DAN CEARNS, The Standard
SCUGOG: Concerns about a proposed design have led Scugog Township to the decisions on the Port Perry picnic shelter project, to be deferred to September.
At a meeting, on Monday, June 20th, Scugog saw a report from Kevin Arsenault, the Township’s Manager of Capital Projects which recommended the contract for the project be awarded to Landco Group Inc., in the amount of $240,824.
According to the report, the project includes the design and construction of a new picnic shelter, “”removal and disposal of the existing picnic shelter and concrete pad,” and installation “ of a bicycle rack and bicycle repair station.”
However, Ward 1 Councillor Ian McDougall felt the design, councillors saw in the report, didn’t match the historic aesthetic of structures in nearby Palmer Park.
“When we proposed a replacement of the picnic shelter, perhaps it’s my mistake, but I kind of thought we would get something [which] would be more in keeping with the upscaled nature of Palmer Park,” he said.
Councillor McDougall originally made a motion to defer the report to the July 19th council meeting. But, after hearing from Township staff members, this would not offer them enough time to get the required information, the Ward 1 Councillor withdrew his motion and instead proposed deferring it to the September 26th meeting. The motion also included having the design “concept revisited, to be more complimentary to the existing rotary park gazebo and the elevated priority Palmer Park has as a whole to the community.”
In June 2021, Lindsey Park, Durham’s MPP at the time, announced the Township would be receiving a joint Federal-Provincial grant of $100,000 to replace the picnic shelter. Ward 5 Councillor Lance Brown questioned if the deferral will still keep the Township on track to meet the grant’s required deadline of completing the project by December 2023.
“Timing wise, I believe, if we defer this decision right now, construction probably won’t start until next spring, but it would meet the deadline,” Carol Coleman, Scugog’s Director of Public Works and Infrastructure Services, responded.
Ward 2 Councillor Janna Guido seconded the deferral motion.
“Opportunities don’t come very often to build a structure or add something to what we’ve often referred to as one of our jewels of our municipality, and that is our waterfront. I fully support Councillor McDougall’s request or direction for us to relook at what we are considering placing on the waterfront. It’s not a temporary structure, it will be a structure [which] will hopefully last as long as the current one, [which] will last for a lifetime,” Councillor Guido stated.
The Township estimates the current picnic shelter was built sometime in 1985.