Beach rec centre may come under town control

.
By John Coward
Friday October 20, 2006


Jackson: Town emissary on takeover.

Interlake Spectator - The Winnipeg Beach Municipal Recreation Centre, long saddled with debt, high maintenance costs and short on volunteers to deliver programming, may hand the torch to the town.
Bonnie Dykes, president of the rec centre’s volunteer board, says informal discussions with Coun. Pam Jackson led to a “kind of mutual agreement” that the rec centre cannot sustain itself in its current structure.
Jackson met with the rec board Tuesday, urging it to consider dissolution. The board agreed to hand the reins to the town. The rookie councillor later sent Dykes an e-mail outlining the language the board might consider using to declare its intent to dissolve. It’s expected a representative of the rec board will appear before council this Tuesday to formalize the hand-off.
In spite of the fact that the debt load has been reduced to $64,000 from around $90,000 last year, thanks in a large part to rental revenues generated from the movie “Falcon Beach”, there is little in the way of cash flow to cover operating costs.

Dykes says the management model proposed by Jackson will be put forward to council at its next regular meeting Tuesday.
“The current board may become an advisory committee to Lee Hanson (the town’s recreation director). As an advisory committee, we would talk to the community to find out what programming activities they would like to see and make recommendations to Lee,” Dykes said.
“We have some great ideas for programming, like an indoor walking program for seniors, but there’s not a bunch of volunteers out there to run the programs,” she said. “If Lee has his office in the rec centre, the building can stay open for use during the week.”
Marion Grogan, Winnipeg Beach’s chief administrative officer, wouldn’t confirm the rec centre’s current situation but did say some options are being considered.
“I understand there’s been some discussion with the board but I just don’t have those details and I haven’t seen any delegations come forward for the next meeting,” Grogan said.
Former rec board president Frank Figler said he is concerned that somebody is playing hurry-up offence on an issue he believes should be presented to the rec centre’s general membership, which includes all citizens of Winnipeg Beach.
“The membership needs to know,” Figler said yesterday. “Where’s the transparency we heard so much about during the election? All of a sudden this pops up and there’s a decision made in a day. Obviously this has been more than a day in the works.