St. John's city council votes to keep funding Aquarena
St. John's city council voted on Tuesday to continue giving Memorial University $100,000 dollars for the Aquarena.
The city sold the sports facility to MUN in the mid-1990s for $1. St. John's has since then provided an annual subsidy to the Aquarena.
But some city councillors think the St. John's should not be giving it a grant when the Aquarena is used by people from throughout the northeast Avalon, but is the only municipality to subsidize it.
Jonathan Galgay is one of those councillors.
"I would rather take that $100,000 and reinvest it into our own in-house programs," said Galgay. "The Aquarena is used as a regional facility. There is no funding from Torbay, from Mount Pearl or from Paradise. I'd rather see that money go back into our own programs and services."
It costs about one million dollars to operate the Aquarena. The facility now operates under the umbrella of The Works recreational complex, with services offered both to students and the public at large.