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Wednesday, February 25, 2009 Orono Weekly Times - 5 Lease stalled by cost to upgrade Total Hockey space Nearly a year after closing the doors on the ill-fated Total Hockey, the Municipality of Clarington has yet to begin recouping its losses. Community Care Durham (CCD) is interested in leasing the 5,000-square-foot space, built for the hockey museum, adjacent to the Garnet B. Rickard Complex in Bowmanville, but they cannot afford to pay for the leasehold improvements, according to Brent Farr, Executive Director of CCD. Through negotiations with CCD, staff have determined that they are willing to pay $13.00 per square foot to rent the entire space vacated by Total Hockey. However, Farr told committee of council on Monday, that "if council has determined the best use of that facility is office space, any tenant would have expectations that it is ready for office use." The municipality has detemined it will cost $600,000 to renovate the vacated Total Hockey space to accommodate CCD's needs. This includes the installation of windows, plumbing, washrooms, a kitchen, offices, a new entrance, etc. In a letter to the municipality last March, CCD's Director of Finance, Barbara Murcott, stated, "Due to the present dysfunctional layout for office space at the Rickard Centre, and based on feasibility drawings and an estimate from a contractor, it was deemed that the cost to improve this space would be far too substantial for CCD to absorb." CCD is currently operating their mental health and home support programs out of the Beech Centre in Bowmanville. CCD's lease in that building expired in October of last year, and the Clarington Older Adult Association has asked council not to renew the lease as it needs the space for its own programming. CCD lease space in Newcastle for its Adult Day Care Program. It is proposing to operate all of its Clarington programs out of the former Total Hockey space, if a suitable arrangement can be made with the municipality. According to Farr, CCD will incur $22,000 in increased annual rental costs to move its operations to the Total Hockey space, based on a rental rate of $13 per square foot. Farr told Councillors that its Board of Directors approved a one-time expenditure of $75,000 for furniture and equipment costs associated with the move. CCD could absorb some additional renovation costs over a ten-year lease period, according to Farr, similar to the arrangement it made with the municipality when it moved into the Beech Centre 10 years ago. With a rental rate of $13 per square foot, municipal staff have estimated it would take 9.22 years to recoup these costs. Councillor Mary Novak indicated that the municipality is currently paying $107,000 annually in debenture costs for the Total Hockey building. Adding an addition $600,000 to that cost just extends the pay-back period for the building, according to Novak. "I don't want this to become another burden on the taxpayer," Novak said at Monday's meeting. At the end of a lengthy discussion on the issue, Council instructed staff to spend up to $10,000 to get a detailed design for the facility, and report back as soon as possible with a written report containing the needs and associated costs of CCD's requirements. "I think the will of Council is to negotiate a settlement with CCD," stated Mayor Jim Abernethy. "Let's bite the bullet and find out how much of taxpayers money we need to spend to make this space leasable." TASK Continued from front page goes on to recommend that members be selected by the Mayor with input from members of Council and the Board of Trade. In the Terms of Reference for the Committee, Crome recommends that the Task Force Chair also be selected by the Mayor. "What makes this committee any different than any other we set up?" Councillor Robinson asked at Monday's meeting. Normally prospective committee and board members fills out application forms and councillors chose who fill the positions. To suggest the head of Council should make these decisions sends a very negative message to members of Council, according to Robinson. Following the Task Force approach allows us to start working on this right away, Crome told council. "It also allows for certain people in the community to be approached, people who are highly influential and appropriate for this Task Force, who might otherwise not respond to a newspaper ad." Standard procedure for filling board and committee vacancies is to advertise for volunteers. Robinson then indicated that Clarington didn't even have serviced lands available to accommodate an institution of this type. That was one of the issues the committee would have to deal with, according to Crome. Council unanimously approved a motion put forward by Councillor Adrian Foster that it appoint the committee, and the committee itself appoint a chair person. 905-623-6050 or 1-800-338-3397 Bethesda House For women with or without children. Are you in an abusive relationship? Call Loyal Printing Ltd. "Everything with the printed word" We now offer full colour digital printing! 5310 Main St., Orono L0B 1M0 · 905-983-5301