Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of the community services committee to order. Grimsby is situated on treaty land. This land is steeped in the rich history of the first nations such as the Hadawandrank, the Hodnesoni and the Anesnab including the Missosagas of the Credit First Nation. There are many First Nation, Matei and Inuit people from across Turtle Island that live and work in Niagara today. The regional municipality of Niagara and Grimby stands with all indigenous people past and present in promoting the wise stewardship of the lands on which we live. Are there any disclosures of pecuniary or non-punary interest? Okay, seeing none, moving on to the approval of the agenda. Before we approve the agenda, I'd like to propose an amendment to consider report DCS 2633, cultural services strategic plan, immediately following the delegation from Matthew Dawson of Studio Dawson. Can I get a mover and a seconder to approve the agenda as amended? Okay. Moved by councelor DeFio and seconded by um member Rayont. Resolve that the agenda for the June 23rd, 2026 Community Services Committee meeting be approved as amended. All in favor? Okay. And that's carried. Can I get a mover and a seconder to receive the previous meeting minutes? Moved by Councelor Christi, seconded by member Bravant. Resolve that the following minutes be received. Community services committee May 26, 2026. Art Gallery Special Purpose Advisory Committee June 18th, 2026. All in favor? Okay. And that's carried. All right. Moving on to delegations. Tonight we have two delegations. The first is from Dena Empire and Clayton Lerno, both members of the art gallery special purpose advisory committee who will be providing the committee's end of term presentation. Dena and Clayton, if you can please come up to the podium then begin whenever you are ready. Just need to press the little button on the right. All right. Ready to go? >> All right. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh thank you uh to the community services committee for this opportunity to you know u it's a very long name for our committee Grimby public art gallery special purpose advisory committ's end of term report this evening and I'm Dina and >> I'm Clayton Materno >> and we both are representing our committee and the report was prepared um in consultation with the committee and in collaboration with uh Sylvia Been our gallery manager and um curator. So next slide. So this presentation is in four parts. You you can hear me right? Okay. Four parts and uh the first is the introduction. Second is the accomplishments for this term that is 2023 to 2026 and future opportunities for 2026 and beyond um with with the hopes that the new council will consider um looking at these opportunities and follow upon and uh have some closing remarks and Clayton and I will be um going back and forth through this presentation. Next slide. So in introduction that um 51 years ago, Groomsby Public Art Gallery was established in 1975 under the mandate of a committee formed through the Grimby Public Library Board. The founding vision of the the gallery was to create an active and accessible community art gallery serving residents and visitors alike. Why is art important? Art is more than just decoration. It brings joy, inspiration, connection, healing. It helps us to see the world in new ways and reminds us that we are all in this together. And that's a good thing for the community. So 15 years after its establishment in 1999 gallery transitioned to become subd department of the town of Grimby operating under the guidance of that was the first uh Grimby public art gallery board. Next next slide. In 2004, um the gallery and library moved into this new purpose-built building building that right now that is the our home um and um created a hub for cultural services in in that area. So a little bit about the committee evolving. So May uh 2023 the board evolved into Grimby cultural advisory committee and um that supported art gallery and the museum. The structure remained in place until May 2024. Then a dedicated art gallery special purpose advisory committee was established. that is the current um committee and u the cultural advice advisory committee was dissolved in September 2024. So the composition of our um committee is um consists of councelor Hal and seven community lay members. We have Adrien Brown in in the audience there and um FA Billing Terisa Shavey Lynn Gilbank Dina Aramali myself Tina Carvalitis and Clayton. So I'm going by alphabetical but Clayton is the last one. So and we worked in collaboration with Sylvia Bibbin as I mentioned earlier on the manager and curator of art gallery. The man next slide please. The mandate of our committee was to um uh bring input and expertise of special purpose advisory committee. So the advisory committee members are volunteers who ensure public representation and provide guidance and advice on operations of gallery, the collections and the programs. Advisory committee members contribute to the development of policy and participation membership, fundraising and volunteer development. With that in mind, um we would like to present some key accomplishments. Next slide, please. >> With regard to some of the accomplishments, uh achieved Oh, next