By Mark Squibb
November 17, 2023 Edition
After more than a year of waiting for the Town of Witless Bay to come to the table with a new funding deal, the Bay Bulls to Bauline Athletic Association has broken the logjam affecting the future of recreation on that part of the Southern Shore by reaching a merger agreement with Bay Bulls to take over management of the Bay Bulls Regional Lifestyle Centre.
While the Town will remain financially responsible for the Centre, the BBBAA will take over its management.
"With the recent vacancy of the Facilities Manager position at the BBRLC, The Town of Bay Bulls saw a great opportunity to merge with the BBBAA,” said Bay Bulls Mayor Keith O’Driscoll. “The Town of Bay Bulls has since entered into a partnership with the BBBAA to merge the BBRLC operations with the recreational services of the BBBAA.”
O’Driscoll said given the vacancy, this was a prime time to merge the two entities as the Town can use the monies that would typically be used to pay the facility manager’s salary to fund the BBBAA instead, in addition to the funding already provided to the BBBAA through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
O’Driscoll said he would rather not share what the salary amount is, but noted it won’t affect residents’ pocketbooks, as the funds had already been allocated in the Town’s budget.
“This is not going to impact our budget in any way, nor is it going to cause any changes in mil rate or what have you,” said O’Driscoll. “At the end of the day, the operations for the BBBAA are not going to change, there’s still going to be a regional board providing recreation as a regional entity. But this merger allows the recreation to be enhanced by the use of the building, and the Town is going to benefit from the programing within the building.”
BBBAA chairman Scott Penney said the merger is a good news story all around.
“This is a great news story, because we’ve solidified funding and we’ve solidified the future,” said Penney. “I can tell you, the last five or six months we’ve been discussing this with the Town it’s been a very collaborative, very positive, two-way discussion, and moving forward I don’t see any issues.”
Penney added the merger will benefit the Town of Bay Bulls in the long term financially.
“Residents coming in and building homes into the community want these services,” said Penney. “And I think that’s the opportunity Bay Bulls saw.”
For years, the Town of Bay Bulls and the Town of Witless Bay both contributed $37,000 annually to the organization, as per MOU’s signed between the organization and both towns. In return, the BBBAA acted as a defacto recreation department for both communities.
The board’s MOU with the Town of Witless Bay expired at the close of 2022, and council deferred the decision to renew time and time again, until it eventually fell off the agenda altogether.
Scott said that payments to the BBBAA from Witless Bay ceased following the expiration of the MOU, although the Town did agree to give the association $1,000 towards its Canada Day Celebrations this summer.
“For us, it’s always been about the long-term stability of the BBBAA and ensuring that our employees have long-term employment, and so we try and take away any uncertainty when it comes to the future of our organization,” said Penney. “The last couple of years have been considerably challenging with the Town of Witless Bay, and for us. The non-commitment on the extension of our MOU really created uncertainty, and we thought the prudent thing to do would be to try and solidify funding and a relationship that would see the long-term future of the BBBAA succeed, but as well, give employees the long-term stability that they certainly deserve…. We couldn’t see a future working with this current (Witless Bay) council. That’s really what happened. It gets to a point where there’s no path forward, and I think we reached that point… But luckily, we have a community council in Bay Bulls that was willing to step up and fund the BBBAA and merge that as one.”
The Irish Loop Post reached out to both Witless Bay Mayor Trevor Croft and Deputy Mayor Lorna Yard. Croft directed any questions regarding the announcement to the Town’s CAO Jennifer Aspell.
The Irish Loop Post asked Aspell if Witless Bay has any plans to fund its own recreation program or hire a recreation director. Aspell said the Town is preparing for Budget 2024 and is considering how to best move forward in respect to recreation. She added the Town was only made aware of the merger this week, and council has not yet discussed it in any detail.
The BBBAA, meanwhile will continue to operate as usual.
“Nothing is going to change here, this just provides us with stability and eliminates all the uncertainty that came with the Witless Bay council,” said Penney. “At the end of the day, this is a very positive outcome.”
The BBBAA runs an active-school program as well as summer camps, a soccer program, winter carnivals, Canada Day celebrations, and other events. That programming will continue following the merger.
Penney said there’s uncertainty as to whether the two boards will eventually merge as one, but added those details will be worked out in the coming months.
Penney himself, along with some other members, will be stepping aside in the coming months to make way for younger board members.
