Original Coverage & Source Attribution: northumberlandfreepress.substack.com
Miramichi city council was wise to ask what it would cost to keep the city’s aging recreation facilities operating alongside the new Arbec Wellness Centre through next spring.
Now that council has the answer, it should also have all the information it needs to stick with the original plan.
We were encouraged to see that council’s consensus at the Aug. 18 meeting was to follow through with that plan.
The Lord Beaverbrook Arena (LBA) and the Golden Hawk Recreation Centre should be decommissioned when the Arbec Wellness Centre is fully operational later this year, and the city should also proceed with the planned transition away from offering programs at the Miramichi Valley High School indoor pool.
According to figures presented to council, keeping those facilities operating while simultaneously running the new multiplex would cost roughly $720,000 and require the equivalent of a 3.5-cent increase in the residential tax rate.
That’s simply too much to ask of taxpayers.
At a time when residents are already dealing with rising costs for groceries, housing, utilities, and virtually everything else, council should look for ways to keep the tax burden manageable rather than add hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses to preserve facilities well beyond their useful lives.
