Huntsville Councillor Jonathan Wiebe asked council on Monday night to hit the brakes on a proposed $2.2 million expenditure for the McCulley-Robertson ball diamonds.
The recommendation coming out of the Town’s General Committee would have given staff a green light to finalize tender documents for the proposed $2,222,575.00 expenditure, to be added to the 2019 capital budget for consideration. The motion also called for additional maintenance expenditures and would have asked staff to notify user groups of potential disruption to the 2019 baseball season, if the project were to proceed.
“There are a couple of things that I wanted to just push the pause button on. I think that it’s a big spend and I think that given the fact that there are still some discussions going on with some of the user groups, etc… I thought it may be be prudent to send this back to General Committee next month,” said Wiebe. “We’re hoping to get the consultant that our staff used and made these recommendations, to have them here with us and to be able to ask all the questions we want… just to drill down a little deeper and to make sure that we get it right because, like I said, it’s a big spend and it’s a key asset in our community, and I want to ensure that we cross all our t’s.”
Huntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison said he met with representatives of some of the user groups along with the Director of Operations and Protective Services Steve Hernen and Town CAO Denise Corry.
“It was a good discussion and I agree with this move to sort of table this for a month, dig a little deeper,” said Aitchison. He said more discussions will take place with the users in order to fine-tune the improvements being recommended.
Discussions regarding the redevelopment of the ball diamonds are expected to return to General Committee’s September meeting. A decision on whether to spend the funds will likely not be made until the new council is in place. Municipal elections take place October 22, 2018.
See related stories below:
Two-million dollar upgrade proposed for McCulley-Robertson ball diamonds
Ball diamonds at McCulley-Roberston need TLC and expansion to accommodate growing number of players
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Well done, Jonathan: It takes courage to speak up in an instance such as this. But after all, an expenditure of this magnitude is not wisely spent, if the user groups are not satisfied. The fact that it realistically should always have been a decision and a commitment of the incoming Council is an additional benefit.