Keterson pavilion, paving improvements approved

Patrons of Mitchell’s annual fair over the Labour Day weekend will notice improvements to the Keterson Park parking lot after West Perth council approved $65,000 worth of paving. 

At the municipality’s Aug. 10 meeting, CAO Dan Hobson brought council up to date on proceedings at the park that hosts the three-day fair, set this year for Sept. 4 to Sept. 6. While paving is being done on an unpaved section close to the Crystal Palace, with the Mitchell & District Agricultural Society contributing $30,000, staff felt it appropriate to improve another  1,394-square-metre (15,000-square-foot) area of the parking lot closer to the arena at the same time, although that may not be completed before Labour Day.

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“It just cleans up the parking lot,” Hobson told council, adding it’s not part of the renovations that are ongoing at the arena but made sense to save some money.

Drainage work is also being done in the park, south of diamond ‘B’ close to Waterloo Street, which will hopefully be done internally, Hobson said.

Also, an improvement of “electrical deficiencies” at the Tim Hortons Pavilion in Keterson Park, to the tune of $10,000, was also approved but not without comment. 

During fair operations, the use of cattle dryers’ places significant demand on the pavilion’s electrical system, resulting in breakers being overloaded and tripped. To address this issue, additional circuits and breakers are required to redistribute electrical loads and improve system reliability, Hobson’s report noted.  

These improvements drew the ire of Coun. Andrew Fournier, suggesting the municipality approach the electrical subcontractor who did the work in the first place. 

“That’s a ridiculous reason to need $10,000 worth of repairs,” he said. “We spent $900,000 on this pavilion and they did the electrical work wrong? Does that sound sane to anybody else that could possibly hear that sentence?” 

Mayor Walter McKenzie said the only time there’s been issues is during the fair when livestock is being cleaned up for various shows. 

Hobson said the $10,000 is the maximum ask for the upgrade. 

“I don’t disagree. There was a mistake,” said Hobson, noting that staff involved at the time of the pavilion construction are no longer here. 

“I don’t think the juice is going to be worth the squeeze to go after the contractor for the $10,000,” he added. 

Fournier did agree with Hobson’s comment but said, in the future, such fine details need to be carefully looked at for all such contracts. 

Deputy Mayor Dean Trentowsky said the pavilion’s overall design changed at least twice so is not surprised something like this has transpired. 

“The parties involved in the time are no longer here to answer to that. . . . Unfortunately, we’re left with having to make the corrective actions and move on to prevent any further problems,” he said. 

The reserve for parks and recreation has a current balance of $105,095.80, with council approving the staff’s recommendation of transferring $80,000 from the surplus to that reserve to cover the additional expenses.