Staff Photo
Some long term stability for Aaron Provincial Park in Dryden.
Manager of Community Services Steve Belanger says they have approved a new three year agreement with the government to maintain operations.
The City has used partnership service agreements for the operation of the park since 1998 as a joint venture with the Province of Ontario.
The most recent deal was signed in 2015 and expired in 2017.
Contract extensions were signed in both 2018 and 2019.
The City has no control over when they can open or allow staff in.
Aaron Park remains closed right now due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Belanger says the City has had a strong working relationship with the government despite some cutbacks.
“We certainly took advantage of some student funding opportunities. We rolled things back a little bit with some of our maintenance projects that we were shooting for. We managed to be able to get a little bit of a better price on some of our chlorine. We shopped around for those materials for our safe drinking water.”
Belanger notes one challenge has been securing a pick-up truck to service the facility.
“We have secured a truck. COVID has slowed things down so we are actually pretty happy that the province has stepped up and allowed continued use of the truck we used last year through 2020.”
The City hasn’t been required to use reserve funds to balance regular operations.
At present, Dryden maintains an Aaron Park operating reserve of $21,670.
Belanger says he doesn’t anticipate a municipal contribution will be necessary to balance the operating budgets under the exisiting agreement.
