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Guess what the city is calling the new recreation centre and its location?

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2018-05-29 rec centre cons.jpg
Construction continues on the new aquatic centre on West Street. Last night, council formally decided to call the facility the Orillia Recreation Centre. Dave Dawson/OrilliaMatters

What’s in a name?

That was a question city councillors grappled with at Monday night’s meeting at City Hall when they were charged with naming the new recreation complex being built on West Street and the large site on which it will reside.

In the end, council committee chose to recognize the city’s manufacturing heritage by calling the 36-acre property Foundry Park. And they kept it simple with the name of the building expected to open in early 2019; it will be called the Orillia Recreation Centre.

While that name may be simple, it was not an easy time arriving at the decision.

Ray Merkley, the city’s director of parks, recreation and culture, presented council a report about naming the facility that summarized the process to date. That report referenced council’s decision in December of 2015 to ask the city’s recreation advisory committee (RAC) to “undertake a public consultation process to name the site and building.”

In November of 2016, RAC suggested that area of West Street be named the Foundry District.

In July of 2017, RAC recommended the site be name Foundry Park or Victory Park. It also provided three recommendations for the naming of the facility: Momentum Centre, Orillia Recreation and Wellness Centre and Orillia Sports and Wellness Centre.

At that time, council did not choose a name; the report was received and shelved. The decision cannot be delayed any longer, said Merkley.

Merkley told council the construction contract includes permanent signs for the building and “a large stone feature sign to be installed at the main entrance” that would identify the site.

“Before authorizing fabrication of the sign, staff wanted to confirm with council the name for the site and the building,” said Merkley.

Merkley pitched a pair of options: To use the working names of Orillia Recreation Centre and West Street Park or for council to choose a different name based on recommendations from RAC.

Coun. Ralph Cipolla said he was “a little disappointed” with staff’s suggestion. He said RAC “went all out” to garner input and make recommendations only to see the project team of “consultants and (staff) with no councillors on it” go “outside” the process by suggesting “naming the facility with something you guys came up with instead.”

City CAO Gayle Jackson disagreed. She said RAC presented its report, as requested, to council. Council voted to “receive the report as information” which means, essentially, it is simply shelved. No direction was provided by council; that’s why the issue was back at the council table.

“The team didn’t come up with the names,” added Merkley. “RAC had suggested names for the park and facility” and those are the names suggested in the report. “We just felt before authorizing expensive signage, it was prudent to come back for council.”

Coun. Tim Lauer said he appreciated that. “What staff is doing is prodding us to name” the facility, he said. Despite receiving “lots of reports … we have not made a decision and we’re at the point that we have to order a sign.”

Mayor Steve Clarke suggested the Foundry Park name for the site. While recognizing the checkered past of the foundrys that once dominated Orillia’s landscape, he noted that was a different era.

“With all due respect to our board of education, I was quite uninspired by (Orillia Secondary School) as a name for that beautiful facility,” said Clarke. “Certainly, if you apply today’s standards to a foundry that existed 150 years ago … the way the property was treated was quite unacceptable (but that) was the unfortunate norm.

“Foundrys were responsible for a significant number of achievements made in the Sunshine City over the years,” said Clarke, who noted the Distillery District in Toronto, the Gas Light District in Vancouver and the Tannery District in Kitchener are good examples of cities that named thriving, modern neighbourhoods with names that recognized the imperfect past of their economies.

Council agreed. There was a little more discussion around the naming of the facility. Cipolla pushed for the building to be named the Orillia Sports and Wellness Centre, but Lauer would not support that name, saying it sounded too much like a medical facility.

Coun. Mason Ainsworth recommended the Orillia Recreation Centre – something that was simple that could be changed by a subsequent council if they felt so moved after more public input.

In the end, at the conclusion of a long 3.5-hour meeting, it took mere minutes for council to agree the new facility should be called the Orillia Recreation Centre.

Decisions made at the council committee meeting must be ratified at Monday night’s council meeting.


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Dave Dawson

About the Author: Dave Dawson

Dave Dawson is community editor of OrilliaMatters.com
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