An early morning meeting today to discuss the option of using property at West Ferris High School to build a new city arena has been postponed.
Representatives of the Near North District School and members of city council were to meet to begin the conversation about partnering to make the best use of an existing facility.
The city is looking at site options to replace the aging West Ferris arena which includes the Steve Omischl Sports Complex in West Ferris and land behind Memorial Gardens.
"Councillor King texted me saying the meeting has been cancelled because I guess they're getting other proposals. We reconvene November 1st. All we're going to do is say here's West Ferris Secondary as a potential site and here's the land that's available," said David Thompson, Chair of the Near North District School Board.
Thompson says with any proposal, there are always pros and cons from the public.
"There's 30 acres there and if you look at the site plan to the left, you can put four ice pads there. Once you explain to them how big the piece of property is and the opportunities, the possibilities there, people get it. But there's still a lot of questions to be asked and to be answered, so it's just a starting point for us."
Thompson says the NNDSB doesn't have a joint-use agreement in place with the city.
"Other school boards do but there's other possibilities and other partnerships. The Ministry of Education is really mandating board of education school boards to reach out to their municipal partners and that's what we're doing and what we've been trying to do for two years now. And we're hearing from the provincial government they're trying to get through to Municipal Affairs that municipalities do the same."
During its meeting, the board passed a motion to agree to open up discussions and other partnerships with the City of North Bay.