AGENDA

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AGENDA

• Welcome and Introduction
• Meeting Overview
• Master Plan Development Process
• Presentation and Discussion of Key Recommendation
• Next Steps
• Closing Remarks
• Adjournment

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Consulting Team

• Fred Galloway, Principal Consultant
• F. J. Galloway Associates Inc.
• William Pol, Project Manager
• IBI Group
• Jeannette Eberhard
• Insights Inc.

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Master Plan Development Process

• Community Structure
• Population and Demographics
• Recreation Service Delivery
• Parks and Open Space
• Recreation Facilities
• Municipal Resources
• Public Consultation

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Community Structure

• Dorchester, Thorndale, eight hamlets and large
  rural landscape
• Economic base of agriculture, agribusiness,
  transportation services, local retail/
  institutional services and commuters to
  surrounding area
• Physically identified by the North and South
  Thames River and Highway 401

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Population and Demographics

• 2006 13,736 residents
• Growth of 6.8 by 2011 to 14,673 residents
• 95 of the growth in Dorchester and Thorndale
  based on services
• 65 years plus to grow from 12.2 16.9
• 25 44 years growth from 21.4 to 28.2
• Small growth in 0 14 years

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Population and Demographics

• Higher participation and employment rates than
  the province
• Of 4,320 households 42.2 contained a couple with
  children 10 greater than the province
• Households with no children at 34, 6 higher
  than the province
• Moderate growth in 0-19 years, more family and
  more retirement households than the province.

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Recreation Service Delivery

• Mixed service delivery providers
• Municipal operation of major facilities
• Coordinating Committee in Thorndale
• Hamlet areas have local committees
• An array of minor sport and community
  associations
• Not-for-Profit and Volunteer sector engaged

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Parks and Open Space

• Parks and Open space distributed throughout the
  municipality
• Schools provide six venues
• Private sector, Conservation Authority, ethnic
  clubs, Agricultural Society, Boy Scouts
• 36.3 hectares per 1000 residents municipal and
  school lands
• 51.2 hectares per 1000 residents all parks for a
  total of 670 hectares
• Ball fields are decreasing in utilization
• One municipal soccer field, school sites are
  available but of limited quality Camp Bel is
  developing soccer fields

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Recreation Facilities

• Dorchester Arena - Utilization 95 11 non-prime
• Outdoor pool aging with future repairs splash pad
  is new
• 438 lesson registrations 4,300 public admissions
  and 49 swim passes 10 persons per hour of
  operation

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Recreation Facilities

• Community Centres Dorchester 2 and one in each
  of Thorndale, Harrietsville-Mossley, Avon and
  Putnam
• VON Centre and Seniors Centre
• Utilization is higher in urban areas lower in
  rural areas with significant capacity available.

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Municipal Resources

• Five full time and four part time staff plus
  casual staff and Aquatic Supervisor
• Budge of 1 million annually net taxpayer cost
  in 2007 of 400,000
• 33.12 per person or approximately 120 for a
  family of four
• 500,000 1 million annually for capital
  maintenance and new facilities
• Five year capital forecast of 10.5 million
• 2011 and beyond second arena surface
  gymnasium indoor pool pedestrian bridge over
  Thames

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Public Consultation

• Focus Group Interviews
• 50 sports, leisure, business, service, youth and
  seniors groups
• Institutional Service Providers schools,
  libraries and Thames Valley Childrens Centre
• Random Telephone Survey (300 households)
• Submission of Briefs / Comments - 22
• Public Meeting January 29, 2007 60 people
• Municipal Staff and Council

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School Boards

• Community Access secondary school gymnasium and
  other facilities
• Six elementary schools five Thames Valley
  District School Boards and one London District
  Catholic School
• School Accommodations Committee has been formed
  by Thames Valley District School Board
• Dorchester is identified for minor upgrades no
  likely school closures

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Institutional Service Providers

• Potential to bring programs into the arena
• Limited interest in an indoor pool for
  programming
• Concerns regarding the viability of three rural
  branch libraries due to limited services
• Local communities decide on changes to library
  service larger branches provide higher service

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Local Committees and Boards

• Maintain local autonomy where possible
• Increased dependency on Municipality for capital
  maintenance and repair etc.
• Leadership and succession issues
• Over concentration of services in Dorchester
• Need increased funding

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Sports Organizations

• Ice users need approximately 60 hours of prime
  time 80 of an additional pad
• Soccer has high growth with poor to average field
  quality at schools
• Baseball stable or in decline requesting better
  maintenance
• Park amenities for sport fields and tournaments
  is poor
• Quality of facilities does not match users and
  residents expectations

