Easter Sunday 2016 – A walk on the beach at St. Martins is a great way to enjoy the fresh air. Too frequently we ignore the opportunities we have to enjoy our great outdoors. Rothesay has a comprehensive Recreation Master Plan. It encourages passive recreation activities like hiking, walking and cross country skiing. These are good healthy activities that have a low environmental impact and cost taxpayers little or nothing to establish and maintain. For an explanation of Passive versus Active recreation follow this link.
In the coming days oneRothesay.com will examine the record of the current Rothesay Council to see how closely they have followed Rothesay’s Recreation Master Plan.
The Commons Rink closed 24 times this season. After spending $1.5 million to fight Mother Nature in the “freeze thaw battle”, Rothesay lost. Skating oval closed at the end of February.
We’ll look at their record on recreation including the cost implications of some of the current Councillor’s pet projects like the absurdly expensive Field House project(Cancelled); the New Rothesay Arena(Dead in the water with No funding from Province and no borrowing authority given to the Town by the Municipal Borrowing Board); and my favourite, the lavish Rothesay Common Rink($1.496m) (of a $2.4m “Upgrade project” paid for entirely by Rothesay Taxpayers. That is with no Federal or Provincial dollars). These active recreation projects weigh heavily on taxpayers and represent a stark contrast to the passive recreation model pictured above.
⬅︎ We’ve been observing operations and will show how taxpayers are subsidizing skaters using the Rothesay Common Rink to the tune of more than $55 per person per visit. Rothesay taxpayers are on the hook for more than $254,000 annually for Operations and debt repayment. All this for what is very a short season(less than 15% of the year).
We’ll also look at the platforms of 1st time Rothesay Council Candidates to see if their positions on recreation are realistic and if they are costed.
Stay tuned!