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Town opts for trial youth centre

Dedicated building removed from budget

BY Trina Berlo, staff February 02, 2010 16:02

Officials are saying they want to make sure the need for a youth centre justifies the expense.

The town's 2010 capital budget originally earmarked $200,000 to build a youth centre but the expenditure has been removed from the budget.

The money to build the youth centre was to come from a recreation reserve fund, which is supported by development charges, not taxpayer dollars. The item was cut in an effort to keep overall spending down.

"We wanted to keep the budget at a certain rate and if we have that in there we can't do that," said Councillor Nina Bifolchi who is a member of the youth centre planning committee.

The committee also includes the mayor, CAO, the manager of parks and facilities and the recreation director.

In August, council directed staff to seek out a location and an architect for the youth centre but during budget deliberations, officials agreed to hold off.

Manager of parks and facilities Gerry Reinders said he is recommending the town lease an existing space for two years to make sure the youth centre is well used.

Reinders plans to bring the recommendation before community services committee on Feb. 9.

"The recommendation is to lease the space for a couple of years and try the programming, see if the youth in the community are interested in it and are going to support it," said Reinders. "We don't want to construct a building and find out it isn't going to be used."

Reinders said they are looking at a number of vacant facilities that are along the bus route and as close to the RecPlex as possible in order to access the amenities there, including the adjacent skating rink.

"We are going to have to make some adjustments in the budget once we find out what the lease is going to cost," said Reinders.

The money will likely be added to the operating costs, he said.

The youth centre will be open in the evening and will be staffed by a youth coordinator and one or two assistants.

"In the next couple of months we will be looking for donations and supplies for the youth centre, hopefully from local community groups or anybody in the community, so be it a pool table, ping pong table, whatever," said Bifolchi.

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