Mayor Marvin Junkin made an impassioned plea for long-term vision during the Jan. 30 Pelham Town Council meeting, but members were against the idea of committing any money to a future “civic square.”
While the idea of prioritizing such a public space in East Fonthill was shot down last year due to cost, by following the language in a new staff report, no money could be committed to it at any point in the next four years without a supermajority vote of council to reverse it.
Junkin said that this was excessive, lacked vision, and suggested placing $20,000 in a reserve fund to be at the ready if a grant opportunity came up in the future.
As he did earlier in the meeting, Junkin stood down as leader of council to second Councillor Wayne Olson’s motion to keep a faint hope of the project alive when no other member would.
“I just want to remind council, yes, we are responsible day-to-day, but we are responsible for a vision of this town,” Junkin said. “When you look at that particular park and say, yes, we will eventually get to the point where we are going to be physically able, and wouldn’t it be nice to know that this council kept the vision alive … I don’t want to be part of a council that has no vision for the town.”
While councillors came around to the idea of removing the term stipulation—something that PelhamToday described as unprecedented and undemocratic in a recent editorial—there remained no appetite to place money in reserves for the project.
“I for one am concerned. I don’t need a legacy for my term on council to be, ‘Oh, we passed a project and it sank us further in the hole,’” said Deputy Mayor Wink, leading council with Junkin standing down. “Our finances are going to be tight over this term of council, and I would suggest they would be tight for the following term of council if projections are correct.”
Niznik asked CAO David Cribbs what $20,000 would accomplish in this case.
“It’s really just creating a savings account,” the CAO said, stressing that most of the money for such a project would certainly come from upper level government grants.
“All I can say is, you either think that our economy is about to get worse, in which case in Canadian political history grants go up, or you think it isn’t, in which case, presumably, the Town’s growth will be relatively robust and that may well provide the revenues.”
IC fees staying put
Olson also found support from Junkin on his request to revisit the Town’s structure for Integrity Commissioner complaints. As it stands now, residents who file a first complaint with the Integrity Commissioners are not charged a fee. A second complaint comes with a $100 fee, and a third costs $300.
While staff said the structure was put in place “to reduce frivolous or vexatious complaints,” Olson favoured a fee-free structure that could possibly use informal mediation sessions.
“I prefer to stay with what we came up with,” Ward 3’s Bob Hildebrandt said. Ward 2’s John Wink agreed, saying many complaints during the last term of council were found to be frivolous.
“It’s not broken, but here we are trying to fix it,” CAO David Cribbs said.
Ultimately, only Junkin and Ward 3’s Shellee Niznik supported Olson’s idea.
YMCA asks for cash
The YMCA of Central Niagara made a presentation to council asking for a financial commitment from the Town. While the facility is in Welland on the Niagara College campus, officials from the Y said 21 percent of its users are from Pelham.
They appeared to be facing a tough sell.
“I can’t see taking tax dollars for this,” Olson said, while Wink added that it’s “currently not financially feasible for us.”
Niznik however, hoped a compromise of some kind could be reached.
“This is the closest [public indoor] pool other than Brock University to use, I would hope council wouldn’t shut the door completely on this,” she said.
“I’d hate to see you close,” Niznik added, citing the recent closure of the St. Catharines YMCA.
Cribbs said that a reasonable approach would be to see what the City of Welland provided the YMCA first before deciding on any donation.