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Special Populations

• VON to provide 3-4 days of service
• Seniors services inadequate in Thorndale
• Parents of special needs children
• Lack inclusion policy
• Need investments in equipment and services
• More sensitive design parks, walkways etc.
• Playgrounds with special needs capacity
• More hard surface walkways/trails for wheelchairs
  
• Indoor swimming facility to recognize higher
  participation rates

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Recreation Facilities and Services

• Importance of trails, walkways and bicycling
  paths, etc.
• Support for ice additional capacity
• Limited identification for an indoor pool
• Facility improvement for Dorchester Arena
• Improvement to all sport fields
• Expanded Train Club facilities in Thorndale
• Development of a Wye Trail and revitalization of
  Thorndale
• Sustaining Community in Bloom

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Service Delivery and Volunteers

• Increasing expectations of Municipal involvement
• Broad recognition of volunteer involvement
• Volunteer recruitment, training and other
  initiatives are needed

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Household Survey

• Random Telephone survey of 300 households of
  individuals 18 years and older January 2007.
• Three geographical areas. North of Highway 2
  Dorchester and South of Highway 2.

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Household Survey

• Participation one third participation in
  organized activities one in five at baseball or
  soccer
• One in ten used indoor pools and cultural
  facilities in normally in London
• 8 participated in activities for seniors
• 8 participated in activities for childrenlt 6
• 2 participated in activities for people with
  special needs.

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Overall Satisfaction

• Six in ten gave high scores related to libraries,
  baseball and soccer fields, trails
• Five in ten gave a high score to hockey/skating
• Swimming and museums received the largest Number
  of poor scores

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Future Planning

• Nine in ten agreed
• Volunteer groups should continue to run programs
• Invest more in recreation facilities
• More recreation and leisure programs
• Three in four agreed that the Recreation
  Department should be more involved in direct
  delivery

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Trends

• Aging population and stable or declining youth
• More interest in soccer and less interest in
  hockey, baseball and related sports
• Health, education, recreation and social services
  are becoming integrated
• Participation trends
• Growth in girls and womens hockey
• Increasing soccer for youth and adults
• Stable or declining interest in baseball
• Increasing interest in walking, bicycling and
  trail activities
• Increase in cultural activities

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Trends

• Enhanced facility quality and sport tourism
• Protecting and sustaining the environment
• Increasing expectations of user pay cost of
  services
• Municipalities will define their roles and
  responsibilities
• Volunteer challenges for sustainability
• Partnerships and evaluation techniques to define
  key outcomes
• Emphasis on Multi-use faculties and greater
  access to school facilities

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STRATEGIC THEMES

• Developing a service delivery and governance
  strategy that is more consistent, fair and
  equitable has clear roles and responsibilities
  is flexible and honours the diversity of
  interests and traditions across the community.
• Increasing the maintenance and quality of
  parkland and sportsfields, recreation facilities
  and amenities.
• Trail development and protection of conservation
  lands are an increasing interest to residents.

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• Policy initiatives to facilitate access and
  participation and achieving the benefits of
  leisure participation across the community
  related to integration, all age groups,
  ethnocultural backgrounds, gender-specific
  initiatives and cultural services.
• Additional ice capacity development is an
  emerging priority. The lack of ice availability
  is impacting participation levels and has
  economic impacts.
• Developing a soccer complex to facilitate a
  significantly growing sport for both youth and
  adults and which reduces dependency on school
  board and non-municipal fields of lower quality.

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• Volunteer development, recruitment, training and
  recognition will become an increasing issue. An
  inability to sustain leadership and overall
  volunteer participation could impact the range of
  programs and services available.
• Services and facility consolidation in order to
  achieve higher quality programming and more
  broadly based services, with greater hours of
  operation and accessibility, will need to be
  considered.
• Municipal leadership and staff capacity in
  community development, planning, partnership
  development and overall sector development will
  be increasingly important. The Municipality will
  need to be a greater catalyst in the development
  and delivery of these services.

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Recommendations

• Recommendation Thames Centre Community Services
  
• Delivery Policy (Page 4-2)
• That the Municipality of Thames Centre, through
  its Community
• Services Department, be a leading partner in the
  planning,
• development, delivery and evaluation of the
  leisure services
• needs of the community based on the following
  policy
• directions
• Recognize and support the value of and need for
  multiple leisure service providers and be a
  catalyst to expand the accessibility,
  availability, affordability and mix of leisure
  services.
• Support development of leisure programs, services
  and facilities which focus on providing services
  to Thames Centre residents as the primary users
  within the following participation framework

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• Community services that provide for and encourage
  broad-based participation by residents at a
  recreation level of activity, including
  inter-city and regional competitively oriented
  activities involving youth and adults.
• Community services and accessibility programming
  that links to the unique needs of targeted
  populations, including those with disabilities,
  seniors, early years children, youth, teens and
  new immigrants.

