We can consider this a friendly, “heads-up” to our City Council…
Monday night, council will be presented with a report from administration regarding the painting of the crosswalk at Bay & Algoma to support the 10th Anniversary of Thunder Pride next year. Back in August, Thunder Pride representatives went to council to let them know about the plans for the anniversary and the crosswalk was brought up as a way for the city to show support. Thunder Pride has come a long way with a lot of hard work and commitment from many, and the crosswalk would be a fantastic way for our city to continue to show support for the work they have done over the past 10 years. Seems like a slam dunk….doesn’t it?
The price tag in the report for the fancy “thermoplastic paint” that lasts up to 5 years is $35,000.00. Thunder Pride is going to council to ask for an investment of $10,000.00 from the city on Monday night. Here’s the catch.
Why does Thunder Pride have to come up with the rest? It’s $35,000.00 – in a city budget of over $200 million. Thunder Pride should have to put in nothing.
Here’s why.
How many times in the last 10 months, has this council given out money to organizations and projects, outside of the city budget? How many times have we heard that the ‘new council’ would be a lot tighter with funds and how they want to progress our city? With a little research, we could probably come up with tens of thousands of dollars that we’ve thrown out there for groups and causes that this council felt was important. For example, the $50,000 we gave to a ski team of 13 members so that, as one Councillor put it “the city logo could be bigger on their shirts”. So on Monday night, another organization is coming forward with an idea to enhance our city, support an organization that has done great things for the community – and – they’re willing to invest.
Thunder Pride, change your ask from $10,000.00 to the entire $35,000.00 cost to have the crosswalks painted by the city. It’s really simple. As Councillors on our morning program have said MANY times, justifying small expenses for a variety of projects outside of the city budget, $35,000.00 out of a $200+ million dollar overall budget is a drop in the bucket. There should not even be a debate considering the money we’ve spent over the last 10 years already. Let’s not get into the $1.5 million we spent last week on the development and design of an indoor turf facility that isn’t funded yet.
City council wouldn’t actually take Thunder Pride’s money here, would they? Not after the countless debates about bringing positive changes to our community and how we need to prop up our residents when we can….would they? They wouldn’t make Thunder Pride pound the pavement to raise $25,000.00 from their supporters and friends to cover the cost of a crosswalk that the city shouldn’t even be questioning we should have….would they? They wouldn’t……would they?
After all of the money that our ‘new council’ has handed out in the last 10 months for things of far less community impact than the work that Thunder Pride has done in the last 10 years, I really hope there isn’t a debate Monday night. More importantly, i really hope that at least one Councillor brings forward a motion to cover the entire cost of the crosswalk. After all, it’s “only” $35,000.00. Please don’t make Thunder Pride pay for it. If you do, you’ll force many of us to bust out some calculators and check what else we’ve spent money on in the last 10 months that we shouldn’t have, and none of the Councillors want that presentation. Pay for the entire bill for the crosswalk, without debate or discussion. You want to make the city better, this is your chance. Sign the cheque.
PS – What’s for dinner before Monday’s meeting?
Just my two cents.
