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Powassan councillor calls Legion meeting 'aggressive'

'It was an albatross for the Legion and now it's a white elephant for us'
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Powassan Coun. Debbie Piekarski believes there was aggression at a special meeting of council with the local Legion to discuss the municipality's long-term lease with the branch. Screen Capture

Aggressive, defensive, and inhibited.

That's how Powassan Coun. Debbie Piekarski characterized a special meeting several members of council had with Legion Branch 453 to discuss a lease the municipality has with the local branch.

“For me, I found it was very aggressive and the council was put on the defensive, which was not a comfortable position for me to be in,” said Piekarski.

Piekarski said the tone of the meeting “inhibited me from asking questions I would have liked to ask.”

Piekarski added she believed a confrontation would be the result of her questions so she held back.

The meeting in question took place on Sept. 22 at the request of the council.

Piekarski made her comments near the start of the Oct. 6 regular meeting of council when members were approving the minutes of various boards and committees.

The previous council signed a 25-year lease with the Legion in 2017 when it bought the building from the local branch because the Legion was finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the facility.

Piekarski was not on council at the time and told her colleagues during the debate “I don't think the contract is good for the residents, but it's great for the Legion.”

Piekarski doesn't like that the contract allows the Legion to rent out the building with none of that rental income coming back to the municipality.

Piekarski suggested it's time to let the Legion sell the building because she doesn't see any good coming from owning the building.

“It was an albatross for the Legion and now it's a white elephant for us,” she said.

Piekarski suggested the lease should be renegotiated so the municipality “could capture the rental.”

Piekarski received support for her suggestion from Coun. Randy Hall, who said he wants a lease that is fair to both the Legion and town.

Mayor Peter McIsaac, who was a signatory to the 2017 lease, pointed out that if the municipality took over the rentals, then it would also have to clean the building, something “the Legion now does after the rentals.”

However, McIsaac also said perhaps the Legion might be agreeable to re-opening the agreement.

McIsaac later said he did not find the meeting “that confrontational.

“Because council asked for the meeting, I could understand some of the Legion members were a bit defensive at the beginning,” he said.

“But I thought the meeting was amicable and positive. My memory of it is a little bit different than Coun. Piekarski's, but that's fine. Everyone takes things in a different manner.”

McIsaac says the core of the meeting focused on how the municipality could help the Legion and how the branch could help the town.

“After the discussion, they said they would talk to their members and come back to us,” McIsaac said.

McIsaac said he's personally comfortable with the current lease agreement.

The municipality bought the building for $14,000 and McIsaac admits that although there were unexpected expenses, it still has ownership of an asset that is worth a lot more than what the town has put into it.

McIsaac stands by the decision to buy the building and sign the lease with the Legion.

“The Legion is stronger today because of that and they don't seem to be in the same financial situation they were in four years ago,” McIsaac said.

Legion Branch 453 president Ron Smith said Legion members made three presentations to council members at the September meeting.

“I didn't feel the presentations were aggressive, but I can't say for sure how someone else would have taken it,” he said in a later interview.

Smith said many Legions across Canada have been running into money problems and, close to home, the local branch had to address its financial situation in 2017.

“Most of our fundraising was going into supporting the building,” Smith explained.

“We concluded we had to do something. Initially, we were going to sell it and move into a smaller building that would be cheaper to operate.”

Instead, Smith said, an agreement was made to sell the building to the municipality.

The purchase price of $14,000 was the amount of a water bill the branch had run-up, he said, and that bill was dissolved in return for the building.

During the Oct, 6 council meeting, Coun. Dave Britton defended council's decision to put structural money into the building once it was in municipal hands.

Britton pointed out the “Legion is our emergency measures building and there's a generator and cooking facility there.“That (gives) huge value to the community,” he said.

Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the North Bay Nugget. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.