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Implementation

• Implement a planning, development and
  delivery role for community services using the
  following hierarchy to determine municipal
  involvement priorities
• First, actively work to facilitate and support
  community groups in the development and delivery
  of community services through technical support,
  information, volunteer training and recognition,
  access to facilities, etc.

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• Second, enter into partnerships, joint ventures
  and other collaborative initiatives, resulting in
  shared responsibilities for leisure facilities or
  services delivery based on the following three
  criteria
• The interest of Thames Centre residents are fully
  realized
• There is a clear demand for the type and level of
  programming proposed and
• There are reasonable sustainability prospects for
  the program or facility within acceptable
  accessibility and risk parameters.
• Third, undertake the direct delivery of leisure
  services and facilities utilizing direct capital
  investment and annual budget support where other
  delivery approaches are not available or feasible
  and demand / benefits warrants.

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• Recommendation Governance and Local
• Community Engagement (Page 4-28)
• That the Municipality of Thames Centre form and
  support a multi-dimensional Community Services
  Advisory Committee as follows

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• Membership
• Two representatives from hamlet / rural area
  parks boards and committees
• One representative from the Thorndale area active
  in leisure services delivery
• Two minor sports representatives from Dorchester
  and area (eg hockey, soccer and baseball)
• One representative of adult leisure activities
  delivery across the municipality
• Two representatives involving groups or
  populations involving individuals with
  disabilities, early years and seniors
• One representative from environmental and trail
  groups
• One representative from arts and culture
  activities
• One municipal Councillor
• Two Community Services Department staff.

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• Roles and Responsibilities
• To develop the Annual Community Services
  Communications Plan
• To initiate, where appropriate, and to review
  leisure services policy initiatives of the
  Municipality prior to Council consideration
• To coordinate the marketing and use of facilities
  across the Municipality
• To advise on the implementation of the Community
  Services Master Plan and other related leisure
  services and facilities planning initiatives
• To support and plan ongoing volunteer
  development, recruitment, recognition and related
  initiatives
• To provide ongoing advice to staff and Council on
  specific initiatives, policies, directions and
  service delivery strategies.

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• That the Municipality of Thames Centre develop a
  governance and operations model for
  municipally-owned facilities
• That local bodies continue to govern and operate
  community service programs and venue and facility
  scheduling and utilization in conformity with
  municipal policies and criteria, including health
  and safety, participant inclusion, affordability
  and related considerations
• The Municipality to become responsible for venue
  and facility maintenance for all
  municipally-owned assets, including management of
  all capital projects
• That a member of the Community Service Department
  represent the Municipality on each of the local
  governing bodies relative to providing
  coordination, communications, policy
  interpretation, etc.

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• That when a local community service board and /
  or committee is not able to continue in its role
  for whatever reason, the Municipality undertake
  the direct operation and coordination of those
  venues and facilities.
• That the Municipality establish annually, user
  fees for its directly operated programs and
  venues, as well as charges for services provided
  to local area boards and committees, based on a
  user fee policy to be developed by the
  Municipality and input provided annually by the
  Community Services Advisory Committee.

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Table 6-1 Implementation Framework

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Table 6-1 Implementation Framework
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• Recommendation Municipal Organization and
• Leisure Services Development (Page 6-2)
• That the Municipality of Thames Centre consider
  that
• following actions and investments in terms of
• supporting the ongoing development and
• enhancement of leisure services delivery within
  the
• community
• Position the Community Services Department to
  undertake a stronger leadership role in the
  following key areas
• Marketing and advertising
• Coordination and facilitation of community
  leisure services delivery
• Maintenance of municipally-owned facilities and
  venues, including managing capital projects

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• Coordination of scheduling and the cross-selling
  of space, sportsfields, ice and related
  activities across the Municipality to maximize
  utilization and revenues
• Active community development initiatives in
  support of all community organizations and
  volunteer groups.
• The development and delivery of new leisure
  services either directly or through bringing in
  new service providers to the community.

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• Host an annual forum of community service
  providing organizations to facilitate and
  support
• Program development and coordination across
  Thames Centre
• Presentation of market trends, needs assessment,
  new project initiatives, grant opportunities, etc
• Support volunteer recruitment, training,
  development and recognition
• Seek input from community groups on how best the
  Municipality can support them in the pursuit of
  their programs and services to community members.

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Contact Information
Thank-you for your time and interest in this
important community project.

• Fred Galloway, Principal Consultant
• F. J. Galloway Associates Inc.
• 350 Oxford Street West., Suite 203
• Phone [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• Email fjgalloway_at_symptico.ca