City delays $17m decision for new rec centre

Hamilton councillors have delayed a decision to spend millions on a joint school and community centre near a stadium being built for the Pan Am games.

The plan is to build a new high school along with a rec centre and seniors complex beside the stadium. The school board says it has $32-million to build a high school by 2016, and it wants a decision from the city this month on the rec centre.

The city has to come up with 17 million dollars that isn’t in the budget. Some councilors say they feel bullied by the school board deadline. Councilor Sam Merulla says, “What we have before us is really the only reason why the stadium should ever have been built, and that is for city building characteristics.”

School Board Chair, Tim Simmons explains the rush and say, “We’re disappointed. Like I said we’re going to have to look at our timelines, that hard timeline the ministry gave us to be open September 2016. If things are delayed past August that’s going to put more pressure on us to make sure we can that meet that timeline.”

Council has voted to delay consideration of the rec centre, possibly until September.