Tonight the highly publicly contested draft proposal of a Recreation Facility Infrastructure Strategy will get discussed and debated by Strathroy-Caradoc Council. One of the main issues getting talked about publicly is the proposed decommissioning of the Tri-Township arena in Mount Brydges along with the West Middlesex Memorial Centre in Strathroy. There have been hundreds of comments online saying the public online survey that was available for 2 weeks back in October of 2020 was not communicated well from the Municipality resulting in only 555 completed surveys. Of the 555, 371 participants resided in Strathroy, 119 in Mount Brydges, and 65 elsewhere.
myFM over the last week has received numerous comments and questions regarding the survey, its existence and how it was communicated to the public. myFM has gathered information from many areas including arena user groups, the Municipality and social media to try and provide answers. This is what we found.
- The municipality told myFM, that the survey itself had the highest public survey response turnout the Municipality has issued in quite some time and in addition to the 555 completed surveys, there were just over 230 surveys that were started but not completed. The survey was available until October 23rd.
- The Municipality told myFM that an email letter was sent out on October 14th 2020 at 1:06pm to approximately 1500 people who have rented local facilities in the past which would include user groups as well.
- myFM did also confirm the Municipality did advertise the survey on Social Media feeds, including 4 times on the town’s Facebook page over a two week stretch (Oct 9, 13, 17, 21) that garnered only about 40 public shares.
- The survey was posted on the Strathroy-Caradoc website at (www.strathroy-caradoc.ca/survey) until October 23rd. The link is currently unavailable.
- The survey was NOT posted on the Strathroy-Caradoc Website’s News Release page for a search period of January 2020 through to May 6th, 2021.
- This week, myFM reached out to multiple arena user groups in the entire Municipality. Of the groups that responded, some confirmed they were either contacted by the Municipality or the Consultant. Other groups told myFM they could not find any correspondence.
- Some user groups told myFM they participated in a feedback session with the consultant.
- Some user groups found the email letter this week that was sent back in October, but was either lost in spam or a different organizational email account.
- In addition, the Municipality told myFM that the consultant Nustadia reached out to major users of the facilities including but not only, Mt. Brydges Minor Hockey, Strathroy Minor Hockey, Mt. Brydges Skating Club and Del-Ko-Brydge Minor Baseball among others.
SOME RESPONSES FROM AREA USER GROUPS
- “We looked into that name Nustadia, it was sent to Skate Ontario, and then forwarded to us in late November. There was no attached survey, just a contact name.”
- “We were involved in a stakeholder input discussion with the consultant.”
- “I have no record that we were ever contacted. I did a mail search of Nustadia. Nothing!!”
- “We learned that our invitation to participate in the Nustadia survey was, in fact, sent to us via email – but was flagged as spam and not received into our inbox. I can confirm that we did not receive any communication from the township that the consultant would be reaching out.”
The Strathroy Rockets were contacted by myFM and wished to not comment at this time until the special council meeting had been completed.
HERE IS A COPY OF THE LETTER SENT OUT BY THE MUNICIPALITY AND SUPPLIED TO MYFM BY THE MUNICIPALITY
(Sent October 14th, 2020 1:06 p.m.)
Dear community member,
The Municipality of Strathroy-Caradoc has engaged Nustadia Recreation Inc. to deliver a Recreation Infrastructure Renewal Strategy Report. As part of the consultation process, a survey has been developed to gather feedback from the community regarding Strathroy-Caradoc’s recreation facilities.
We are forwarding the link to this survey for your information. As a past or current recreation facility user/program participant, your valuable experience and input would provide meaningful direction in determining the future delivery of recreation facilities. If you do not wish to participate, however, please disregard this message.
The survey can be accessed at www.strathroy-caradoc.ca/survey until October 23.
Best regards,
The Strathroy-Caradoc Community Services Department