fewer amenities. There is also a possibility we would need to go through another pre-qualification exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The information provided by McDougall helped address lingering doubts on the part of some Council members, with the vote to proceed as initially envisioned moving ahead 4 \u2013 2 with Ward 3 Councillor Wendy Gaertner and Ward 5 Councillor John Gallo voting against moving ahead. Ward 6 Councillor Harold Kim was unable to join the meeting remotely due to technical issues but signalled his support as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere has been lots of discussion over the years on the need for the gym,\u201d said Ward 4 Councillor Michael Thompson, a long-time supporter of adding a gym to the SARC, stating the gym was a need for today rather than a want for tomorrow. \u201cStaff have demonstrated that if we build it the gym will be well-utilized by community groups, individuals, and for further Town programming. While I share my colleagues\u2019 disappointment in the rapid escalation of the cost of the gym, it is a reality we are seeing across the board. Similarly, increases have been noted and shared involving many municipalities in similar projects with substantive increases to their overall budgets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing how costs will be covered by Development Charges (DCs) \u2013 what developers pay to the municipality to account for growth and its impact on community services \u2013 Councillor Thompson added municipalities shouldn\u2019t wait until population growth happens to address the needs it will bring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the financials, Ward 1 Councillor Ron Weese said trends reported by other municipalities beyond Aurora were \u201cdisturbing\u201d but were \u201cjust a reality of our economics now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCost projections have skyrocketed and leave us all concerned whether facilities should be built at all in this volatile environment,\u201d he said. \u201cI like what Councillor Thompson said about building things in advance or planning them in advance of needs because in the past we have been pretty woeful in waiting for things and waiting for five years and residents have been without the services that we find important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am satisfied that the needs of this facility, for its recreation and purposes, and while it doesn\u2019t tick off all the boxes and is undeniably more expensive than was projected, I think the delays will make this even less affordable in the future but it certainly won\u2019t make it less important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also reviewing her initial vote was Ward 2 Councillor Rachel Gilliland who said the most recent report filled in a \u201clot of missing gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe cost of this gym, to me, is still gobsmacking and I\u2019m still really angry and mad about it,\u201d she said. \u201cIn your supplementary information you did express how other municipalities have been facing all this and it is just really hard to stomach, if I am quite honest and it is really disappointing the taxpayer has to supplement that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concluding the discussion, Mayor Tom Mrakas said communities like Aurora \u201calways need to be looking to the future\u201d and making sure \u201c[we\u2019re] building for the needs of our community for the future today because we have to, otherwise we\u2019re going to keep falling behind and our community is going to be left without the services that are much-needed and much-expected as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have done a phenomenal job investing in our community and we need to keep investing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is not a this or that, this is needed. We identified the need through the Parks & Rec Master Plan. It doesn\u2019t mean that we end here; it means we continue after this one to look at how we continue to expand, how we continue to invest in our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not necessarily being built for our sports organizations; it\u2019s not focused on that. It\u2019s more focused on our community and our residents being able to utilize it. I think about residents trying to play pickup basketball. It\u2019s very difficult for someone in our community to go and play pickup basketball. We\u2019re building this not only for sports organizations to be able to utilize it through practices or some training\u2026 possibly dry land training, but also for our residents that just want to come and use facilities in our community and that is what we\u2019re supposed to be developing and investing in. I think all of us are a little bit annoyed with the cost increase but as Councillor Thompson mentioned, it is the reality that we\u2019re facing today. If we delay or we don\u2019t do it and we say let\u2019s do it a bit later down the road it is just going to cost us more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Construction on a new gymnasium at the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex (SARC) is set to proceed following a Council u-turn last week. In June, while sitting at the Committee level, Council voted down the long-in-the-works project citing a significant rise in costs. The current price-tag of approximately $14 million is nearly double the budget approved […]<\/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_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-33249","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\/p3D2k4-8Eh","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 05:08:31","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\/33249","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=33249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}