Heather Wright/The Independent

Petrolia is going to take a deep dive into just what it costs to run the Greenwood Recreation Centre and what improvements will be needed in the future.

In the past two years, there have been questions about whether the facility can support the hockey programs in the community. In 2024, hockey moms Kelly Bailey and Lisa Vanderwall asked town council to consider a second ice pad since ice time was at a premium. They said the growth of girls’ hockey, in part, was spurring the need for more ice time.

The town set up a committee to look at the possibilities.

At the same time, the town has been pushing to have surround communities to provide cash to support the arena, since children from across the region use the facilities.

And there has been long-standing concern about the cost of running the facility.

While the municipality does get paid for ice-time from rec and minor hockey and the local figure skating club, they are not enough to cover the cost of running the arena.

This year, the town expects taxpayers will cover about $ 356,469 to run the facility beyond the user fees.
Recently, Councillor Liz Welsh suggested the town doesn’t have a plan for the facility.

Monday, she suggested an asset management plan looking at the facility and the programs offered there is necessary to allow “informed and evidence based decision making and will educate residents and facility users on the true cost of operating the facility,” adding “a clear vision for the future of Greenwood rec center is needed.”

Welsh suggested town staff look at all everything from the parks and recreation master plan to agreements with other organizations using the arena, maintenance schedules, equipment purchases, utilities inspections, plans for end of service life for all arena components and the facility itself to come up with a path forward.

Welsh suggested, and council agreed, that once the review was done, staff should present recommendations to council “ for plans to optimize operations and where possible, reduce the operating deficit for long term sustainability.”

Welsh says gathering the information should not be difficult.

“We have most, if not all, of this information already in house. We just need it all put together so we can see the full picture all at once,” she said.

Councillor Chad Hyatt noted Mayor Brad Loosley recently requested parks and recreation staff spend time analysing the arena use, tracking down which municipalities users came from and figuring out a way to receive compensation for them.

He wondered if the asset management plan would be a duplication of some of the mayor’s investigation.
CAO Rick Charlebois says the mayor’s request was mostly about where users are coming from, not the life-span of the building and its equipment.

Deputy Mayor Joel Field spoke in favour of Welsh’s idea.

“I think that this will also add to our knowledge of the facility and what we have, and when there’s questions asked, we’ll be able to answer them,” he said.

Welsh added; “Ultimately, the facility does belong to us, so it is up to us to figure out how we’re going to run it, how we’re going to pay for it.”

It’s not clear how long it will take to prepare the asset management plan and the recommendations for council.