Heather Wright/The Independent

Dawn-Euphemia’s mayor understands rural municipalities are having a hard time paying for the arenas, but Al Broad and his council aren’t ready just yet to open the cheque book for Brooke-Alvinston.

Monday, council received a letter from the municipality saying it was “exploring a full cost recovery of services offered from the Brooke-Alvinston-Inwood Community Centre” adding Dawn-Euphemia residents use the arena for hockey and other activities. “As you can appreciate, registration fees for these sports cover some of the operational expenses, however the capital expenses are left burdening the Brooke-Alvinston ratepayers,” the letter states.

Brooke-Alvinston officials say they’re looking to see how many Dawn-Euphemia residents might use the facility. 

And they’re also looking at past agreements for payment noting Euphemia once provided a grant to the complex for maintenance and operation.

Broad says that was long before the amalgamation of Dawn-Euphemia. The mayor says the township does provide cash to Bothwell and Dresden for their arena, but it was part of a “trade off” where the two municipalities contributed to the cost of the Florence Community Centre.  

“This opens up another can of worms,” Broad said noting other communities will come knocking for financial help.

“Everybody with arenas are having problems,” Broad adds. “And if you look at geographically, we have too many in the areas – that’s the problem today.”

The township will wait for more details about the number of residents using the Alvinston facility before discussing possible funding.