Making of A Ball Diamond

Fifty years ago, the Town Park held the only diamond. It had probably been there for fifty years.

Parkland was provided by Mr. Mosely ,who subdivided the original grant of land from Yonge Street to the railroad tracks. The tracks came later.

I never understood why the town's history aficionados never cared about preserving the park's heritage. It's likely among the oldest artifacts along with the ball diamond. Maybe it was because the residents around were employees of the various industries in town.

During the recent diamond controversy, much was made of the small number of players;about the same as the Aurora Historical Society. No weight at all was given to the fact a ball diamond is an investment that serves an endless succession of generations of residents.

It wasn't the only oversight.

The Master Recreation Plan was ignored. Development charge levies for the project were equally disregarded.

But the worst of all was the chosen site.

The project was identified as a priority in the Five Year Master Recreation Master Plan. That's a mandated device to determine needs and justify development charges to meet them. Justification. for the levy is required by law.

In the 2007 budget, staff recommended a purchase of land. They knew of a suitable site and recommended speedy acquisition . Council cut it from the budget. .

Next year, same thing. Councillor Mac Eachern considered the lands adjacent to the Stronach Rec. Centre. to be most suitable. Although they belonged to the town, they were not designated at the time, so could not be used.

At the same time, an estimate of $600Ks for construction showed in the forecast.

It was also cut twice.

The night the 2008 budget was approved, the Aurora Ball Association came to Council to plead their cause. They had assumed because staff had twice recommended the facility as a priority, Council would recognise the urgency.

They were wrong.

But they did not depart empty-handed. The Mayor showed complete empathy and
inquired as to specific wants and needs, With a magnanimous flourish, the Leisure Service Director was directed to commence the very next morning, to plan a facility in line with the requests, to be located on the 2c lands adjacent to the Stronach Rec Complex, the project to be included in the budget of 2009.

Nothing more was heard until the item came forward in the 2009 budget at an estimated cost of $1.6 million dollars.

The stage was set. Once again the proverbial matter hit the fan. Councillors in sequence with an assigned question, aggressively challenged the competence of the Leisure Services Director.

We still had Team Management but the Director took the brunt alone.

Gone was the memory of specific instructions from the Mayor to include everything requested by the Ball Association.

Councillor MacEachern had done her own research and discovered a number of municipalities who had built facilities for less.

Advice to acquire suitable land for a ball diamond was conveniently forgotten.

Overlooked was the fact, the initial estimate was without site preparation because there was no site in mind.

Eventually, after much sound and fury, public outrage against a diamond whipped up, and direction to the new CAO to take the matter in hand, a contract was awarded for construction on 2c lands abutting the Stronach Rec Centre,since amended by the Region, at a price just under a million with no contingency fund and leaving most of the site ungraded.

The project start was three months later than optimum.

I visited regularly since work began. I can't walk the area as Councillors' used to do in the olden days, accompanied by the engineer. The land had substantial contours and the mountain of top soil. I saw earth movers parked in a corner of the field at week-ends and slight signs of progress in levelling the land.

Mine is an unpractised eye. The amount of earth to be moved no doubt impacted the time it took to move it. Snow came early and sub zero freezing temperatures. Not the best conditions. .

Cutting down hills and filling depressions have contributed $400Ks to cost of the project.

Had staff advice been accepted, suitable land for a diamond would have been purchased in 2007,
the facility might have been built at its original estimate of $600Ks .

Use of the facility would have been maximized.

Player numbers would have grown

Development charges would have been used for the purpose intended.

The community would have been well-served.

Instead, there will be a gala opening in election year. All will be forgiven and forgotten and ball players will prostrate themselves in gratitude and obeisance before their Mighty Mayor and Benefactor

That would be the plan.