It has been suggested that this information would be of interest to the community at large, not only to those who attend council meetings on a regular basis. In the past, in order to keep citizens informed on issues and activities, I have written a regular column in our local newspapers, as have other councillors. So, now, once again we will try to have a regular council report column every few weeks in order to accomplish this mission. Sometimes in our various meetings, we, as a council are focused on the long term vision of Westmount, its urban plan, its infrastructure planning, its sustainability as a community, and sometimes we are more absorbed by a specific project.

Over the past 15 years, the City has had a long-term plan to upgrade all of our facilities. While most of that has now been accomplished, lately, a lot of our current focus internally and publicly has been on the potential rebuilding of the one facility which hasn’t been upgraded in 50 years, our arena and pool. Since the forum on the arena where over 130 residents conveyed their wishes and thoughts, councillors and staff have been looking at the ideas and trying to deal with some of the recommendations. The question of location was one which had elicited queries and suggestions and parking was another where there were concerns expressed by many users and residents living in proximity to the current facility.

This past week, one of our committees, chaired by Patrick Martin, looked at the question of location. We took a large map of the city and a “no holds barred” approach trying to see if there was any better place where we could fit this facility and if so how would that affect the costs, green spaces, traffic, etc.

We had first looked at the Glen Yards and after inquiries made to their planning department, we received a clear letter stating that the MUHC would not consider leasing or selling any of the land they owned in Westmount since they see that as a location for potential future development.

The Turcot Yards we did reject out of hand both because we as a municipality cannot buy land outside of our city, but also because of the distance and the necessity of travelling there by car.

Councillor Martin who is a professional engineer, had done back of the envelope calculations about heights and depths and possibilities for burying or stacking certain parts of the facility and we examined some of those. We had our engineers join us for part of the meeting to validate some of the assumptions made.

We examined the possibility of splitting the swimming pool and the ice surfaces although we realized that this would require parking in two locations as well as some increased building and operating costs.

We looked at the lots the City owns on Tupper Street, but their configuration is such that there was no way even one rink could fit there, let alone two.

We looked at the Westmount Athletic Grounds and identified a number of issues which are of concern: This is the only major green space in this area for residents who live near the railway and the highway. Building here would take away the outdoor athletic space which has been used by Westmount High School since its creation. We would have to relocate tennis courts, community gardens, and would lose the only running track we have. Moving such facilities to any of our parks would occupy other currently free green spaces. We would have to terminate our baseball and softball programs and relocate other activities held there.

We looked at private property locations trying to assess if there were any that the city could acquire that would provide us what we needed.

While it was a lively and creative exercise, in the end, we came to the conclusion that the current location still seems to be the best we have. Now, what we have to do is to work with professionals to create a preliminary design for a functional and user friendly facility where a reconfigured traffic flow and parking would improve upon the current situation for everyone – the users of the facility and the residents living nearby. We have lots more work to do before we get there and I’ll try to keep you informed as we look at the different issues and will welcome your comments along the way.

-- Karin Marks, Mayor of Westmount