Sussex wants to spend more to keep ailing civic centre going

Spending more tax dollars may be the only way to save the ailing civic centre in Sussex, the town's mayor said Thursday.

The PotashCorp Civic Centre opened five years ago but isin danger of closing after running a deficit of about $50,000 a year, says Mayor Marc Thorne.

But it's not the cost of running the centre but its funding model that's flawed, he said.

When the centre opened in the fall of 2012, a one per cent cap was put in place on tax support to help out with potential shortfalls in revenue.

Thornesaid the cap was problematic from the start.

"And I've known that unless something dramatic occurred in terms of getting support for the facility that it was likely going to be slated for closure come early fall," he said.

Cap on tax support

The centre is not able to run on revenuesalone, he said, but it also doesn't have enough funding in place to deal with potential shortfalls, increased costs because of inflation or repairs.

While Thorneagreed acap on support is important, he said one per cent is not enough.

Town council now wants to spend an additional 1.5 per cent of tax dollars on the centre, which it said would bring thetotal contribution to $100,000from$40,000 a year.

"We feel that the centre is certainly worth that effort," Thorne said.

"Itprovided tremendous benefits to the greater community for five years and we are hoping that our surrounding communities, both villages andLSDs(local service districts)see that value as well and step up."

Insufficient funds

The $10 million civic centre was constructed as a swimming and fitness facility and was constructed without debt, the center's board of directors said in a recent letter sentto residents of Sussex andsurrounding communities by the center'sboard of directors ,

Since then, however, the roughly$135,000 made available annually from taxes were "insufficient for sustainable operation."

I hope that the folks in our community recognize the value that this facility brings and everybody comes together and provides the support that it needs.- MarcThorne, mayor of Sussex

The board said it hasasked the community of Sussex,surrounding communities andlocal service district for help.

It also requested a consideration of the annual tax funding amountfromthe Department of Environment and Local Government.

"There must be a short-term cash injection and an increase in the tax-base funding to ensure sustainable operation," the board's letter said.

The board also announced that the centre's pool will close for maintenance on Sept. 4 and will remain closed while the board goes after thefinancial support needed to for operations.

Thornesaid the recent closure of the PotashCorpmine affected membership numbers, but the centre would have struggled with financial problems even if the mine had remained open.

• PotashCorpsuspendsPicadillymine in N.B., cuts 430 jobs
• Sussex optimistic for growth a year after losingPotashCorp, mayor says

He also said that reactions from the community on the centre's impending closure are mixed.

"In the end, I hope that the folks in our community recognize the value that this facility brings and everybody comes together and provides the support that it needs," he said.