A committee exploring alternatives to Orillia’s proposed recreation complex has fielded a flood of interest from residents anxious to see the stalled project move ahead.

“There is not a person in this community who is not concerned about this project in one way or another,” said Coun. Michael Fogarty, a member of the ad hoc group.

Fogarty has received e-mails, phone calls and face-to-face recommendations from residents offering alternatives to the current plan.
“You walk through Wal-Mart and people stop you,” he said. “It is coming from everywhere.”

Suggestions have included splitting the project among multiple sites, locating the complex at Lakehead University’s permanent campus and establishing temporary rink facilities to meet demand for ice time in the immediate future.

The committee has yet to fully explore potential alternatives because members are still working to clarify issues surrounding a twice-rejected risk assessment for the troubled West Street property, Fogarty said.

All suggestions from the public will be given consideration before the committee makes its final recommendation to council, Fogarty said.
 “We don’t want at the end of this process for someone to come forward and say, ‘What about this idea?’” he added. “We want all the options on the table.”

Members recently met with Environment Ministry representatives in an attempt to determine “how long this (environmental process) is going to take,” Fogarty said. “The MOE couldn’t give us an answer on that.

Consultants were forced to undertake a third revision of the risk assessment after the twice-revised document was returned for more work.

“We’re told time and again (by the project’s consultants) that the rules keep changing … the MOE debunked that and said that is not true,” Fogarty said.

Consultants revising the risk plan have until Aug. 15 to complete their work under a recently granted time extension, said project manager Lori Koughan.
The province then has seven weeks to respond.

Fogarty likened the prolonged environmental process to a round of “broken telephone,” the game in which participants attempt to pass along a message by whispering into one another’s ears.
Inevitably, the message has been altered, often dramatically so, by the time it reaches the final player.
“That is part of the frustration,” he said. “We have to establish the landscape. What do we actually have on the table? From there we can figure out our options.”

The group is aiming to have an interim report to council by September or October, he said.