The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Can you explain why our City Hall had the provincial government dig up and repave Main Street in 2005 only to dig it up and repave it again yourselves in 2007? In 2005, did City Hall not know that you would have to dig up Main Street again in the near future to replace the old piping? If so, why didn't the city tell the province to save some of our tax money? **** Main Street: First, let me answer your last part of the question. Yes, we did tell the province not to pave in 2005 as we knew we would be doing major work on Main Street in the very near future. The province choice to pave anyway. Flin Flon Main Street, as you are aware, is Provincial Highway #10 and, as such, comes, somewhat, under the control of the province. As you may remember, the province committed a significant number of dollars to repave/repair highway 10 and 10A in 2004/2005. They did 10A in 2004 and finished with 10 in 2005. At that time, the City knew we would require major work to be done to replace water/sewer lines but we needed to be able to commit the necessary dollars to the project. We informed the province of this but they chose to continue with paving anyway. **** This issue has come up before, but after some digging, I can tell you that the Creighton Sportex does not have any full-time staff assigned to it but the Whitney Forum does. What is the difference between the facilities? Are we overstaffed at the Whitney? Why or why not? **** Whitney Forum: You seem to be fixated on only one aspect, that being expenses. First, the two buildings are not necessarily comparable. The Sportex is seasonal, the Whitney Forum is open year round as it serves multiple services. As long as it is open, we require someone to be in the building. We do have three full time employees plus a number of part-time, somewhat seasonal, employees. I think it can be agreed that when the ice is in, there is a greater need to keep adequate staff on hand. That staff has also got to be certified to work on our ice plant. The question is what do they do when ice is not in? The answer is the never ending maintenance of the building. Now, not all three full-time employees work all summer as this is the time for them to take holidays, but there does seem to be enough work to keep them busy. As well, we keep the doors open for walkers and, as such, we are required to have someone in the building. Our hours of operation are significantly reduced in the summer, as you know. The Forum is used in the off-hockey season for other users such as indoor soccer for example. However, as I said, you seem to be focussing solely on expenses but you forget about revenue from the user groups. At the end of the day there is no doubt that revenue does not meet expenses and the tax payer, ultimately, pays for the deficit. In the City's case, all our facilities carry deficits to the tune of $200-300k each (Whitney Forum, RH Channing, the pool). This is not unusual with any community. What you need to ask is what is the deficit to run the Sportex compared to the Whitney Forum and how much is passed on to the the respective tax payers. I think you may be surprised at the findings. * * * Send your questions for Mayor Therien to The Reminder by phone at 687-3454, fax at 687-4473, e-mail at [email protected] or standard delivery at "Ask the Mayor," C/O The Reminder, 14 North Avenue, Flin Flon, MB, R8A 0T2. No names are required. Ask the Mayor runs Mondays.
