Community rallies to keep Adie Knox as is after draft recreation plan presented

Windsor residents used Monday evening's city council meeting to push back against a draft recreation master plan recommendation to "reimagine" the Adie Knox Herman Recreation Complex.

After three hours of discussion, city councillors ultimately decided to approve most of the recommendations in the recreation master plan, but agreed to keep the Adie Knox pool and ice rink open. 

The recreation plan called for more venues like pools, tennis courts, walking parks and even cricket pitches across the city. 

One of the recommendations was to decommission the Adie Knox facility's ice-making equipment and turning the space into a year-round dry venue, as well as to move the complex's pool to the Gino and Liz Marcus Community Complex or the Windsor International Aquatic and Training Centre.

Ward 2 resident Caroline Taylor asked for the master plan to be renegotiated because of the high density low income neighbourhood where Adie Knox is housed.

"The recommendation from consultants to transfer swimming is not fair to Windsor's most vulnerable ... the people in these west end neighbourhoods depend on these services," said Taylor. "This is ludicrous." 

Taylor said the arena has "good bones" and is a west-end mainstay.

"[Adie Knox] is part of the fabric of Windsor's west end," said Taylor, who swims weekly in the Adie Knox pool.

Taylor also expressed frustration that there was little warning for the proposed changes to Adie Knox, so there was little time for community members to collaborate on a response.

Josh Pinese, acting interim president of the Windsor Minor Hockey Association (WMHA), told reporters at Monday's council meeting that he will "sleep easy" knowing that councillors voted to maintain Adie Knox's facilities.

Pinese explained that the WMHA uses Adie Knox's rink for 11 consecutive hours on Saturdays and 12 consecutive hours on Sundays.

"Where can we get that usage consecutively?" he said. "We've got to program time keepers, referees, volunteers to monitor the rinks ... how could we do that if it's segmented?"

Other community members mentioned Adie Knox's therapy pool and free parking as benefits that don't exist at other Windsor pools. Residents who spoke at council also noted that previous closures of the College Avenue Community Centre and Windsor Water World were intended to keep Adie Knox running. 

Community consultations helped form draft plan

According to the report, there was "extensive consultation" which took place to come up with the recreation master plan. Coun. Fabio Costante questioned the consulting company on what exactly that was. 

Todd Brown of Monteith Brown Planning Consultants said consultation began with a public awareness campaign through the city's website and social media. 

"We held a couple of public open houses and an online survey ... there were about 700 surveys completed," said Brown.

Workshops and discussions were held with a handful of community organizations, including athletic associations. 

Brown said user groups were invited to participate in workshops and discussions, but he wasn`t sure if Adie Knox users came out. He said they did hear from pickleball and ball hockey users about needing space to play. 

"We don't want to look at it as taking something away but as how can we create something greater," said Brown.

System has capacity to accommodate Adie Knox bookings elsewhere

Ray Mensour, executive director of recreation and culture with the City of Windsor, said the rationale behind Adie Knox's potential transformation "is the amount of capacity that we have in the system."

"I think everyone agrees that the Adie Knox pool and arena are well-utilized," he said. "The issue is more that we have capacity at all the other facilities, including in other pool facilities as well as arena facilities, to be able to accommodate the existing bookings."

He explained that turning Adie Knox's ice pad into a dry pad will allow the facility to be used for other sports, like lacrosse and basketball. 

"To have another dry pad is almost adding a gymnasium, but not really a gymnasium, for other purposes," he said. 

Adie Knox costs the city more than $700,000 a year. Closing the facilities in question would only save about $28,000 a year.

Also passed Monday was a the decision to hold a feasibility study for keeping the pool and ice rink at Adie Knox open long term. 

Working with school boards a high priority

In addition to specific recommendations aimed at the city's recreational facilities, the master plan also outlines working with school boards to "maximize community access to existing and future facilities" as a high priority. 

Mensour said there aren't any problems with the use of existing facilities. Instead, the goal is to collaborate with regional school boards "to establish a win-win scenario" where ice rinks and pools belonging to the city and the school boards can be used both groups.

"I think we have been able to work out some deals in the past, but I think that the [recreation] master plan is calling for expanding that relationship and [trying] to explore other options, rather than just a school board or city or whoever … just building additional facilities."

Recommendations dependent on partnerships, says city

While the recreation master plans is almost 200 pages long, Mensour clarified that the fulfilment of goals outlined in the document is dependent on partnerships.

For instance, one recommendation suggests converting an existing outdoor field into a lit outdoor artificial turf field, possibly at Mic Mac park, McCue Park or even Central Park.

"It's more about establishing a partnership before moving in that direction," said Mensour. 

Mensour also said that there aren't price tags attached to recommendations, "because this is just a plan in the sense that we're looking for direction from council."

"I'm sure there's going to be some recommendations they approve, some recommendations they don't approve," he said. "Once we get council's blessing on the recommendations they want us to follow through on, we would proceed with following through on getting pricing and reporting back to council to get direction."

The master plan itself also outlines suggested timelines and priorities for specific recommendations, ranging from ongoing to long-term plans, as well as low, medium and high priorities. There are 48 recommendations in the plan. 

"These recommendations, if approved, would have further analysis and would be brought back to council for final decision," said Mensour.