If you missed the agenda and preview, you can find it here.

Delegations, Presentations, and Petitions

• We had a lengthy presentation from John Mascarin, along with his colleague Megan (didn’t catch her last name), on the roles and responsibilities he has as our Integrity Commissioner and Closed Meeting Investigator. He went over a lot of case law pertaining to the laws in place, and also briefed us on the changes coming on March 1, 2019.
  • One item that should help anyone stay out of trouble is that, as of March 1, Councillors will be able to request advice on a matter. The advice must be in writing, and the responses must also be in writing.
• Beginning at 7pm, Andrew Grunda and Peter Simcisko of Watson & Associates also completed their presentation on development charges; history, context, and current state were all there, along with a brief discussion of the full review that will happen later this year. A good primer for the new Councillors.
• Tony Commisso of Cowan Insurance also came to do a primer and refresher on all the insurance policies Middlesex Centre has in place, 13 of them he highlighted during the meeting.

Consent Agenda & Staff Reports

• Given how much detail I provided in the preview, I will keep this brief.
• Middlesex Centre Council has opted to allow for private retail sales of cannabis in our Municipality. Given the small number of licenses currently up for grabs, and the province’s focus on placing the first ones in communities with a population over 50,000, we’re not anticipating any licenses being applied for in Middlesex Centre, or being issued, in the next few years.
  • This does, however, set us up for a higher amount of funding than we would have received otherwise, which will help offset any increases in policing costs or educational programs.
• Council voted to give Watson & Associates the contract for our 2019 development charges study. I made a point to say that while I don’t like sole source contracts, this one makes sense because of the history Watson & Associates already has with the Municipality, and that brining in a new vendor now would actually result in higher costs as they would likely need to duplicate a lot of previous work.
• Council voted to defer initiating the process for hiring a new CAO, with comments citing the need to possibly look for someone with different expertise, experience, and education — for example, someone with a Masters of Business Administration degree, rather than focusing only on individuals with a Masters of Public Administration. Council members were to submit feedback to our Acting CAO and Mayor as quickly as possible, and before the next Council meeting.
• Finally, removing the holding provision over EdgeWater Estates’ phase 1 was approved.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please let me know. Thanks for reading!

Let’s make one thing clear: I would love an indoor pool in Middlesex Centre! Whether it was located in Komoka, Ilderton, Delaware, or even Bryanston, an indoor pool in the Municipality would be a fantastic addition. I get that the Wellness Centre doesn’t contain any services that some individuals want to utilise. I would say, though, that the YMCA does have subsidies available, so you should ask them for more information if you’re interested in some of the services they provide but cannot afford the full rate.

Additionally, my spouse and I are fortunate enough to be able to pay for private lessons at a private, in-ground pool each summer, but certainly I recognize not every family can afford the time or money to do this for their children.

Speaking of the costs related to an indoor pool specifically, I have been gathering information ever since Dave Pinheiro’s request on the Kilworth Neighbours Facebook group for a facility similar to Strathroy’s. I also heard about this several times during last fall’s election campaign. Here are the concerns I have:

• An inground, indoor pool would cost between $9M and $13M to build, as per South Huron’s recent study
• The Strathroy Aquatic Park cost $2.9M to build; this does not include engineering, architecture, or project management costs
• The Strathroy Aquatic Park costs over $300,000 per season to operate (page 4), roughly 2/3 of which comes from property tax
• The St. Mary’s Aquatic Centre (an indoor pool) costs roughly $1M per year to operate
• The St. Mary’s Aquatic Centre’s revenue is around $400,000 per year; so it loses about $600,000 overall (as per their Director, whom Scott Mairs spoke with recently on my behalf)
• Besides all that, you would still need to pay to use the facility
• Assuming a $10M construction/design/engineering (CDE) cost, amortized over 25 years, and also assuming all properties paid the same amount towards the CDE cost, that would add an additional $55.09 per year in property taxes
• Assuming a $1M operating cost without any revenue – because I can’t guess how often it’ll be used or if we could sign up any memberships like St. Mary’s has – and an equal load across all properties, we could all look at paying an additional $137.74 per year in property taxes
• For argument’s sake, since we don’t know the final construction cost, assume you would be paying $300 over 25 years while the construction fees are paid off.

So, is that worth it to you? I suspect some will say yes, versus the prospect of building your own pool at an upfront cost of at least $5,000 for a high quality, above ground pool. I would probably say the same, personally. That said:

• There was a feasibility study completed in conjunction with options for renovating or building a new arena in Ilderton last year. The general guideline used is that an indoor pool is only feasible when a population reaches 40,000. We won’t be hitting 40,000 anytime soon, so the feasibility study discounted that as a possibility.
• An indoor pool was also assessed during the Wellness Centre’s planning.
• You will still have to pay to use the facility, and
• There is no guarantee it would be built in Komoka/Kilworth. It could be built in Delaware, Denfield, Poplar Hill, Ilderton, Arva, Birr, Bryanston, or even Melrose.
  • Okay, it’s unlikely it would be built somewhere other than Delaware, Komoka/Kilworth or Ilderton, but I think you get the point! 🙂

Anyway, all that to say that if a sufficient number of residents understand the full implications of building a pool, especially the capital, operating, and ongoing equipment replacement costs over a period of time, I could personally get behind this. But that will involve polling a fairly large sample of the municipality and being able to provide those individuals with real costs, or at least very close to real costs. You can see above I’m making a few guesses for illustrative purposes.

So, while we debate the willingness for residents to pay for such a structure, and the impact it would have on our municipal debt, London has four options to choose from all year round, as well as several more during the summer, and the facility in St. Mary’s!