PRESS RELEASES

Civic Centre Gets Vote of Confidence - Posted on 2007-12-04

By NEVILLE CRABBE
sports@stcroixcourier.ca

ST. STEPHEN – One after another, community stakeholders stood in front of the seven-member panel overseeing the Citizen’s Forum on Recreation and declared their group’s support for the proposed Charlotte County Civic Centre on the second night of hearings, Nov. 29 at the Milltown Legion.
“Other communities our size in the province of New Brunswick either already have a civic centre or are trying to get one because they recognize the importance of such a facility,” said project chairperson Richard Fulton, leaning over the podium.
Speaking for Charlotte County Civic Centre Inc., the arms-length group charged with fundraising and decision making for the project, Fulton said that the town urgently needed a master plan on recreation. Along with new and improved fields, the civic centre should be a major component of such a strategy he said.
“We hope that you create a recreation direction that will show people who live here presently, and those that may relocate here, that we have a vision for recreation in the community,” said Fulton addressing the panel.
Support for the $15-million proposal came from a wide variety of interests. Speaking just prior to Fulton, Charlotte County Hospital administrator Muriel Jarvis said her organization has a stake in the development of a top-notch recreational facility.
With more than 200 employees and approximately 25,000 patients per year, Jarvis believes the civic centre is an investment in the long-term health of the area.
“Our population is aging and seniors often find it hard to get out in the winter months,” said Jarvis, “If we are not able to engage our seniors in activity, then we as a hospital will see an increase in the number of overall visits.”
Conducting exit interviews with four residents that recently passed through St. Stephen, Jarvis asked what criteria they would use when deciding on a practice location. Every respondent said that recreational facilities and lifestyle would be among their top considerations.
Reiterating the need for a new building, chair of the arena board Bob Coates reminded the panel that the Border Arena is in its 34th season of operation, a feat for a building that was conceived to last 25 years. Coates said that regardless of how much money was put into the building, it would still only be able to provide ice for six months of the year.
And that, he said, does not address the core problem that the arena faces: “We are at a point where we are not able to provide any more rentable hours to new groups that, as of now, are forced to rent outside the community.”
Coates explained that St. Stephen minor hockey manages the deficit by renting five hours per week in St. Andrews. Other groups, like the speed skating club, have been forced into exile by the lack of ice.
On message, St. Stephen minor hockey president Joey Peters, whose 16 teams currently vie for 25 weekly hours of ice, delivered a fiery presentation in which he claimed the greatest restraint on his organization was indeed available ice.
“In northern New Brunswick it has been said that there are too many rinks and not enough players. In southern New Brunswick it’s said that we have too many players and not enough rinks,” Peters said.
Peters opined that even though “a fancy new building” would be nice, if it meant that the town would still have only one ice surface, it would accomplish nothing for minor hockey. The future, he believes, is contingent on the establishment of a second sheet.
Asked if what he heard strengthened his resolve to move forward on the civic centre project, Mayor Allan Gillmor said that the Citizens Recreation Forum did not specifically pertain to that issue.
“That’s not the intent [of the forum], as Richard Fulton indicated, they [Charlotte County Civic Centre Inc] are flexible, but what I truly believe came out of these hearings is that it showed there is a greater need in the community than the civic centre will provide,” said Gillmor.
Agreeing that the two persistent themes of the presenters were fields and the civic centre, Gillmor said that the panel would meet on Dec. 20 to discuss what they had heard and intend to present their findings to council sometime in the New Year.




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