Issue 25 2019 June 19 NG Times

Page 1

Facebook/NGTimes

@ng_times Reaching by direct mail 9,000 homes and businesses in North Grenville and Merrickville/Wolford

The Voice of North Grenville

Vol 7, NO. 25

June 19, 2019

d e d n e t x E ale S Sale ends June 30, 2019 *see in store for details

Kemptville Mall

613.258.2700

Expires May 31/19

Kemptville Eye Exam Clinic BOOK YOUR EYE EXAM NOW!

Community divided over rink at Southgate Church Open 5 days a week

Rl e . SIMPLE.

Tuesday - Saturday 11:30 a.m. - 9 p.m.

by Hilary Thomson

Industry Leader in Diesel Performance Truck and Equipment Maintenance & Repair

The council meeting of Tuesday June 11 was extremely well attended as council heard a delegation from the North Grenville Outdoor Rink Committee asking the municipality to apply for an Ontario Trillium Fund (OTF) grant to build a rink at the Southgate Church. The idea for an outdoor rink first came up in 2015 when members of the Southgate congregation approached council with the idea of building a SENS RINK on their property. The Ottawa Senators Foundation has committed to helping fund 20 outdoor rinks in Ottawa, Gatineau and surrounding areas. In order to be eligible for Sens Foundation support, the previous council agreed to partner with Southgate Church and lease the land earmarked for the rink to the municipality for $1. That way the rink would technically be on municipal land. “It was determined by

the 2016 Municipality of North Grenville that the only available land in the municipality for a SENS RINK was land owned by the Southgate Church, and that the church and the municipality would partner to work with the Ottawa Senators Foundation to construct a rink that would be publicly accessible to all residents within the Municipality of North Grenville,” wrote Sens Foundation CEO Danielle Robertson in an email to the North Grenville Times. In 2016, former mayor David Gordon confirmed that he was a member of Southgate Church. While fundraising and plans for the SENS RINK were materializing, the opportunity arose to have the Canada 150 Rink from Parliament Hill in North Grenville. Southgate Church put forward an application to have it relocated to their property on French Settlement Road. Council passed a resolution in August 2018 for the mu-

nicipality to assume responsibility for all donations and expenses as well as issuing charitable receipts for everything related to the Canada 150 rink. According to North Grenville Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture, Mark Guy, this was because Southgate Church did not want to have to wait for confirmation from the CRA that they were able to issue charitable receipts themselves for the project. At the time, the idea of the Canada 150 Rink being placed at Southgate Church was met with some opposition from the local community. Although the church said everyone would be welcome to use the rink, many felt that a portion of the population would feel uncomfortable using a rink on the property of the church, especially because of its Wesleyan faith which considers homosexuality as contrary to the will of God. Others found it difficult to support a community rink

which was so far on the outskirts of town. When the Canada 150 Rink went to Gananoque, the Southgate community did not give up hope. In September 2018, Ben Last, the pastor at Southgate Church said they were continuing to partner with the Sens Foundation to push the rink forward. Since then, the church has secured $35,000 in donations from a fundraising gala, $50,000 from the Sens Foundation and $50,000 in corporate funds. On June 11, 2019, Ben and Randy Hopkins of Southgate came before council asking them to apply for a $150,000 OTF grant to contribute to building the rink. Their presentation stated that should they secure the funding, it would bring them up to $285,000 and a private donor was willing to match these funds giving them a total budget of $570,000 to build the rink. This would continued on page 2

Thinking about air conditioning? Ask about our flexible and budgetfriendly financing options.

613.258.7173

SauveHeating.ca

Kemptville

OPTOMETRIC

Centre

50%

Purchase one complete pair and get the 2nd complete pair at 50% off

“Call to book your eye exams today”

613.215.0492 cornerstone mall

kemptvilleoptometric.ca

Get ready for 613.258.6000

2540 cnty rd. 43, Kemptville On www.kbchome.ca 4.4 cu. ft. washer....WTW4855HW

SUMMER with Stihl's

LINEUP!


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.