The Arena's New Parking Lot

There is something very strange going on but I don't know what it is.

Are we being set up again with the good news story before we hear the bad news?

I am sure that you saw the story in the Star

• "Arena cost saving eyed
  
  The Spitfires’ new hockey home could cost almost $1 million less than budgeted, Windsor’s chief financial officer told a city council committee Friday.
  
  An anticipated savings of $962,000 is being projected on the total $64.9million price tag for the WFCU Centre, said city treasurer Onorio Colucci. Construction of the multi-ice pad facility is still on track and expected to be completed by the end of 2008."

On track, on time and on budget...didn't we hear something similar before with respect to the funky bus terminal and the Windsor/Detroit Tunnel renovations. [August 23, 2007 "Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics"]. Now I am really getting worried. As I said at the time

• "Effectively what this means is that there can be no lies. It also means that there can be no truth. Lies and truth are now flexible concepts depending on what someone chooses to use as the starting and finishing point. Those points are determined by what one wants to achieve."

If I were the Mayor, I would be shouting the savings from the rooftops. If I were the Councillor formerly known as Councillor Budget who is responsible for ensuring that the project stays on budget, I would be taking credit especially if I was going to make a run to be the next mayor of Windsor.

So why did they let the CFO take the credit instead? Why were the names of politicians conspicuous by their absence?

Perhaps this is one reason. I do not know if this is true or not but a reader sent me the following note:

• "I thought that you might like to know that the tender for the new arena closed last week, estimated cost another six million dollars. They still have to build the road and the bridge over Little River. The tender was for the parking lot, concrete sidewalks and electrical lighting for same."

I think will be considered extras and not part of the $64.9 million arena cost although the Star should say to be consistent that they should be included based on their Editorial that they did about the LaSalle arena.

But here's something else. We all know that the number of parking spaces for the East end arena is inadequate. You don't really think that people who go to Spitfire hockey games are going to be happy to take a Windsor Transit bus after the game to some off-site location to pick up their cars do you.

Obviously then a solution is needed to find more parking spaces nearby. Let me suggest an alternative and help save the City a couple of hundred thousand dollars so that they can use that money for the crossing guards.

Did you see this story in the Business Section of the Windsor Star as well:

• "City mulls testing at Wickes site
  
  Windsor city council is considering spending $200,000 for an environmental assessment of the contamination levels on the former Wickes Manufacturing property at 9082- 9152 Tecumseh Rd. E.
  
  The 8.89-acre property was recently listed as part of the city’s annual property tax sale valued at $2.66 million, but there were no bidders, largely because of the potential contaminants that remain in the soil.
  
  City deputy treasurer Janice Guthrie said the assessment will also help the city decide whether to assume ownership of the property.
  
  Under legislation, the city has two years to decide whether to assume ownership. If it does, it then has the option to use the property for municipal purposes or sell it on the open market.
  
  Wickes, which manufactured bumpers, vacated the site in 1990 and left behind chromium, copper and nickel deposits."

Now isn't that plant near the location of the arena? The land may be contaminated and so no one is going to buy it. Why spend $200,000 when the City can turn it into a parking lot for the arena.

Here is a news story back in 1987:

• "It has not been a good week for Wickes Manufacturing Co. Ltd., which owns Windsor Bumper.
  
  ..the company appears disheartened by a "high risk" label pinned on it last week after two years of trying to clean up its act.
  
  A report commissioned by the Environment Ministry released last Friday said Windsor Bumper posed more risk to human health than 112 other waste sites on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes between Amherstburg and Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

The Ministry went on to say that

• "the risk posed by the ponds ended with their removal, and that the reaction to the study has been excessive, since it was almost 18 months old by the time it was released last Friday."

Notwithstanding what the Ministry said, that quick search of my database ought to be enough to justify that the land may have serious problems. Now we can do a "signature" Brownfields redevelopment, have parking for the arena and keep the crossing guards working at least for the next six months by saving $200,000 on another consultant's report.

So that may be why the Mayor and Councillor Brister are keeping their heads low. Save a million here, spend millions there.