Sports Centre’s Future Debated at Lakeshore Meeting

By Mark Brown

The fate of a sports and recreation complex was a key component of the agenda at Monday night’s town council meeting in Lakeshore.

Lakeshore Town Council voted 6-3 to begin the process of seeking the help of a realtor for the listing of the Puce Sports and Leisure Centre, which houses the Lakeshore Academy of Fine Arts. The operator of the school, Sarah Ilijanich, had been hoping to purchase the building and renovate it, but council stuck to its bottom-line price tag of $500,000.

Ilijanich had told council members at Lakeshore Town Hall she had access to up to $300,000 to renovate the building, but members believed renovations, including asbestos removal, would push the cost up further. Ilijanich said her only concern is keeping her school an important part of the Lakeshore arts scene.

“I’m not asking you to build me a building,” Ilijanich said in front of council. “All I’m asking is that you quote me a price. I’m here fighting for the arts. I’m here fighing for Lakeshore.”

Ilijanich had offered the town one dollar for the building earlier this year, similar to the arrangement Windsor made with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra for the Capitol Theatre downtown. Council rejected that proposal.

Ward 4 Councillor Steven Bezaire told Ilijanich that her latest proposal will not work.

“Some things just aren’t meant to be,” said Bezaire. “It just doesn’t seem viable…this is not the right building for you to buy.”

Steve Salmons, Lakeshore’s director of community and development services, said the Puce Sports Centre had been appraised for $860,000, and a similar building in the area had sold for $1.2 million. Ward 2 Councillor Dave Monk noted the asbestos present in the building and that the cost of its removal would account for much of the purchase price.

Council members eventually passed a motion to turn the process of selling the property over to a realtor. Councillors Bezaire, Monk and Dan Diemer voted against it. Ilijanich said she was disappointed and is already looking to relocate elsewhere.

“I have $300,000 to spend and it won’t be in Lakeshore anytime soon,” Ilijanich said outside council chambers.

She said that she has been talking with a casting director about working in London, but she believes in the Windsor-Essex area and has spoken with an unnamed company about the possibility of moving the school to St. Clair Beach.

The meeting was the first regularly-scheduled one held in Lakeshore since the Oct 27 municipal election. Councillors Bezaire and Charles McLean did not win reelection, though Mayor Tom Bain and Deputy Mayor Al Fazio will join the remaining councillors and return for another term.

Members of Lakeshore Town Council confer following their meeting Monday, Nov 10. From left, Councillors Dave Monk and Charles McLean, Mayor Tom Bain, Chief Administrative Officer Kirk Foran, Councillors Steven Bezaire and Linda MacKinlay. Council Chambers, Lakeshore Town Hall, Belle River, ON (PHOTO/Mark Brown)