A request to rename baseball diamonds A and F at McCulley-Robertson Sports Complex was made by Muskoka Hornets President Peter Haynes at Huntsville Council’s Monday, June 26 meeting.
Haynes who was reticent as it wasn’t the first time he had been before council with the same ask, provided information about the request and asked that council pay for half of the estimated $5,000 it would cost for the dedication plaques. You can find his presentation, HERE (pdf).
Council debated the issue at length with some councillors noting that a naming policy for municipal infrastructure was currently in the works. Others thought consultation should ensue before a decision is made.
Councillor Scott Morrison cut to the chase and managed to persuade councillors to finally approve the renaming, pending consultation with the McCulley and Robertson families. He told council he felt they were overthinking the decision and further postponing it.
“As Deputy Mayor Armour mentioned, this is the third time that Peter’s come to council to talk about this. It’s been a five-year process. There was a motion in 2021 saying to start the public consultation process about the possibility of renaming the diamonds in those two names and I know that we’re a new council but I think we need to build on the blocks of previous councils, of stuff that was discussed at length, probably hours and hours,” he said.
He said the issue should not continue to be discussed for hours. “It was decided by nine very competent people around this table that this was a worthy initiative to explore. Because of staffing shortages and whatnot, there wasn’t the time to follow through on the direction. The direction was given, it wasn’t followed up at the time, and that happens because you have so much stuff on your plate. What we’re trying to do now is add more stuff to staff and I think we can simply, as nine elected officials, decide if we want to do this.” Morrison also said the families who have been waiting for a decision keep getting put off.
“Nobody’s getting any younger and who knows by the time we make a decision who’s able to attend.” Morrison also said more recognition could be given to those the sports complex is named after and why, not unlike the arenas at the Canada Summit Centre, which have actual plaques informing people about the community members the arenas were named after.
In the end, council unanimously approved the renaming pending consultation with the McCulley and Robertson families.
As part of his delegation to council, Haynes also asked that the diamonds not be locked by staff when not in use. He noted that when games get rained out in Bracebridge, it would be nice to be able to resume playing at the diamonds in Huntsville, but they’re often locked.
Staff noted that there aren’t enough resources to ensure that the diamonds are ready for user groups who pay to use them if they’re not locked and one is always open. The idea of a lock box was also discussed so that if the diamonds are required at the last minute, they’re available to groups who would pay the fee.
“Staff feel from an operation perspective, it is not a good thing to proceed with, issuing a key or having a lock box…,” said Huntsville municipal CAO Denise Cory. “So if you really narrow it down the issue is the resources to service the area. So as we’ve talked about, there is literally five full-time staff, we have a few seasonal staff… look at the size of the municipality that they have to be responsible for,” Cory told council. “With the current resources that we have it would be very difficult for us to leave the fields open to ensure that they were maintained safely so we didn’t have any insurance issues, keeping in mind if we don’t know if the groups are coming and we don’t… maintain it and somebody hurts themselves then we’re probably [looking at] an insurance claim.”
Cory added that perhaps staff could bring a request at the next 2024 budget deliberations and add staff hours to the parks and cemeteries department “so potentially there is somebody at the diamond, perhaps all the time doing maintenance or making sure things are okay,” she said.
Huntsville Mayor Nancy Alcock reminded Cory that council was exploring the idea of a lock box, not completely unlocking the baseball diamonds that get locked by staff when they’re not being rented. Alcock also noted that if the lock box is used to give the user groups access, it would stand to reason that the fields may not be groomed the way they would be had staff been given a heads-up. She said that is something the user would hopefully understand.
In the end, council instructed staff to run a pilot project and give the group access to a lock box. A majority of council voted in favour of that motion, except for Deputy Mayor Dan Armour and Councillor Cory Clarke who thought it would be too difficult to manage.
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George Selkirk, I have to read about his couple of years in Huntsville (short story?), but Stan Rimmington, I have fast ball, curve ball and change-up knowledge of. Stan threw them all past me in one game or another, always with a chuckle and a bit of a smile.
But his main claim to fame in my family, is the time my son played on a Stan Rimmington team. We would deliver and pick up at the arena, and everyone knew ‘the van’.
“Here comes Stan the Man with the tan van.” Or “There’s Stan’s tan van”. There were any number of variations that included Stan, man and van.
Guess there is no community vote on the choice to be made, but you can bet a high and tight fast ball, that Stan would get my vote.
Well done Scott and council. Stan has been a tremendous supporter and tireless worker on behalf of the baseball community in Huntsville for decades.. There could not be a more deserving person to be honoured in this way.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I was under the opinion that George Selkirk and his family moved away from Huntsville to the US before he was 2 years old ( before he even picked up a bat or ball) . If so, l think it’s a bit of a stretch to celebrate him as legend in our community.
Well done Scott. Decisions have to be made and the present council is the responsible party of the day. Get on with it one way or the other. It makes one wonder how things ever get done at town Hall.