slide. Uh with regard to some of the accomplishments achieved by the committee uh between 2023 and 2026, we've looked at the collections and stewardship. Um there's been an advancement of the gallery's digital archive from approximately 30% to 90% um uh complete of of uh of the entire collection. Uh upgrades to the permanent storage facilities have been completed which enhanced the long-term care of the collection which was much needed. Um, there's also been some expansion to the programming and exhibitions with a continued delivery of robust exhibition schedule with very well attended openings and events including exhibitions by Hoy Lamb, Joe Ellen Brighten, Jason Berg, and uh, as well as the gallery's permanent collection. Um, there's also been enhanced community gallery opportunities for local artists and organizations through 12 distinct exhibitions, including local high school showcases, works by Quinton Sedsari, and the mayor's Christmas card contest exhibition. Um, in addition, there's been introduction and continuation of music in the gallery programming, which is also very well attended. >> Next slide. So here here is a collage of uh some of the u u exhibitions uh shots taken from the exhibitions and uh since it is the visual arts and we have to show some pictures on the left is the u our permanent collection in 2025 we celebrated 50th anniversary. So from our uh collection um we took 80 pieces of art from 70 artists and then put an exhibition for 4 months and it was very well attended and it's a beloved pieces. It was wonderful to see that. And then on the right is um Hoy Lamb. He was working on material based practice and wellness and things. on the left you see the blue it is um um what's his name it's uh Jason Bird we are like water is the um is the title and he looked at plain screen u first nations medicine wheel and thinking of color blue so you will see a lot of arts of work with blue in it and on the Right is the community gallery. It is u uh Quinton Tazeri. He created a garden of collage on the um community gallery wall. Next slide please. So some of the uh summer accomplishments are the successful execution of two glam gala fundraising events increasing community engagement and support for the gallery, museum and library. the ongoing collaboration with schools. Uh we showcased um student artwork in two high school both high schools um since 2021 and every year we even this year we had a exhibition of both um uh Grimsby secondary school student art art exhibition and also um and also the grade 12 students from Blessed Trinity Secondary School. Then uh expansion of public art initiative including bellbox murals and installations. You will see that in a minute in next slide. And the age friendly programming that was very well um received and people are still talking about it because uh uh it is making it accessible for um for older adults uh and they love doing art and a lot of people uh there was one um workshop was canceled and there were a couple of them said how come the workshop is canceled I was so looking forward to it. So it is good to know that you know people are enjoying those things and it is uh good for the gallery to provide that and development of documentation supporting a queer art uh collective and that is also very important because GMP public art gallery is launching the uh GPA queer art collective a free monthly dropin um hang series inviting local queer and trans youth to get creative in a safe and peerupported space. Next slide please. So here you would see on the top left is the glam gala and some of you were there and it was well attended and on the left um extreme left is the age friendly workshop happening over there and on the right is um the bellbox uh painting uh by a family that was happening and not but least mayor's um uh Christmas card contest of uh with young uh artist and that uh that artist won the prize and then her image was on the mayor's greeting card and her artwork was on the wall. Next, >> so some of the future opportunities >> as we look towards the future opportunities uh we look toward at uh governance and operations uh we seek to maintain a minimum of eight meetings annually. Um we feel that the number reflects the amount of work that needs to uh be completed um through each year. Um we also want to enhance the engagement in planning, programming, fundraising and operations. Uh with regard to committees and initiatives, uh we will seek to reestablish a fundraising subcommittee. Um it was something that was previously um that was previously formed uh to the benefit of the the gallery that somewhere in the translation between the two committees and the amalgamation was dissolved around um early 2020s or so. >> 199 okay 2019. It was dissolved in 2019. Um and then revitalize and update the arts in school program um so that we have a um a strategic plan for making sure that we're getting the artwork um out of the gallery and in front of school kids. >> Okay. And the policy development developed a formal policy for traveling exhibitions and artworks. And as you know that we have 2500 artworks in our collection. That is a huge collection and very very proud of it and we need to share that. So we have to develop a policy which artworks can go out into