A bigger than expected price tag and differing interpretations of a deceased woman’s bequest to the Town of Gibsons will mean further delays in replacing a hot tub at the Gibsons and District Aquatic Centre.
The Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) corporate and administrative services committee was presented with three options at its June 23 meeting: a nine-person tub at a cost of $361,347, a 14-person tub for $530,414, or a nine-person tub installed in a new addition at $700,361.
SCRD staff recommended the first option which, with the addition of “professional services” and a geotechnical study, would work out to just over $415,000 before taxes.
The SCRD’s original budget for the project was $300,000. The SCRD also asked the Town of Gibsons to release around $192,000 held in trust from the estate of Muriel Haynes to help fund the project, but the Town has turned them down.
SCRD chair Garry Nohr said he felt the Town needed to offer detailed reasons for not releasing the money.
“I don’t think we got an adequate answer from Gibsons for the ‘no,’” he said.
Lorne Lewis, the director for Elphinstone, knew Haynes and told the committee that she had a pretty well defined idea of how the money was to be used.
“Her vision of the [bequest] was that the pool be expanded. She was really, really clear that this would fund an addition to the building. Also, Muriel was a physiotherapist. She felt that having the pool used as, partially, a healing and physiotherapy centre was a goal she would like to see funded.”
West Howe Sound’s Ian Winn told his fellow directors that he thought replacing the hot tub would fit that goal.
“From what we heard at the community meetings, the people who were most concerned about the loss of that hot tub facility were the ones who use it for exactly that – health and wellness and therapeutic reasons – so I struggle and I grapple with the idea that it wouldn’t be a worthy use of that bequeath.”
Gibsons director Silas White said when Gibsons council discussed the issue at a recent in-camera session, it struggled with how best to interpret the Haynes bequest, but decided that a hot tub replacement just wasn’t suitable.
“The [bequest] was left to the Town of Gibsons,” White said. “What director Lewis has just expressed was the decision making and consideration process we had to go over, and it wasn’t easy,” White said. “There was extensive discussion about honouring what this money was left for, and if replacing a hot tub would do that, and all the considerations that are being reviewed here by this board were considered by the authority over this fund.”
White added that some in the community still seem to believe the SCRD is determined to shut down the Gibsons and District Aquatic Centre.
The increase in the expected cost of the project and its possible impact on work at other recreation facilities were also concerns raised by directors. Without the money from the Haynes estate, the bill would have to be paid entirely from a $500,000 capital renewal fund.
Mark Lebbell, the director for Roberts Creek, said public feedback on the project was dominated by “a demographic here that’s very able to advocate,” but the board has to consider the wider implications.
“It’s all about what’s going to happen with our recreation facilities down the road as a result of putting this big chunk [of money] into this piece. How it’s going to play out for different generations is relevant.”
In the end, directors voted to have SCRD staff hold new public consultations this month (July) and come back to the July corporate and administrative services meeting with “a historical overview of the entire hot tub replacement project, the current proposed project options and costs, and an updated 10-year capital plan for recreation facilities showing the impact on timing of other proposed projects if this hot tub replacement project were to proceed.”
