PRESS RELEASES

“How much is a kid worth?” - Posted on 2008-03-14

By NEVILLE CRABBE
sports@stcroixcourier.ca

WOODSTOCK – In 1993, with a Centennial arena falling apart, the Town of Woodstock decided to take the million dollars needed to renovate and pledge it to the construction of a state of the art, multi-use recreational facility.

That vision kicked off a $750,000 flurry of fundraising by the Woodstock Rotary Club and attracted approximately $2.5 million from the provincial government and $3 million from Ottawa. Two years later, in 1995, the town opened the $7.2 million Carleton Civic Centre to the public.

Originally, the building included an 888 seat stadium arena, an Olympic size swimming pool, an indoor walking track and a spacious community room. Since, it has become host to a Maritime Jr. “A” franchise, the Slammers, and grown to include a fitness centre in a converted storage room.

“Has (the civic centre) been successful?” said Woodstock Chief Administrative Officer Ken Harding, “Well, now 13-years later, there has been an exploratory committee formed to look at the possibility of expansion.”

In two years the town will have paid off it’s 15-year debt on the Carleton Civic Centre and own the building free and clear. The Woodstock Council plans to roll over their principal investment into an expansion that might include items like a community theatre, a second ice surface, and an expanded fitness centre.

However, said Harding, a member of the original steering committee, the success of the civic centre is deeper than just the wellness of Woodstock’s citizens. He believes it is at the core of the town’s decade of economic growth.

“We equate the civic centre project with the beginning of our economic boom,” said Harding, “Realtors told us very early on after the centre opened that this is a major factor in terms of people relocating here.”

Mayor Jeff Wright, a Rotarian who fundraised door to door for the project agrees with Harding’s assessment. He believes the recreation facility kick started a cluster of business in its vicinity.

“There has been a dramatic change in the economic structure of the town since the civic centre,” said Wright, explaining that the building reinforced Woodstock’s role as a regional centre, and by attracting more visitors attracted more business. He said most, if not all, the development along nearby Connell Road could be attributed to the recreation facility’s existence.

The once sparsley developed strip has sprouted, now hosting a number of businesses, including a multi-screen movie theatre, car and equipment dealers, restaurants, and big box retail stores, amenities next available in Grand Falls to the north, and Fredericton to the south.

Aside from the financial spin-off, Woodstock may soon be basking in the satisfaction of producing an Olympic athlete. Jenna Bull, a local teenager whose family temporarily relocated to Toronto, is a hopeful for the Canadian swim team this summer in Beijing. Without an indoor pool, her talent would have gone undiscovered.

At the confluence of the trans-Canada Highway and American Interstate-95, the town of 5,100 people in the Saint John River Valley has become, according to its own website, “one of Canada’s fastest growing local economies.” Like St. Stephen, its strategic position on the Maine/New Brunswick border has made it a hub for transportation of goods moving into the Eastern United States.

Both rural municipalities with histories dating back to the pre-Confederation golden age, with similar populations and demographics, perhaps the biggest difference between the towns is that St. Stephen is where Woodstock was 13-years ago in terms of providing recreational facilities to its citizens.

St. Stephen residents are taking steps toward building a civic centre of their own, but the project, originally discussed in late 2004, has yet to break ground or select a site for the building.

As the project stands now, the proposed $15 million dollar St. Stephen facility will include a 1,400 seat arena, a 25-metre indoor pool, community rooms, a walking track and space for the Boys and Girls Club.

So far, the Charlotte County Civic Centre Committee has been guaranteed $2.1 million from the town of St. Stephen and, according to chair Richard Fulton, will launch their public fundraising campaign on April 16. At that time, thanks to private fundraising, the committee will have in place half of their $3.5 million goal, approximately $1.75 million.

The volunteer committee has yet to receive any funding guarantees from the provincial or federal government. They are expected to each pledge $4.7 million.

By September, 2008, organizers hope to have the entire community portion of fundraising for the Charlotte County Civic Centre completed. The $3.5 million from area residents, benefactors and business is expected to help tip the balance and bring Ottawa and Fredericton to the table.

Although progress is being made said Fulton, he admitted the project does have its critics.

“I think in any project there are peaks and valleys and we’re all impatient to see things happen, and when people don’t see tangible things like construction going on, people tend to get discouraged,” said Fulton.

However, criticism is not limited to people frustrated by the slow pace of development. At public meetings and in letters to the editor, citizens of St. Stephen have expressed dismay at the projected $15 million cost and its effect on municipal taxes. People have also expressed dismay at what the project includes, namely the indoor pool.

…

In the early nineties, when Woodstock was in the planning and fundraising phase of their project, opposition was identical. People asked about taxes and questioned the need for an indoor pool.

“I remember how much of a tough sell it was,” said Mayor Wright, “I don’t think people opposed the civic centre concept, more so they opposed the cost.”

“It was really split along the lines of people that had families and were mobile and the older people who tended to think more about their tax dollars,” said Wright.

Aware of tax payers concerns, Harding and the steering committee publicly communicated anticipated capital and operating costs using a worst case scenario. They figured, at worst, the new $7.2 million project would affect taxes by $0.18 for every hundred dollars of assessed value.

When the project was completed, the real figure turned out to be $0.16. When you consider that the old arena and outdoor pool cost Woodstock tax payers roughly $0.05 for every hundred dollars of assesed value, the new building increased the municipal tax rate by only $0.11 said Harding.

Regarding the pool, the town understood that in order for the project to be a success, it would have to appeal to a wider group of users than just ice sports.

“The pool was a leap of faith,” said Harding, “hockey was predictable, but we didn’t know how many users there would be for the pool.” Looking back, Harding said, including a swimming pool was the right decision because it made their civic centre attractive to more people. Elderly people and disabled have taken advantage of aquatic programming.

Seeing the building and town flourish won over critics in Woodstock, among them Councillor Peter Kennedy. A St. Stephen native who left for Woodstock in 1967, Kennedy chairs the town finance committee and was initially opposed to the cost of the project.

That all changed when he set foot inside the completed structure. Addressing residents of St. Stephen, Kennedy said the expenditure is a tough pill to swallow, but it would be terrible not to do something for the youth of the town.

“You can do all the paving you want, salt and sand and buy trucks, but in the end what do you have? Nothing,” said Kennedy, “Building an asset like we have done here is similar to buying a house, if you’re smart with it, the value only increases.”

As a town, said Mayor Wright, Woodstock understands the value of recreation and the fact that it costs money.

“Recreation is an expense to a municipality and you have to offer those services, and I believe the more recreation opportunities you offer to citizens the better situated your community is to grow.”

Perhaps nobody understood that more than Harold Hatfield, a long standing member of the Woodstock Rotary Club who headed the campaign to canvass local businesses. He raised over $200,000 for the civic centre in six months, helping bring the project in on budget on time.

Though he admits some people were afraid of what it might do to their taxes, he swayed them with a question.

“How much is a kid worth?” Hatfield would ask, “Are we gonna create the proper environment for our town to grow, or are we gonna sit on our hands and let the world pass us by?”