BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following from is from Barrie resident Barb McVeigh regarding an artificial turf field being built along the city's south shore for youth sports and local Sea Cadets.
Thank you Councillors Amy Courser and Jim Harris.
I appreciate both of you voting against the waterfront multi-use field at the May 15 Barrie city council meeting.
You both recognized there were a significant number of Barrie residents that had not been adequately informed of this development and a lot of concerns needed to be heard and addressed.
You were aware Barrie residents had all received multiple garbage collection change notifications in a variety of forms such as mail, newsletter, digital notifications and posters on city-owned buildings and billboards, phone, radio, TV, water and tax bill inserts, and email. We were similarly notified regarding the new waterfront parking passes.
However, Barrie residents had received no notifications to advise city councillors were even considering installing a multi-use field that would significantly change our waterfront, and many describe as its destruction.
Multiple Barrie sports teams, however, had been in private consultation about this very development with city councillors for almost a full year, without most of the city being aware of it.
Council would have known there would be strong opposition and questions concerning the waterfront location, particularly after the opposition to a proposed baseball sports field by the waterfront, not very long ago.
There are a number of councillors that have served multiple terms and newer councillors were already established residents in the city, all very familiar with current and past city council agendas that decided to run for a city council position. The baseball stadium idea was a hot button; absolutely no councillor can deny not knowing about.
Councillors would know it would have been much easier to ever so quietly vote and pass this through without letting residents know about it, in order to avoid any resistance. Council was almost successful, save for a few days before the vote when some residents heard rumours about it, mobilized and sprang into action
Clearly there were others calling for a review of the matter and suggesting that better alternatives might be available, but other councillors chose not to review the matter.
It is assumed city staff would have shared a 2019 City of Barrie report called 'Outdoor Recreation Facility Study.' Its completed study outlines all the fields within the city, usage rate, current needs, projected/future needs, and where next fields should be built.
Nowhere in this report does it recommend the waterfront.
Also, from conversations I have had with council, I have learned that some are actually unfamiliar with how many fields currently exist.
Since the May 15 meeting, local news media, letters to the editor, various Facebook groups and other digital sites have all highlighted the need for further review. I have not read or heard one single objection to building sports fields if they are needed.
However, I am aware of thousands of residents objecting to its planned location. They do not want a field on the waterfront.
Residents are angry they were not notified in any way about the proposal and feel it was a deliberate decision to keep them in the dark. They are even angrier that eight councillors and the mayor voted to approve the field when they had an opportunity to defer until objections could be heard and addressed.
Residents are now distrustful of council and feel there is a hidden agenda, with a shady plan to redevelop the current site of the Sea Cadets at the bottom of Bayfield Street. Mayor Nuttall has, however, assured me in a telephone discussion there is no plan to redevelop that land.
We thank you again, Councillors Courser and Harris, for your wisdom. We recognize it is sometimes difficult to do something different than others, and we thank you for trying.
We understand a motion can be made to reopen and then pause or cancel the vote of May 15, and a simple majority can make it happen.
We hope you are able to convince other councillors they need to do the right thing and reconsider this decision. They have let a lot of people down and look bad … really bad.
When more information has come to light, why on earth wouldn't other councillors agree to reopen the motion of May 15? Now is a great opportunity for city council to do just that.
Residents of Barrie are watching those elected representatives that let us down, and residents of Barrie will not forget who they are at election time.
Barb McVeigh
Barrie
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