Promise broken: Decontamination costs put Mechanicsville rink on ice
Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: September 1, 2015 | Last Updated: September 1, 2015 8:58 PM EDT
A Sens RINK planned for Laroche Park in Mechanicsville a year ago has been scrapped by the city, which will instead build the next Sens RINK in Overbrook.
“Promise made. Promise broken,” Blair Simser, president of the Mechanicsville Community Association, said Tuesday. “I have emails from the city saying they were going to start work in July. It should have been going in. Suddenly it’s not.”
Contaminated soil and unexpected engineering costs are to blame for the city’s decision, said Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper.
“A couple of weeks ago I had to inform the community that that is not proceeding and there is no definite timetable for putting that rink in the park,” Leiper said.
The Laroche Park rink was announced in August 2014, one of 20 Sens RINKs (Recreation Investment in Neighbourhoods for Kids) targeting disadvantaged communities in and around Ottawa. Sens RINKS have already been built in Bayshore Park and Jules Morin Park in Lowertown. They are funded by the Ottawa Senators Foundation and are meant to promote year-round physical activity, with skating in the winter and basketball or skateboarding in summer.
The city knew the soil at Laroche Park was contaminated and would have to be cleaned up, Leiper said, but soil tests done earlier this summer showed it to be dirtier than previously thought. In addition, engineers determined the soil was susceptible to frost heave in winter, meaning that as much as a metre of gravel would have had to be laid down under the concrete rink pad.
“The testing showed the city that they were going to have to spend a lot more than they thought they were going to have to to prepare this site,” Leiper said.
The city had budgeted between $40,000 and $75,000 for site preparation, but after soil testing that cost ballooned to more than $150,000, Leiper said. Another $100,000 would be needed for maintenance access and upgrades to the water supply to the park.
“These were all costs that weren’t anticipated when they made the announcement last summer, costs for which there is no budget,” he said. “I think the city is still committed with the Sens Foundation to get one built, but the timing is very uncertain.”
The silver lining, Leiper said, is that in a couple of years the park will be part of a major sewer reconstruction project that would allow the decontamination to be done. A planned reconstruction of the park will allow the city to start from scratch.
“But the question remains: How are we going to pay for it?” Leiper said. Much of the money is expected to come from development charges for yet-to-be-built highrises in Bayview, adding to the uncertainty, he said.
None of it sits well with Simser, who said the rink is needed in his community, a disadvantaged neighbourhood east of trendy Hintonburg near the O-Train tracks.
“We have more rooming houses and city housing than pretty much anywhere. This would be a fantastic place to put it,” Simser said. “It would be such a great addition and it would make such a difference here.”
He sees the decision to build the next Sens RINK in Overbrook as political meddling and the city playing favourites.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he said.
But Leiper said he believes the city is still committed to a rink in Laroche Park.
“I don’t want to begrudge them building it in Overbrook. It’s a community that needs it as well. There are a lot of communities around the city that are going to benefit from the Sens Foundation’s generosity, but I absolutely share (Mechanicsville’s) disappointment that they were promised a rink and now it’s been delayed.
“I’m realistic. The money’s not in the budget. But I think the least we can do for the Mechanicsville community is give them a date.”
bcrawford@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/getBAC
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...s-rink-promise
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