Despite the best efforts of the mountain biking community, District of Squamish council endorsed the Committee of the Whole (COW) recommendation to allocate $500,000 to install artificial turf on one soccer field and $110,000 for a Sports Legacy Park.
The COW recommendation, which allocated no money to the proposed mountain bike skills park, went public on June 14 and ignited anger, frustration and criticism in the form of 37 emails, 120 letters, a petition and a strong show of support at the regular council meeting on Tuesday (June 21), where the final Legacy Fund decision was made.
David Gillie, president of the Squamish Off Road Cycling Association (SORCA), SORCA vice-president and Test of Metal organizer Cliff Miller and trails maintenance director Chris McCrum stood before council to pledge their support for the mountain bike skills park and ask that some money be allocated to the worthy and "widely supported" project.
"I'm here to give SORCA's support for the mountain bike skills park. It was noted last week that there was no support from the mountain bike community for this skills park and I'd just like to say our 500 members support this," Gillie said.
He acknowledged the difficult decision council was faced with and thanked council for the $30,000 Legacy Fund allocation to SORCA for the Diamond Head trail project.
"The mountain bike skills park fits in very well with our town and it's an addition that would be very good for mountain bikers and cyclists," he said. "What a skills park does is allows you to hone your skills and fall in a safe area where you can get help and this is what we're most concerned with - that our children can ride something before getting on the trails and possibly getting hurt.
"We're here to support the park and hope that there would be some allocation or second thought on this process. I don't want to take away from everyone else but we feel this is a necessity for our town."
McCrum, who directs the SORCA trail pass program - an initiative to raise money for trails maintenance - spoke about the importance of mountain biking in the community.
"We've sold over 700 trail passes, we've had to print more, so it's been a runaway success," he said.
"Judging by the last weekend as well, cycling's a pretty active part of this community and I find it somewhat unfortunate that it's being overlooked save for the $30,000 for the Diamond Head trail I would hope that perhaps in your deliberations you may allocate some of the funding to several different causes and not just one large lump sum to one."
Squamish Soccer Association (SSA) president Jose Oreamuno, long-time soccer supporter Paul Christensen and soccer coach Matthew Rollison spoke in favour of the $500,000 allocation to turf the soccer field.
Resident Garry McFarlane directed his comments specifically to criticizing the Callaghan Winter Sports Club's (CWSC) plan for a Sports Legacy Park.
He said the only reason council would support the Sports Legacy Park would be to create a council legacy, not a community one.
After audience members had a chance to comment, each council member took a few minutes to address community concerns or misconceptions from last week's meeting and articulate his or her position.
Coun. Patricia Heintzman made it clear she wanted to vote on the allocations separately, because although she supported giving the $500,000 to soccer, she preferred to give the $110,000 to the mountain bike skills park.
Coun. Corinne Lonsdale clarified that the only reason she voted against last week's recommendation was because she wanted to give the entire $610,000 to the soccer field.
"My heart is still with soccer," she said, adding that she thought the Sports Legacy Park was a wonderful dream and that if it fell through, the money could be allocated to the soccer field instead.
Coun. Bryan Raiser said he supported giving the lion's share of the money to soccer but he also supported allocating money to the mountain bike skills park before the Sports Legacy Park.
"We have to make this decision today and I hope when we do, it will truly reflect our community," he said.
Coun. Doug Race reiterated his opinion expressed for the past month - that the decision should not be based on sport popularity, number of users or number of emails, but on responsible funding principles.
He reminded council that Nordic sports had a number of followers in Squamish, as the Whistler Olympic Park sold 500 season passes to Squamish residents in 2011.
Race's suggestion was to divide the money between the mountain bike skills park and the Sports Legacy Park and complete two projects instead of contributing to a project that would require substantial borrowing and amount to at least a one per cent tax rate increase to accommodate the field's annual maintenance cost.
He also noted that of all the projects, the turf soccer field has the shortest lifespan and therefore needs a pricey reserve fund. He said turfing the fields should be part of the recreation master plan, which should be ready in the fall of 2012.
Coun. Paul Lalli said he still supported the recommendation from the Committee of the Whole.
Coun. Rob Kirkham made a point of clarifying his comment about the Sports Legacy Park and the mountain bike skills park being "untried, unproven" - a comment that sparked a negative reaction from the mountain biking crowd.
He said although he supported allocating all the money to the soccer field because he felt it was a "job halfway done," he wanted to incorporate the other two proposals into the recreation master plan.
"I still support putting all the money towards the fields," he said. "But I will support the Committee of the Whole motion to finalize this process as the majority of the funds are headed in the right direction."
Lalli moved the recommendation to allocate $500,000 to SSA and $110,000 to CWSC and Kirkham seconded the motion, but Heintzman again requested that council deal with the allocations separately.
She said although she would love to see the Sports Legacy Park materialize in the future, she felt it was still a "pie in the sky" notion and preferred to allocate the $110,000 to the mountain bike skills park.
"I would prefer to split the motions and not muddy the water," she said.
Her suggested motion was carried, with Gardner opposed.
The new motion on the floor only referred to allocating $500,000 to SSA, and Lonsdale made a friendly amendment to allocate the entire $610,000 to the project. Kirkham seconded the motion, saying he "felt really good about not borrowing the extra $110,000" to complete the soccer field.
Lalli said he would not support the amendment based on "the integrity of the process."
The motion to allocate the entire $610,000 failed with Heintzman, Raiser, Gardner, Lalli and Race opposed.
The motion to allocate $500,000 to the SSA was carried, with Race opposed, and the soccer supporters in the room burst into applause.
Heintzman made a motion to allocate the remaining $110,000 to the mountain bike skills park, saying it was a "better bang for our buck" and calling the Sports Legacy Park potentially unfeasible and premature.
"I think one side of me always wanted to support the Nordic proposal because they were the seed for getting VANOC money," she said.
"But the more I look into the park, the more I question its feasibility."
Raiser seconded the motion.
Gardner spoke strongly against the change and reminded council that he had been told numerous times that the reason Squamish received the Legacy Fund money was thanks to the hard work of CWSC volunteers.
"To not allocate some money to them would be a complete injustice," he said.
The motion failed with Lonsdale, Gardner, Kirkham, Lalli and Race opposed and the 30-or-so mountain bikers in the room booed loudly.
Lalli made a motion to allocate the $110,000 to the Sports Legacy Park, Race seconded it and the motion was carried with Raiser and Heintzman opposed.
The majority of the crowd left council chambers quickly and congregated into two groups outside Municipal Hall - the satisfied soccer supporters on one side and the disappointed mountain bike supporters on the other.
See next week's Chief for details on the future of the three projects.
