THE LIGHTS AT MA-TE-WAY: JP2G ENGINEERING STUDY
SEGMENT 1:
The Committee of the Whole will look at a proposal by engineering and planning consultants JP2G to provide a detailed site investigation and prepare a report with recommendations and cost estimates to replace existing lighting at the Ma-Te-Way complex, and delay any work until 2025.
ACTING-DIRECTOR ECKFORD
Council directed staff in a September meeting to investigate the underground power lines and boxes that provided power for lighting for three ball fields, Tye, Seeley, and Rusheleau. Local electricians attended Ma-Te-Way as part of this inspection, and tested the lines, concluding that the majority of those lines were in need of repair or replacement.
The department recommends having JP2G totally re-design how electricity and lighting can be better provided, efficiently and cost-effectively, for users of the various facilities contained within the park.
One of the local electricians provided some possible solutions and provided estimates for those solutions, ranging from $121,000 to $171,000 before HST. In light of these figures, it was felt that it would be a reasonable move to hire JP2G to do the proposed investigation leading to a redesIgn for a shade under $4000, and that this would be a good first step.
That JP2G project would be undertaken four weeks upon the awarding of the contract, but would conclude too late in the season for any action to be taken on its recommendations this year. That pushes any actual work into the 2025 season. That would mean that “some field usage” would be impacted in the spring. A facility usage report showed that field usage from May 1, 2024 to September 30, 2024 saw only 87.5 hours of usage after 8 PM. The department would recommend a “phased-in” approach to any work, with work being done on Tye first, followed by Rusheleau, followed by Seeley, and then the toboggan hill last. If this were to be the case, a solar-based lighting system would need to be implemented to provide light for the toboggan hill until spring 2025.
Councillor Legris: Will the fields be able to remain in operation during non-lighted hours, or would fields be impacted due to construction work, and therefore not be available for use?
Acting-Director Eckford: It’s his understanding that fields would remain in operation, but that there would be periods where they would not be accessible for a day, or perhaps a week, due to the planned work.
Councillor McDonald: Indicates that he’s been approached by community members who use the dog park in darkness in the early evening or late-afternoon with clocks turning back soon. If interim lighting can be arranged for the toboggan hill, can similar lighting be implemented at the dog park?
Acting-Director Eckford: His recommendation would be to apply a similar, solar-based system in the dog park as well, negating the need to do any trenching to get lines out there to provide such lighting otherwise.
Councillor Cybulski: Wanted to know the fee/rate at which the ball diamonds are rented out to users.
Acting-Director Eckford: Didn’t have that information off-hand, but could get it to the councillor.
Councillor Cybulski: Requests a “ball-park” figure.
Acting-Director Eckford: Believes it to be in the $100/hour range. He states he could be wrong on that. He defers the question to the treasurer.
Councillor Cybulski: Doesn’t feel there’s enough information to make a decision at his time. Wants to know the scope of the engineering. Will they assess the type of lights in each fixture, the poles that they hang from, and all the wires that feed power to this other lighting infrastructure? He’d prefer to have more information so as to compare a complete fix to a partial fix to a minor fix cost-wise.
Acting-Director Eckford: The scope of the engineering wold be limited to underground wires, power boxes, and enclosures, “that kind of thing.” Poles and lights themselves would be left “as is,” the engineering would just concern itself with providing the electricity to those poles.
Councillor Cybulski: Do we know what power infrastructure exists underground, its technology, its energy efficiency, the amount of power that would be needed to “put in the ground,” things that may reduce the cost going forward relative to how much would have to be spent to operate the system in the future? Do we know what the package may fully entail? Is this simply the best step for today? Or will it lead to another unidentified problem tomorrow?
Acting CAO Thompson: We have to start somewhere. The existing lights, to her understanding, are not that old. As well, the engineering package could reveal alternate routes for power delivery. What we do know now, for certain, is that all the underground wiring failed. The engineering represents the most cost-effective way to get us on the path towards getting this project done. The engineering would provide council with recommended next steps, and would also reveal additional information needed to make sound and practical decisions in the future. Local electrical companies offering solutions is great, but she’d feel more comfortable having an engineering firm assess the situation.
Councillor Cybulski: He indicates he’s aware of the importance of the engineering study, but is simply concerned with its scope, or mandate. In other words, what is it that we’re trying to do?
Treasurer Jackson: Minor baseball with lights has a fee of $34/game. Adult baseball with lights is $45/game.
Councillor Cybulski: The town would need 3,800 games to be played in order to break-even using the one estimate that came in at $171,000.
Acting-Director Eckford: it’s ironic that all this got its start with an attempt to get power out to the dog park, and sufficient power out to Rusheleau Field.
COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS
So, in my view, it would be completely pointless to have recreation facilities partially intended for nighttime use and not be able to provide the basic necessity, that being lights, for that use. However, I can understand completely Councillor Cybulski’s concerns.
Council had just spent the previous hour receiving reports that included the discovery of un-mapped and unrecorded infrastructure costing the community hundreds of thousands of dollars. So to have plenty of questions would appear, at least to me, to be more than reasonable. It’s completely understandable that the councillor may want to know exactly what the town could find itself getting into with this, or really any project down the road.
Acting-CAO Thompson mitigated some of the concern by stating that the existing lights and poles are relatively new, and this was supported by Acting-Director Eckford when he assured that the engineering scope would be confined to delivery of power to those poles and fixtures.
Acting CAO Thompson exercises caution of her own by saying that she’d prefer to get the advice of engineers as a first step, notwithstanding the estimates and solutions floated by local electricians. That, to me, sounds like responsible due-diligence, and I agree with her statement that “we have to start somewhere.” So no better place to start than at the beginning, before shovels start to flash. An engineering report may reveal alternate routes and efficiencies, and generally contribute to council having to pay less money, as opposed to more and unintended money, over the course of the project and the lifespan of the lighting systems.
Councillor Legris’ question revealed that some field usage will be impacted, no matter what. That’ll cause some logistic challenges for users and council both, but again, sometimes you have to feel a bit of pain before you feel good again.
Sounds to me like Councillor McDonald may have successfully advocated for lights at the dog park. Sounds like the park was on the path to getting lights anyways, as per Acting-Director Eckford, who said this whole thing got its start by an intention to provide power to that very location. Plus, again, a dog park in complete darkness by 4 PM does nobody any good. I’ve driven by the place relatively often, and it seems to be well in use every time I do. Plus, again, it makes little sense to build a facility and then not have the ability to use it. Solar, to me, sounds like an interim, or perhaps even permanent, responsible solution moving forward to this somewhat more remote location within the complex.
Based on information provided by Treasurer Jackson, Councillor Cybulski was able to calculate the number of games that would need to be played, based upon the highest local estimate, for the town to break-even if it pursued that estimate. Mr. Cybulski is impressive, hammering home data into his calculator, all the while continuing with his comments. He arrived at a figure of 3,800 games being played in order to break even with that higher level estimate. I can’t personally verify that figure, as I don’t have the breakdown of the number of minor baseball games being played as compared to the number of adult games. I also don’t know how many games each group plays in a year so a timeline is unavailable to me. And I don’t want to estimate with other peoples’ money.
Two things are true and can co-exist at the same time. One, sometimes, often-times, a community will take a loss on the provision of parks and recreation. Two, that being said, there’s absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t explore every avenue to keep costs down while providing a legitimate quality of service.
So, happily for me anyway, everyone is right.
SEGMENT 2
COMMENTARY
I agree with Councillor Dick that the ball-fields must be lit. I further agree that recreation is a net-loss line item on rhw negative side of most municipal balance sheets. I do, however, have difficulty getting behind the statement “it doesn’t matter what it costs, it’s gotta be done.” That kind of thinking, followed by action, can lead to any number of negative critical financial issues, but perhaps the councillor was engaging in a little bit of hyperbole. But his general argument is legitimate.
Again, this sentiment can entirely co-exist with the desire of Councillor Cybulski to ensure financial due-diligence on the part of the town. It’s not a zero-sum thing. Both can be legitimate, and both can exist at the same time. In fact, ideally, you can’t have one without the other. Or at least you shouldn’t.
We all remember that famous line from the motion picture Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.” Except in our case it might be more of a “If we build it, they won’t come, because they can’t see” situation. So the solution may well be “If we light it, they will stay, and more will come.”
Councillors Dick and Legris make good points about the economic impact of people using the diamonds, especially with tournament play. I can remember my playing days at tournaments, in town and out-of town (not Renfrew) and the amount of money I would spend just on my own, including money not spent at the Beer Store. Councillor Dick mentions his own team of ten individuals pumping $1800 into local businesses in one weekend, perhaps even in a single day, and his team was locally-based. Out-of-town participants often need lodging, restaurants, gas stations, convenience stores, stores of various kinds, big-box and others. And yes, probably the Beer Store and LCBO too. On average they spend much more on the experience. That’s a significant amount of cash floating about the community. Councillor Dick cited a ten-team tournament. Imagine a twenty team affair. As nobody says, “that’s a lot of pizza.”
I believe Councillor Dick is correct in his assertion that Council will move ahead on these lights. And I believe Councillor Cybulski to be equally correct in requiring due financial diligence be exercised in that endeavour.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 