the public and then what we can do with that and then what we have to retain for the purposes of that. So we need to develop a policy um coming up in in the next term and what what to do which which pieces have to go and also about the permanent collection as I mentioned we have 25 works of arts on mostly on paper about 90% are digitized as we mentioned earlier the next step is to choose some pieces and publish them online so that the public uh from all over the world can view that and many art galleries and um museums are doing that. So that would be one of the things uh to develop a policy on that would be a good one. And um um traveling exhibition I I talked about it and art loans to different offices and a lot of uh offices may be interested businesses may be interested in u uh borrowing artworks uh to show them in in their offices. Then um audience then I'll I'll go to the volunteer end and do programs as um Clayton had mentioned and we had for 43 years we had a very good volunteer um committee and which was dissolved in 2019. Uh they helped a lot um in uh in doing um worked side by side by the with the gallery staff to ensure that art and culture available for all residents of Grimby and Niagara region. Uh this had included organizing annual fundraising auctions, assisting in educational programs as guides, moving art in schools, displays in the community and by helping at events like ways goose gallery openings and community festivals. And finally uh the audience development creating strategies to attract and engage a more diverse audience. when you look at the um census of uh for Grimby there is 8.6% of visible minority are there but in a lot of openings um not not very many people are coming to the gallery so we need to um make sure that you know those people are also involved because it it is by involving everyone we make a robust and uh community that we all feel we belong. So maybe bringing um different uh artists from those groups and maybe e either a solo exhibition or a group exhibition uh would uh help. So in conclusion, the establishment of this uh art gallery special purpose advisory committee has provided renewed focus and direction for the Crimby Public Art Gallery. The committee has supported meaningful growth in programming, collections management, and community engagement. And our committee remains committed to strengthening the gallery's role as a vital cultural hub within the town of Grimby. And uh the committee hopes that the next term of council will consider pursuing the highlighted future opportunities and continue to support art gallery. Maybe we will reach 100th anniversary someday. Thank you. >> Thank you for your presentation, Dina and Clayton. Uh, can I get a mover and a seconder to receive the presentation? Moved by member Brethther and seconded by councelor DeFlavio. Are there any questions from our committee? >> Okay, councelor Christie. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, I just want to say thank you very much. Um the presentation was fantastic and it's it's always good to hear uh what has been happening, what you know the future opportunities are. Um for those of us that don't sit on that committee, um it really gives us insight into how much work that that you do and how valuable the committee is. So um uh in saying that I would just like to thank you and thank everybody on that committee for uh the dedication to volunteering to be a part of that committee and all the work that you have done for our community and the art gallery. So thank you for that. >> Thank you councelor Davia. >> Thank you chair through you. Thanks Dina and thanks Clayton. Um so you talked about the digital ar the digitization going from 30% to 90%. Uh first question I have is is that available to people yet uh like online? So can people view the collection or is that just kind of an archival thing? So it was sorry it was digitized but it we haven't had the opportunity to um uh to catalog and also as I was mentioning earlier on we need to have a policy which artworks will go online for the public to see that. So that is in the works I believe. >> Oh sorry I I misunderstood. I thought you when you talked about which the policy I thought you you were talking about the ones for shared artworks like uh for the loan program. I didn't realize that you mentioned it for both >> collection this one. So >> my my mistake I I because I'd love to see as much of that archive uh you know whatever we think is appropriate. I I understand there might be concerns between sharing that and um maybe security and things like that at the library because if people know what you have then there might be a need for increased security. So I I'm going to let our professionals make that decision. But I from a purely educational perspective I'd love to see as much of that in public as possible. But you know um that I wanted to mention that we used to get uh invitations. So you you showed all those beautiful uh uh openings and displays that were on and we used to get invitations as a council to every one of those. Uh I don't think that we received an invitation during the last term of council and if I if we did I don't know other counselors uh would be able to respond to that. I want to be there to support the