With North Bay City Council’s special arena committee set to meet on October 11, they’ll be considering more than just the initial three locations staff has narrowed their recommendations to. A new possible location has taken to the stage—an unsolicited offer to the city for just a literal handful of dollars—located in the Pinewood Park Drive area across from the former Moe Z On Inn strip club.
“The chair of community services (Coun. Mark King) has made it very public that he wanted to speak to any and everyone and consider all options,” Coun. Daryl Vaillancourt, vice chair of community services said. “I think the community heard him loud and clear and a private proponent has come forward with an unsolicited offer to perhaps take a look at locating new ice pads. This motion is going to send that to the arena committee for it to look at to build its recommendation to bring back to this council for a final decision.”
This offer was reviewed in camera Tuesday night before being voted on by councillors, receiving a new unanimous vote, save for the dissenting votes of councillors Tanya Vrebosch and George Maroosis—the latter referring to the review of this new location as a waste of time.
“I’m not going to support it,” Vrebosch made clear before council went to a vote. “And it’s not that I don’t appreciate the unsolicited offer, it’s just looking at it we know it’s not going to be cost-effective and it’s going to be another added item to the committee on a time sensitive issue and with the budget coming up we need to be narrowing down locations not adding them.”
These other options, which the city detailed in their public information session, include the Sam Jacks Complex (where the current arena is located), the Steve Omischl Sports Complex, and Thomson Park (behind Memorial Gardens).
Near North District School Board Chair David Thompson has also floated the idea of putting the new rink next to West Ferris high school.
Other councillors, like Coun. Mike Anthony, were happy to see another location come to light, especially one that helps keep the arena in Ferris.
Vaillancourt said this new location would be reviewed during the next special committee meeting on October 11 with staff bringing forward numbers for review. He said despite added considerations, he was confident in his priority to have council make a decision in a timely manner.
“I want to make sure the committee stays focused on getting the recommendation out, I can’t stop private people from approaching the city and showing options,” he said. “I’ve heard rumours of other places interested in the ice pads, now they haven’t formally approached the city but if they want to it needs to be much sooner rather than later. We don’t want this decided in November or December, we want this decided within the next month.”
