A former Sundridge councillor says a claim by "The Happy Gang" seniors club that it has been "kicked to the curb" by the local council has been greatly exaggerated by the club's executive.
Steve Hicks, who recently resigned as a Sundridge councillor, says the Village bent over backward to help the club.
See:Happy Gang Seniors feeling sad after being 'Kicked to the Curb" by Sundridge council
The club says it's being thrown out of the Community Centre after 40 years there, to make way for a provincially mandated Emergency Operations Centre. (EOC)
Hicks calls it a "hub" that the emergency committee works out of as headquarters should an emergency occur and there is "a laundry list" of requirements that need to be met that requires space. It also needs to be in the current municipal building, he says.
"Unfortunately, because that building is quite dated, there's not an abundance of space in there. So the only space we had left was the room for the Happy Gang."
Sundridge was told 10 years ago to establish the hub, "and Sundridge never bothered to meet that mandate" explains Hicks.
The Happy Gang wants the Emergency Centre located at the local arena, but Hicks says that's not possible.
"The arena is the best place to shelter our citizens. For the sake of operational security, you don't have your EOC in the same place you are housing your people. While the arena is a good alternative, we might need to filter or feed people. But it doesn't have the technological infrastructure that is needed to function as an EOC. There would be a significant financial output to do it."
Hicks says Council looked at it for a long time, but it turns out to be the lesser challenge.
"The real problem is the arena is governed by Sundridge, Strong and Joly. The shared service agreement is a real mess."
For Sundridge to use the arena for the EOC it needs to get agreement from the other two townships first.
"This particular term of Strong council is very, very difficult to work with. It's been very difficult to get anything done with Strong council, even easy stuff is difficult to get done."
An offer was even made for Sundridge to share an EOC with Strong in their municipal office, but discussions fell short.
"Because Strong is exceedingly difficult to work with," he exclaims in a frustrated tone.
Hicks says with something as important as the EOC, putting it in the community centre guarantees if something happens, We're prepared and ready to support the residents of our community."
He says that many suggestions for other sites have been made to the Happy Gang, but were rejected.
"In the end, the leadership team of the Happy Gand has really doubled down on 'We've always been there and we have too many supplies and things" to just move to any other building."
Hicks argues that if there are 150 members in multiple municipalities, he finds it "inconceivable" with the number of churches in Sundridge alone, that they can't find a room that would work for them. It just feels like they don't want to move. They don't want to make the effort."
And he also rejects the club's claim of lack of transparency with the EOC committee.
"We have been talking to them about this for multiple years. They've had multiple meeting with our mayor Lyle Hall and our clerk and the problem is they are confusing lack of transparency with not hearing the answer and getting the outcome they want."
Hicks says he's talked with regular members of the Gang and has been told "They're not happy with the state of leadership and one lady said she never wanted to meet in the basement of that building anyway."
Meanwhile, the June eviction date remains firm.