gallery. I can't keep track of every calendar though. So if if for the future, again, we're we're talking about things to do going forward. This is not a judgment or a criticism. It's just as a next term of council thing. Inviting members of council to the to those openings is a great way to get more people there and also to create awareness of of what is there. I happen to see them when I'm in the library. I always go over to the gallery and take a look at what's there, but I was not there for any openings of this term of the last four years. Uh, so that's just a suggestion. I don't know if you want to comment. I >> No, no, no. Sorry. I think it was an oversight or something and uh um we would love to have as many counselors uh come and know it is art is so beautiful. We all need that like um I I want to give you this quote that art um watching art in either a sculpture or a painting and once you start watching them it is like eating chocolate. One sample is never enough. So beware. >> You're preaching to the choir. My my wife's an art teacher and I'm a history teacher and we we love art. So I I would have been there for every one of them if I had known when they were happening. Um, the other thing I wanted to ask about was you talked about developing a formal policy for traveling exhibits and artwork loans. We traditionally had a a policy for for loaning artwork. We we used to lend out artwork to the high schools. Um, I know that Blessed Trinity and at Grimby Secondary School, they had installed when Grimby Secondary School still existed. I don't know if West Niagara has done it, but they in installed the track systems so that our art would go up easily in those in those schools. Um, I think that program might have fallen by the wayside over the years because there's some institutional uh knowledge that kind of gets lost when when people when when one gallery director leaves and another one comes in. So, I just want to tell you that that has been happening for 30 or 40 years. Like that that loan program has been around for a long time. So, I'm happy to hear that we're thinking of continuing it or restarting it and I understand that we have to have a policy because there's a security concern just like with anything else. Further further to that, um I've always thought it would be great to have some of these artworks and I'm sorry for going on a rant, but I art is something that I care about and the art gallery is something that I care about. So, after your presentation, I had all kinds of things that that came to mind. Um, behind the desk at town hall and behind the te desk at the major refrigeration peach king center are both places that are locked up at night and where there's staff most of the time during the day. So, those might be great places to put up some of our artworks from the gallery. Uh, again, not just to you, but to our director. uh because it you know if you include a description like you would in the gallery or a QR code that takes you to information about the gallery it's just another way of engaging people and getting that you know people's some people live in Grimby don't even know that we have an art gallery right so the more we could do to make that publicly known wherever we have an opportunity to put that artwork up and to share that I think is is a great idea so I don't know again from a security perspective I'm looking at our director if there's something that we could to do that. The reason why we probably never did it in the old Peach King Center was it was kind of not a great place to do it, but we have a nice big wall behind our our desk at the new Peach King Center that I think would serve as a nice background to some of that artwork >> and and also probably you heard about the mural coming up and so that that is going to be fantastic once it's in place director Sweeney and Sylvia. So we are very excited about that. Yes, I totally agree with you and art bringing it out and then we'll choose some pieces and then you know bring it out and put it and then I >> I think specifically some of the discussion was around the exhibition traveling at large to um non sort of institutions. Um there was some requests by some of the retirement residences in Grimby for the for like is there potential for the show to travel? Um, some of the concerns that were raised during our regular meetings were the cost to move it, the cost to ensure it, and if there is, you know, if there should be a financial obligation from the organization for a donation or or some type of contribution to the gallery itself to offset those costs so that it doesn't become another expense of the gallery. Um, but we can still make sure that we're making it accessible to the to the community. And so, please don't think of what I'm saying here as a criticism in any way. I'm thankful for everything that you've done. And I just think that since you're here, it's an opportunity to brainstorm and come up with ideas because we're looking at what can we do going forward for the next term. And so, those are a couple of ideas that came to mind. So, maybe take them back and and discuss them or I mean, I know the term is done, but for the next term, maybe we can do more things. But, thank you for your presentation and for all the detail. And uh every time I see an image of art with people in front of it, it makes me happy. So I I really enjoyed your presentation. