Citizen says community centre 'is West Ferris'

Bill Antler got his chance to convey his thoughts to North Bay City Council on the past, present and future of the West Ferris Centennial Community Centre or WFCCC, as he says he and the other rink rats and citizens of West Ferris have called it since the late 1960s.

After finding the roster full for the Feb. 13 meeting, Antler instead made his public presentation on Tuesday, Feb. 27 and said he believes some "sober second thought" is needed about the fate of the building and a decision must be made as to whether that future involves operating the facility with ice rinks or as a community centre without the ice pad. These days, the WFCCC is often shortened to the West Ferris Arena, as part of the Sam Jacks Recreation Complex on Gertrude Street. 

See related: What's next for West Ferris Arena?

"You have to make the right decision," about the West Ferris Arena, Antler respectfully told the council members, "because this is a taxpayer decision."

PODCAST: Honorary rink rat talks future of the 'Heart of West Ferris'

Antler believes a "false" narrative about the arena's physical condition is what led the city to pursue the twin pad arena replacement. He is advocating for a public review because the powers that be have decided to put it in a location further from the densest residential and business core of the community, with designs on completing a long-term development instead.

Antler brought forward a proposal that he estimated would cost between $10 million and $ 14 million for the refurbishment of the West Ferris Arena plus $30–$35 million for a new arena and dressing rooms. Plus, there would be an additional cost for the proposed community centre.

"We can't have champagne tastes on a beer budget," said Antler.

The question period following Antler's presentation was telling, as the councillors did not dismiss Antler's ideas outright but seemed reluctant to embrace his plan to rehabilitate and expand the complex.

"Here's an idea," Antler said while advancing the slides for his presentation. "Let's take the West Ferris Arena. [If] you want a secondary ice pad? Add it. That's community land. Or, if you're really thinking let's just go one step farther and how can we make this a community again. We can have the one arena, we can build another arena with roughly 800 to 1,000 seats so the Nipissing University Lakers can host there. They can have their own dressing rooms, you can have weight rooms, you can have dance studios for kids. You can have meeting rooms, you can have seniors places."

In revitalizing a community, Antler, a human geographer, said one should start in the centre and work out, never start on the outside and work back to the centre. 

PODCAST: Why are Inch and Lowery opposed to new arena plan?

Coun. Jamie Lowery, who has long been a proponent of placing the new arena in the heart of West Ferris asked Antler how important the centre is as a hub.

"That is the community of West Ferris," Antler responded emphatically. "That's where it began. The problem I see is people forget about it. I talk to people. I've asked people that I know that live on [Airport] Hill., 'If you're going to go to the West Ferris Arena — the new arena [at the Steve Omischl Sports Complex] — how are you going to go?'

"They tell you the same thing: 'We're going to go down Algonquin Avenue, we're going to take the bypass, we're going to go down the highway.' I asked the business community of West Ferris, 'Hey, how does that work for you?' and they said, 'Not very good at all.'

"We have to revitalize West Ferris and that's where it starts from," Antler continued. "We have to make it vibrant again. Everything in West Ferris was centred out of that arena."

Antler said much has been made about the size of the smaller ice surface at West Ferris Arena. The user groups who participated in the now 10-year-old MURF study indicated any newly constructed ice surfaces should be standard playing size to attract tournaments. Antler, who has experience with training hockey players at a provincial level, said the smaller ice surface at WFA is more desirable for training youth players.

"Young kids at that age need a smaller field, they don't need a bigger field. We do it for soccer, we do it for basketball, we do it for football," said Antler. "But, for whatever reason, we seem to want hockey to be massive. If we keep the West Ferris Arena, we've got a skill development area for children, we've got an arena with a roof — and I'm going to tell you, yes, the dressing rooms need to be taken down — because that's always been an issue," stemming from the various expansions.

"All I'm asking you to do is have a sober second thought about the West Ferris Centennial Community Centre. If you're going to have to build a new twin pad arena, you're still going to have to build new dressing rooms, you'll have to increase your brine plant, so it doesn't matter what you do, you're still going to have to do it. You've got a structure sitting there, and I'm assuming that I could find out that restructuring the arena would be a heck of a lot cheaper than building new arenas. I can't say that for a fact but I think it might be."

See also: West Ferris Arena motion shows cracks in the ice at council

Coun. Gary Gardiner asked Antler if his experiences as a rink rat and supporter of the West Ferris Centennial Community Centre leads him to believe it is important for the City of North Bay to "continue to ensure we have modern facilities to engage our youth and provide them with opportunities?"

Antler agreed it is important but added, "If we are speaking about modern facilities, just having twin pads does not make it a modern facility. The modern facility has to be able to take the old, and the new, and tie them together. You want to be able to keep the history," he said in suggesting that his proposal does all of those.

"You believe in rehabilitating the West Ferris building," said Gardiner. "I believe it's worthy of consideration but not as an alternative to a new rink and community centre at Omischl," and would mean forfeiting the $26-million federal grant, delaying the project for at least two years without knowing the true cost to rehabilitate the West Ferris Arena.

Coun. Mark King noted the potential loss of the greenspace behind the current arena was one of the reasons a previous arena committee decided to rule out the space as an option to build. Antler said an arrangement has been talked about to use the adjacent schoolyard to make up for lost greenspace.

Coun. Justine Mallah asked if Antler's proposal could support enough parking in the area and he indicated there would be extra parking near Lee Avenue, at the rear of the property.

Whether Antler's vision can be realized will mean spending more on updated building feasibility studies and cost estimates. Is it worth paying potentially millions of dollars more to find out West Ferris Arena's viability? Bill Antler thinks so. It is clear official direction is needed for the facility but after 12 years of deliberations and stops and starts, it appears this council left holding the bag on the new arena file remains focused on bringing the twin pad arena project to tender — and fruition — and dealing with the other arenas later.