Former MP and city councillor Jay Aspin says he fears the proposed splash pad will turn into a giant white elephant if it is built next to the North Bay Discovery Museum.
Aspin is also one of four citizens on the Waterfront Development Committee which is supposed to represent the public and is charged with recommending a location for the facility.
"If we can build a splash pad that's affordable I'm all for it," Aspin told BayToday. "I'm very concerned this thing is going to turn into a big white elephant, frankly. We have to live within our means."
Aspin, who often takes his grandkids to Callander's pad, sees the costs spiraling out of control and putting too much of a burden on North Bay taxpayers, saying the real cost figures haven't been introduced.
"In the Downtown Waterfront Master Plan it lists the cost of a splash pad at $1.7 million, why so expensive when Callander did it for less than $300,000?" he asks.
"It's not just the splash pad but the washrooms, change rooms, landscaping and all the infrastructure. We've never been given the hard numbers. That 1.7 was two or three years ago and with inflation and other costs, its got to be north of $2 million. The bottom line is, because of the location, this thing has escalated into a huge project. The Rotary Club is in for six or seven hundred thousand dollars but who picks up the tab for the infrastructure? It's the taxpayers of the city of North Bay."
Aspin says the figure also doesn't include geotechnical studies or taxes, electrical or permitting costs, contingency funds, or servicing costs.
He wants it located along Memorial Drive, near existing beach facilities.
"We won't need all the infrastructure at the beach because it's already there. It's an inflated project in a spot where a majority of citizens don't want it. Most of the people I've talked to want it down by the lake, or at Lee Park."
An informal poll was done in December by BayToday, and of 605 votes cast, 66 per cent preferred the beach, 18 per cent at the museum, while almost as many, 16 per cent said we don't need a splash pad period.
See story with poll: City backs off! Splash pad committee: 'We want it next to the lake'
Aspin says to the costs are too high for a facility that is only used, at best, from mid-June to mid-August.
"It's a slippery slope, the tip of the iceberg," Aspin says, comparing it to the Memorial Gardens ballooning budget.
See: Council approves splash pad funds
But Aspin admits even the four citizens on the committee can't agree on a location.
"One doesn't want a splash pad at all, one initially wanted it by the beach but now wants it downtown but is concerned with the cost, a third agrees with me to locate it at the beach."
Someone suggested to him it could be a plebiscite. "I'd rather it go that route than us continually going blindly along here, led by the bureaucracy at City Hall."
Aspin blames those same bureaucrats for other misadventures, "That's why we have so many projects at loose ends, bureaucracy leading city councillors.
"My major concern is the burden of well over a million dollars to the taxpayer. In my opinion, it's going to be a white elephant. It's not where people want it.
"It's important for people to know the real story, the whole story because once you get on with it, it's like the luge track in the Olympics...once you get on you can't just get off it. They're building a Cadillac here and we don't need a Cadillac."
Councillor Mark King disagrees and thinks the committee will recommend the museum location, which he supports.
"From my viewpoint one of the biggest issues is security. I didn't want it on the beach up against the bush, which is where it would have to go based on the amount of room we have down there. We've had problems in the past with the police being unable to see into that area and that was the governing factor for me. If it's just south of the museum then the sightlines are perfect and it doesn't provide escape routes into the bush."
King also feels the earth mounds will cut down on the wind making it more friendly to bathers.
"It will take away some of that wind which may force people not to use it because it's cold. It's one of the issues."
The next committee meeting is tomorrow (Friday) morning and Aspin says he will demand hard numbers.
The committee recommendation will be taken by King to council for its consideration, but King doesn't expect it will be as early as Tuesday night's council meeting.
