Municipality negotiating sale of Hastings Memorial Arena property
Municipality negotiating sale of Hastings Memorial Arena property
Trent Hills Council had another private session today to discuss negotiations to sell the site of the former Hastings Memorial Arena, located in the centre of Hastings.
All council said in public was that it had discussed the issue and told staff to continue talks.
Jim Peters, Director of Planning and Development, said in an interview, “There'll be some more information coming forward probably in April. There are some steps we have to do in the process.”
The arena ceased operations in 2013 and was demolished in 2021.
High cost for hybrid meetings
Councillors balked at a staff suggestion that the municipality pay $30,000 for an upgraded audio-visual system so that some members could be offsite during meetings.
Council met virtually for about two years during COVID but is back with only in-person meetings now. Occasionally, councillors are away but would like to attend online, so they had asked staff to look at the issue.
A report from Clerk Doug Irwin said the current bylaws do not permit hybrid meetings, only in-person or totally virtual. He said that the current audio-visual system is complicated to operate and if council had hybrid meetings “the number of staff involved in handling the in-person portion, electronic participation portion and livestream would need to be reviewed and possibly increased.”
Councillor Rob Pope said he’d like to be able to attend virtually if he was out of town but didn’t think the option was worth $30,000.
Councillor Gene Brahaney grumbled that any request seemed to result in a suggestion for more spending or more staff.
In the end, council asked staff to take another look at the issue and look for lower cost options.