South Frontenac Master Recreation Plan

Jeff Green | May 11, 2022

There are only a couple more days for public comment before the draft South Frontenac Recreation Plan will go back to the consultants for a final report, to be prepared and presented to Council, which will likely happen in June.

For Tim Laprade, the plan, and the work that has gone on for over 2 years to get it ready, has been a monster project.

The document itself is over 250 pages long and in order to prepare it, every group that provides recreation services in the township was contacted, and public input was sought through print and electronic channels, as well as social media, through surveys and direct phone calls.

“The process was slowed down by COVID, especially early on, but we also wanted to make sure that everyone who had an interest in recreation, had a chance to provide input,” said Laprade.

The draft plan, which is posted at Engage Frontenac.ca, where comments are being accepted until Saturday, includes quite a bit of background, including a community profile with demographic information. It also includes a section on programs and events that are currently available in the township and others that residents would like to see come about.

“The township does not have the capacity to develop and organise events,” Laprade said, “that would require more staff. Much of our focus in that section of the report is to look at what the facility needs are. This will allow for existing programs and events to thrive and for community groups to be able to bring new programs and events to the township in the future.”

Chapters on facilities, parks, trails, and boat launches make up the bulk of the second half of the plan, but the section that will likely attract the most attention when the report comes to Council in June, is the Facilities Recommendations section, which outlines projected costs of recommended upgrades.

Recommendations for improvements or alternate uses of each facility are listed, along with a timeline including projected costs.

If Council decided to fund every item on the list, it would come to $895,000 this year, and $4 million over ten years.

Some of the immediate spending includes projects, such as the Storrington Centre, which are already under construction and have been fully funded. But there is a lot of new spending as well.

But Tim Laprade does not expect that Council will start making financial commitments as soon as the report lands on their desk.

“The consultants compiled all of the suggestions and recommendations that they heard, put a preliminary price on them, and listed them. When the report is presented in June, and hopefully is accepted, we expect Council to then ask our department to come up with suggestions about which projects are priorities, with a realistic timeline,” he said. “It will then go to the budget process for 2023 and beyond.”

He said that one of the major benefits of the Master Plan is that it will provide a basis for evaluating proposals that come forward from the public.

“Residents come to our department, or to Council, asking for us to provide facilities or improvements all the time. What the Master Plan does is provide a background to help us evaluate individual requests that come up, and will help us to make decisions based on what is already available elsewhere in the township, and what the rest of the residents have expressed as their priorities,” he said.

“But the real work starts once the plan is adopted by Council.”