Athol Town Hall

Community meeting planned to discuss future of town hall

During a Committee of the Whole meeting last month, it was recommended that the municipality enter into a lease agreement with The HUB Child & Family Centre to use the Athol Town Hall as a daycare for a term of five years, pending approval from the Ministry of Education that the space meets provincial requirements. Existing users of the town hall, principally the Cherry Valley Women’s Institute (WI) and the Athol Recreation Committee, would have access after daycare hours and on weekends. Susan Wallis of the Athol Rec Committee gave a deputation at that meeting outlining the town hall usage over the past 10 years and stressing its importance as a valuable community meeting place. The hall has been the location of numerous community information meetings, games nights, music concerts, the annual WI ham supper, and the muchloved Strawberry Social. One of the outcomes from that meeting was to schedule a meeting between the various stakeholders to finalize the details of the lease agreement. That meeting took place on June 5, with representatives from the municipality—including Athol councillor Sam Branderhorst— staff from The HUB, members from the WI and the Athol Rec Committee.

There was overall support for the hall to be used as a daycare facility, but ironing out the details led at times to some strong emotions coming through. The plan is to provide 24 daycare spaces for preschoolers, ages 30 to 44 months. Currently, daycare is sorely needed in the County, with a waiting list of over 400 children. Prince Edward Lennox & Addington Social Services has the responsibility to deliver provincial childcare funding to this community, and there are currently 102 allocated Canada Wide Early Learning Childcare spaces for Prince Edward County, 53 of those spaces for Picton, Athol and Marysburgh. The Athol area is at the top of the priority list. The HUB’s Expression of Interest document noted that the Athol Town Hall is central in Cherry Valley and close to the school. It proposed that the washrooms are renovated, an industrial dishwasher be installed in the kitchen, and a fenced-in playground area added. There will be office space, a secure area for documents and dedicated spaces for use by the WI and Rec Committee.

One of the major points of contention was the claim by County staff that the Athol Town Hall sees only limited use by current stakeholders, and that was one of the reasons that the hall was chosen as a site for consideration. While the recent use (since 2022) has been around six per cent of available time, Ms. Wallis stressed that historical use has been much higher, and recent changes to how the municipality regards paid events has led to a drop in usage. Lisa Lindsay, Director of Recreation and Community Facilities, who facilitated the meeting, offered to show the Rec Committee how to continue to offer events while conforming to the new rules. A fair amount of discussion ensued on how to ensure mid-week events such as the WI ham supper and Strawberry Social—which are both popular with the broader community—can continue. Stacey Stanford, Executive Director of the HUB, said that the daycare schedule can accommodate those events. She also said that the WI weekly exercise session can take place during daycare hours, while the children are outside during their mandated two hours of outdoor activities. Ms. Stanford noted that The HUB has experience with shared-use facilities at the Massassaga-Rednersville School.

Athol Rec Committee member Glen Wallis said that the current septic system is completely inadequate to handle the needs of the proposed daycare centre, and will need to be replaced or to have a holding tank installed. There were also concerns about having a safe parking area for families when they drop off or pick up their children. One member of the WI asked whether Athol families would get priority placement should the daycare go ahead. Ms. Stanford said that priority is based on how long a child has been on the waitlist. Both the WI members and the Athol Rec Committee members felt that the Athol community at large has been kept in the dark about this proposed change. To that end, a meeting is scheduled for today (Thursday, June 13) in the town hall at 5:30 to provide information about the potential sharing of the hall with The HUB, and to provide information about the impending return of the front door and additional landscaping. There will also be information about the Strawberry Social and Athol Days. Council is expected to review the lease agreement with The HUB, with amendments arising from the June 5 stakeholder meeting, at its June 27 meeting. WI member Michelle Guernsey said that it was very important to her that new daycare spaces become available. As a young mother, the lack of such spaces has necessitated she is a stay-at-home mom with her preschool children, and she wants to ensure that other young mothers have to option to return to work to help provide for their families. “We are super excited for this daycare to happen,” she said.