On the Council agenda there is report recommending next steps for negotiating the naming rights for the building exterior and various large interior elements of the Township Wide Recreation Centre. As reviewed to date there are proposals valued at $2.7 million. I am pleased that professional valuators were involved with this process. As reviewed in the report these funds will be placed in reserve to support future asset replacement and improvements to TWRC, Its wonderful that several businesses and entities which are very much part of our community already have stepped forward. As always you can submits comments at clerks@king.ca or you can make a deputation.
If you haven’t checked the status of this important project recently now would be a good time to do so. Pool construction is 57% complete and rink construction is 75% complete; see here for the latest video.
Hi Debbie,
I’m going to share something that is perhaps outside of today’s box when it comes to naming large public and private facilities. There was a day when the name of a community building reflected the community and in a sense belonged to everyone in the community. Names were not based on large monetary donations or corporate and commercial interests. A prime example for me is Toronto’s first stadium with a unique retractable roof built in the 1970’s. If I remember correctly the public were invited to submit names, and either a committee or some kind of voting process was used to select the name given. And I remember with enthusiasm when this remarkable stadium was named “The Skydome” – what a great name that belonged to Toronto and the people of Toronto. Even when corporate interests stepped in and the name was officially changed to the Rogers Centre, I continue to call it the Skydome.
I very much hope that in King we have a public process that results in a name that relates to King Township and not to a donor whether it be corporate or private. Yes, lets’ recognize with gratitude the generous donations received, but not through the name of the new township community recreation facility. Let’s come up with a name that belongs to the King Township community and the people of King.
Thank you for consideration of this viewpoint. I’m confident there are many others who share this viewpoint. JBC
Hi Bruce, I like very much the concept you have described. From my reading of the report I don’t think there was consideration of asking would be donors to in essence sponsor a process for having the community select a name. I have not spent any time researching examples but i know that the proposed process is not new; I think of Massey Hall which just celebrated its 100th anniversary. The other aspect of naming buildings also struck me: how many buildings, rooms in art galleries have had name changes because of “new” insight into the backgrounds of the families. It is definitely a problem for which the outcome is guaranteed not to please everyone.