September 26 Committee of Whole (COW)  provided a tough reminder of expenses—some we do control and others we don’t.

1. One of the bitter realities identified during the 2011 budget discussions was the need to prepare for refunding  golf courses.   At that point we knew that the  golf courses had appealed their assessments (some as long ago as 1998).  MPAC has finally ordered reductions; and to date 3 King golf courses have settled and are requesting refunds from King, York Region and schools.  From these 3 refunds from King totalling $461,000 have been requested.   Negotiations have started to arrange for a payment schedule with 2011 payment being maximum $240,000 which we had built in our 2011 budget.  Our 2012 budget will need to include some portion of the outstanding  $221,000 plus some/all for the remaining 3 courses which are still awaiting their settlements.

2.  We had a wonderful plan for meeting the increasing demand for soccer fields as this activity is increasingly a popular choice for our youth.  (The Plan was entirely consistent with the 2004 Parks and Recreation Master Plan.)  We were going to build a major facility on Township lands at south west corner of Hwy 400 and King Road.  It’s estimated price tag was $900,000; we had a funding strategy using Developments Charges, Parkland Reserve funds , donations from King City Youth Soccer Plan.  Now that the full engineering study has been done on the site it is evident that it will cost nearly 3X the estimate because of topography, drainage etc.  Clearly, we cannot afford this plan.  But, we need to address this gap in our infrastructure.   COW and Staff brainstormed some ideas; Staff will report back after more research.

3.   In the 2004 Parks and Recreation Master Plan there was also identification for the need of skateboard facilities. Accordingly in 2011 budget we provided funds to get started on a skateboard park in King City at the Community Centre.  As we do not have funding strategy  for the total estimated $610,000 in place we agreed to defer the project for the 2012 budget and to also reassess specific location with hopes of finding a lower cost one.

No one likes the content of these reports.  But, as a Councillor I appreciated getting the facts and the recommended prudent actions.