Skatepark agreement in doubt

Skatepark agreement in doubt

Top Stories

By: Sandra Bolan

Bradford West Gwillimbury’s new skateboard park project is in jeopardy.

Ward 1 Councillor Jeanny Salmon told council the project’s major donor indicated to her he is no longer contributing up to $125,000.

“This is a huge shortfall. Where is the rest coming from?” Ms Salmon said.

“We’re accountable to the rate payer and where is the $100,000 coming from?

“I would love for our youth to have stuff here (but) how deep are the pockets of the community?”

The Topic attempted to contact the donor, Mod Aire Homes president Michael Orsi, but he did not return phone calls.

Instead, The Topic received a letter from a Mod Aire employee.

“Confidentiality of the anonymity of a donor has been breached, accompanied with negative distortions in a public forum,” the letter read.

When the idea of a new skateboard park was brought forward in early fall of 2006, the YNOT Bradford West Gwillimbury Youth Council, Mr. Orsi and Bradford West Gwillimbury council entered into an agreement that stated the municipality would pony-up half of the cost of the park and Mr. Orsi would donate up to $125,000 cash to the project, provided local youths did some of their own money raising.

The deal was structured so the more the youths raised, the less Mr. Orsi would donate, but no matter what, the final total from the two would be $125,000.

To date, YNOT has raised $10,000.

However, as a condition of the agreement, Mr. Orsi was to remain anonymous.

Unaware of this condition, The Topic published the story, Planning for new skatepark begins, in the Oct. 9 issue.

The story identified Mr. Orsi as the donor after his name was raised in an interview with YNOT president Hart Murdoch.

Another condition of the agreement was that YNOT continued raising money for the park beyond the $10,000, which was all raised in 2006.

However, that hasn’t happened.

“At the time, we were told we didn’t have to fundraise anymore,” Mr. Murdoch said, noting the group will begin raising money again.

Earlier this month, council gave Land Inc. the go-ahead to complete the first three phases of the park’s design process — pre-design, concept design and design development — at a cost of $17,100, plus disbursements.

A budget of $325,000 was also approved with council, Mr. Orsi and YNOT providing $250,000 in cash. The remaining $75,000 would be in the form of labour and materials.

Mr. Murdoch has requested a meeting with council to discuss the fate of the skateboard park. No date has been set.

“Right now, we feel a little bit of distance with council,” Mr. Murdoch said. “I feel our relationship with town council isn’t what it should be.”

All content contained in this or any other yorkregion.com website including but not limited to textual, audio, video and any graphics are copyright 2000-2008 Metroland Media Group Ltd. and can not be used in any part without expressed written permission, with the exception of content in the yorkregion.com Pen & Pixel section, which requires the written consent of the authors.