It’s one of the city projects that just doesn’t seem to achieve lift off. While the plans for a turf field in Thorold have been gestating since 2021, the city is still nowhere near putting a shovel in the ground.
As ThoroldToday reported, back in the spring, city council decided to re-enter negotiations with the District School Board of Niagara (DSBN) concerning a turf field at McMillan Park in downtown Thorold.
But six months later, the working group — which includes Councillors Mike De Divitiis, Henry D’Angela, Anthony Longo, City Hall staff and the DSBN — has only met once, on September 20.
That’s why Councillor De Divitiis made a plea to the Parks, Trails and Recreation Committee on Monday evening.
“I think we need to push the city to make this more of a priority,” he told committee members. “If we discuss getting together every four or five months, this deal will be dead because the DSBN will probably walk away.”
Councillor De Divitiis said he’s worried the DSBN will lose interest.
“It would be a shame to wait years and years to build a turf field in Thorold when we desperately need it,” he added. “The DSBN is there and wants to play ball. I think we got to push the city to move it more.”
Other committee members agreed.
“Four months seems to be an outlandish amount of time just to form a meeting when it seems to be a very rounding success during the council meeting when it was unanimously voted on to get this going and moving,” said Committee Chair Kieran Daniels. “We’re almost six months down the road and you had one meeting about it.”
ThoroldToday reached out to a representative of the DSBN, but did not hear back in time for publication.
As for the plans for a turf field in Rolling Meadows, that project is also at a standstill.
“When we went to AMO, we met with [Ontario] Minister [of Sports Neil] Lumsden and there’s a fund that you can use,” Councillor Ken Sentance told committee members. “We applied to it. We’re still waiting to see if we get it. Then when we find out we can move forward. That’s where we are. We don’t have funding for it yet.”
So once again, the dream of a turf field in Thorold seems to be moving at a snail’s pace.
“Our community really needs it and our students really need it,” concluded Councillor De Divitiis. “It’ll be a big impact for Thorold sports. It’s a winner all-around and we have some DSBN money to throw in there. It seems to be an easy decision to make.”
