June 17 Front page

June 17, 2009  -  The people have spoken. After months of heated debate, inflammatory letters to editors, finger-pointing and sign-theft, the centre that was designed to bring the community  together will be built, but the community itself may be in need of repair.

Residents of Chelsea, Quebec  said “Yes” to the Meredith Centre with a 53 per cent majority after nearly 2,300 people - 47 per cent of eligible voters - cast their ballots June 7 and 14.

“We welcomed the result,” said Mayor Jean Perras, who was at the Chelsea Pub to hear the results June 14.

“We were out celebrating with those people who have helped us reach the point we’re at.”

Naturally not everyone is celebrating the point Chelsea is at.

“Nothing has brought this community more together than arguing about this community centre,” said Richard Hofer who campaigned for the “No” side.

Hofer said the referendum served to further distinguish what he called the “two Chelseas”: those with secure public service jobs and pensions, and kids playing organized sports on the one hand; and those with limited incomes, retired or nearing retirement, who are very concerned about taxes.

Hofer is convinced the centre will cost significantly more than has been accounted for and he’s worried about the burden it will place on individual tax payers.

“I’m hoping that because it was close and divisive, council will take a year to think hard about it.”

Bob Milko, the “No” campaign’s chairman, wrote in an email to the Low Down that the small majority the “Yes” side won is not a strong mandate.

He lamented that it had come to a referendum at all.

“I had always maintained that the municipality should conduct a proper survey listing options for different building complexes with properly associated costs,” he wrote.

“This could have resulted in a building(s) suited to more residents with their explicit support and would have been more of a community building process than using a referendum.”

From left: Wayne Russell, Caryl Green, and Stacey Moreau celebrate a Yes side win June 14 at Chelseas Pub. Mike Carroccetto photo

Caryl Green, President of the volunteer Chelsea Foundation that is spearheading the project, thinks that the margin of victory - 151 votes - is substantial enough to move forward.

“I’m really hoping that we as a community can move forward together on this,” she said.

Green said a salutary side effect of the referendum was the need it created to continually clarify information.

“What we can draw from this is the need to communicate and let people know in an ongoing way what developments there are.”

The first orders of business will be reinstating the fundraising committee - suspended for the campaign’s duration - and holding a construction committee meeting this week. She hopes to have a project manager to oversee construction within a month.

Various community groups will be given the opportunity to look at the $9.8 million centre’s design and share ideas on how the space can best be used. Perras said this step is essential.

“We’re listening to what people have said in the campaign and making sure the design and construction responds to the needs of as many residents as possible,” he said.

But he hopes to start building by the fall, skipping any lengthy community therapy.

“The proof will be in the pudding,” Perras said.

He feels that once the centre is built and being used by diverse segments of the population it will be viewed as a success.

“I’m quite confident that in the end the community will rally.”

Tagged as: chelsea, meredith centre, referendum