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> You are uh are there any others? Uh I just wanted to thank you as well for your volunteering for this committee. Uh and it's nice to see progress and we appreciate all of these, you know, next steps. So hopefully we'll see you both again and the rest of your committee for for uh future terms. So I have a right brain, left brain thing. I'm a scientist by profession and also an artist and I have done solo shows and everything. So art is very close to my heart and uh and promoting it is definitely is one of the things. So and thank you to the council for for encouraging and hopefully we will see 100th anniversary in 2075. >> Thank you very much. Okay. Resolve that the end of term presentation from the art gallery special purpose advisory committee be received for information. All in favor? Okay. And that is carried. So um Dina and Clayton, if if you'd like to stay, you are free to stay. Um however, you can go anytime as well. Okay. All right. So our second uh delegation tonight is from Matthew Dawson of Studio Dawson, who will be speaking to the town's cultural services strategic plans. Uh, Matthew, please come up to the podium and begin whenever you are ready. >> Thank you. >> Yes, red to the right. >> Thank you and thank you for your time tonight. Yes, indeed. My name is Matt Dawson from Studio Dawson and I am here to present to you um this report on the strategic plans for the Grimby Museum and Art Gallery. Next slide, please. Um, we've been working on on five-year strategic plans in the plural for the museum, a separate plan for the art gallery and an appendix report called cultural strategic considerations for things to capture things that are outside the remitt of the of the museum and art gallery. They are three distinct plans uh but we have developed them in concert uh working together as a team uh through through all the stages of the uh strategic planning process. Next slide please. Um it has been as a reminder a four-phase process over about five month period. Um in the first phase we did a background review, we did some benchmarking. We took a look at the inventory of cultural assets in Grimby um and and kind of got grounded in the museum and the art gallery. Next slide please. And then in the second phase that was an opportunity if you recall um that was an opportunity to ask directly ask the community directly what do you want from your museum and art gallery? And you may recall in March I came and I and I reported out on what we had heard uh through that engagement process uh before we moved on to the development of the strategic plans that you're going to be seeing tonight. Next slide please. U in in the third phase. Yeah. Next slide. Thank you. Yeah. Yes. Um in that third phase h sorry back one. I'm so sorry. So sorry. In that third phase, we did develop a SWAT strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threat, detailed analysis. So, this is just the summary up on the slide there. Detailed analysis for both the museum and the art gallery. Um, just as a as a headline, you know, the opportunity really for both museum and the art gallery is about increasing their visibility, increase the collaboration, the existing collaboration, but even do more collaborations with partners in Grimby. um and take advantage frankly of Grimby's uh growing size and and diversity. So those are all great opportunities for for both museum and art gallery. Strengths again for both the museum and the art gallery is their ability to deliver. Um they're already delivering terrific exhibitions and programs and and they have all all the things lined up to to deliver. And then weaknesses, you know, I think I think if we're being honest, both are struggling to connect and attract to new audiences. And we're going to say more about that as we go forward. Um, next slide, please. So, we uh for the strategic plan, we've developed a strategic vision. Actually, the report we just heard was a great reminder that running a museum and an art gallery is a multifaceted thing. You've got a lot of things going on. You've got operations, you've got collection care, you've got governance, you've got policies, and all of that will continue over the next 5 years. The strategic plan is about figuring out what's the north star and what's the guiding vision that's going to pull a lot of those other activities along if that's making sense. And so for both both the museum and for the art gallery we've decided in consultation really for the next five years the really guiding vision is to grow the breadth and depth of the audiences they serve. One sentence easy to say and then a lot is going to follow from that. Next slide please. So now going just to the museum. What does that vision about growing the the the audience mean? Well, it means we have taken a look at the foundation statements, you know, the mission, mandate, and vision statements for the museum, and we're doing some slight adjustments to capture number one, recasting the remitt, right, u for the museum around the idea of stories of Grimby. And without getting too into the weeds, Heritage is still