While still mulling over the matter in the 2008 budget, town council will be asking the Fort Frances Lions to apply to various funding sources to help pay to install the walkway at the Lions Millennium Park here.
“The door’s not closed as far as the budget’s concerned. It’s still a line item in our budget,” Mayor Roy Avis stressed this morning.
“But because of the nature of the walkway, what it’s going to be used for, there’s still possibilities—there could be Trillium Foundation funding available or Moffat funding they could apply for,” he noted.
“It hasn’t been struck from our budget. It’s still in the process of discussion,” he added.
The issue, which was presented to council at its Jan. 21 budget meeting, was discussed again yesterday during another budget meeting.
Talk once again revolved around whether donating town man hours to build a walkway from the handicap-accessible swing to the washrooms at the park was the best use of Public Work staff when there’s always a long list other jobs for them to do.
“It’s in-kind, it’s labour, it’s wages we would be paying anyway whether they were sweeping the street or building that sidewalk,” Coun. Paul Ryan noted as he weighed in on the issue.
“We’ll have no capital money in it as far as purchasing materials, we’ll be using our own reusable steel forms. It’s not going to impact the budget all that much,” he added.
Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown said the project probably would take a town crew two weeks to complete.
But he once again warned that it’s up to council to decide where the town’s priorities lie, adding that Public Work crews either can spend their time “turning valves, cleaning the storm sewer that everyone uses, building handicap ramps on our own sidewalks” or helping enhance the Lions Park.
He added the town can’t afford to keep helping various groups, especially when doing so seems to result is more requests for help.
Councillors agreed the Lions should apply for funding through either the Moffat Family Fund, which is dispersed through the town each year, as well as submit an application to the Ontario Trillium Foundation with the help of Community Services manager George Bell.
Fort Frances Lions Club members appeared before council at its Jan. 21 budget meeting and once again asked the town to help the Lions with the project, which, in its entirety, would span 1,250 feet from one end of the park to the other.
The estimated cost for the walkway project is $50,000-$60,000 (including materials and labour), but the Lions are asking the Town of Fort Frances to donate in-kind services to help defray the price tag.
The Lions would contribute the granular material and concrete while the town would provide construction expertise and manpower to dig out the walkways, place the granular materials, and put in the concrete—in-kind services which would amount to about $30,000 in value.
The Lions Club first requested the town consider having its workforce build the sidewalk at the park back in late November, 2006.
But after considering the request, the town’s Operations and Facilities executive committee recommended council not donate the labour in 2007 because the town already had a very busy construction year ahead of it and couldn’t spare the manpower.
The next budget meeting will be held Wednesday, Feb. 20 at 4 p.m. downstairs at the Civic Centre.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
