Rec centre to be run jointly with town

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By Jim Mosher
Friday December 01, 2006

WINNIPEG BEACH -- The town is expected to assume a partnership role in the maintenance and operation of the Winnipeg Beach Municipal Recreation Centre on Hamilton Ave.
Bonnie Dykes, president of the board of the recreation centre, presented the volunteer board’s proposal to council’s regular meeting Nov. 21. The presentation focussed on cooperation and shared responsibility in both the physical side of maintenance and the planning side of recreation programming.
The proposal caps extended negotiations between Dykes and rookie councillor Pam Jackson. It appears that the proposal is already in motion, as town recreation Lee Hanson has already introduced programs which are now being offered at the rec centre.
The proposal suggests that Hanson should have an office at the centre, so that daytime programming -- a source of revenue and recreation opportunity untapped by previous rec boards, said Dykes -- could be offered. The board’s proposed operational model also keys on the need for a building manager, who would work under Hanson’s direction.
“The existing rec board model would remain,” Dykes said. “Some changes to the bylaws and reporting methods would have to occur. The rec board would work with the rec director to arrive at a recreation budget like other [town] departments. [These budgets] would then be approved by council and the taxpayers during the budget approval process.”

Dykes noted that the current rec board has managed to pare to about $55,000 a line of credit indebtedness that stood a $85,000 just a year ago. That deficit is guaranteed by the town, which is on the line for the rec centre’s line of credit.
“This board believes that working with council, the town administration and the recreation director, we can achieve a recreation centre that will meet the community’s and surrounding area’s recreation needs for all ages, and be self-sustaining,” Dykes, reading from a prepared statement, said. “In order to do this, we must, as a group and a community, agree to look at working together differently than we have in the past. Times have changed and, therefore, we have to change, as well. The board members are committed to this goal and look forward to meeting with council to put this plan forward.”
Perhaps surprisingly, council had little to say -- likely because they had the text of the proposal well in advance of the meeting and had been kept up to speed by Jackson.
Coun. Jackson got in a little hot water in September when she jumped the gun in talks with Dykes. Jackson met with the volunteer board and sought their indulgence in simply handing the keys to the centre to the town. That approach earned some criticism, particularly from deputy mayor Daryl Carry who said he had no idea where Jackson was headed.
The recent proposal appears to achieve much the same end, though it retains the rec board.
Carry was the only to speak after Dykes’s presentation.
“We’re all aware of the situation there,” the deputy mayor told Dykes after her presentation. “We have a lot of work to do with yourself and your group to move things ahead.”