there, but Stories of Grimby, we think, just helps to broaden that out a little bit, broaden out what what the museum is here for. It's for stories of Grimby. Number two, clarifying that the audience uh is for quote, you know, all who call Grimby home. Again, that might seem like a truism, but it's it's important to say that that this is museum is here for everyone. Everyone that's going to be the guiding light. It's not just for people who love history and heritage. It's it's it's available if you're interested for everyone. And then lastly, yeah, continuing to emphasize that indeed the museum is a collecting institution. It's got a big collection. It does a lot with the collection and that's still a guiding feature. Next slide, please. Um and so wi with those points in mind, the stories of Grimby u u and everything else, we have adjusted the the the the three statements. They're here on the slide, reproduced here, and also reflected in the plan that reflects that new strategic vision for uh for the next 5 years for the Grimby Museum. Next slide, please. Now, for the art gallery, what about for the art gallery with that same vision of of growing the the the depth and breadth of the audience? So, we're likewise, we've taken a look at the foundation statements for the art gallery and we're proposing a couple kind of nuanced uh revisions to it. First of all, clarifying what we're calling in shorthand um an art for all approach, art for all, trying to capture this idea that of course art is for people who love art, but we want to do that. We also wanted to make sure that we're also making art for all that we're inviting everyone to experience art uh at at the the public art gallery. Number two, state um that the vision is really for the art gallery to to serve as a key facilitator. That's the word we're using like that lynch pin within and at the center of a vibrant arts community. Um, and lastly, just like the museum, that that the art gallery continues to emphasize that it's a collecting institution, has a terrific collection, and we're going to make the the absolute most of that collection. Next slide, please. So, similarly with the art gallery, we've adjusted the mission, vision, and mandate statements, captured some of those phrases, and uh reproduced here and in the plan and ready to guide the art gallery going forward for the next five years. Next slide, please. So, so what does all that mean and how how will the museum and art gallery achieve that vision? Well, they're going to achieve it by setting goals, three and there actually three goals that are shared between the two of them. So, they're nice and clean. Um, and then tasks to in support of each of those goals. And all of that, if you get the diagram, just ladders up to what we were just talking about with the mission, vision, and mandate. So, next slide, please. The three goals are um shared across again shared across the museum and art gallery. Number one, goal number one grow the breadth and depth of the connections to community. And you're going to hear connections to community is everything from the volunteers to the people who love the place to to everything else. So number one could grow the breadth and depth of the connections to community. Number two and slightly different I called this the awareness and visibility goal. uh raise the market profile within Grimby and the Niagara region, moving from a position of hidden community gem to treasured resource with regional profile. That's goal number two. And then goal number three, develop exhibition programs inspired by what appeals to a broad spectrum of residents. So those are the three highle goals that are going to take the museum and the art gallery to that to that vision over the next five years. And then next slide we're going to break it down in into some of the task and how they're going to achieve it. So start first with this community connection goal. And just to paint a picture like current state you could say of community con they they have great community connections but they're they have that we talked about this before that core long-term connoisseurbased cohort of people who love you know love love the museum and the art gallery and that's the current state. The future state imagines something where that community connection is more expansive more diverse and in incorporates a bunch of people with wider interests. Maybe they don't they don't even think of themselves as being like a hardcore supporter. So that's that that's the future state. Next slide please. For the museum, how to achieve that community connection goal? Well, they've got five tasks um over five years. Um and just as a one of the tasks just as a for instance is you know an idea to create an adopt an artifact program. take one of the objects in the collection, identify and match it with somebody who wants to donate a little bit of money to support the conservation and care of that object, make something out of that online on the website, the adopt an artifact program, and in that way, in in a myriad of those ways, start fusing those community uh for forging that bond with the community community connections. And there's others. That's just one of five. Next slide, please. and for the art gallery to pursuing the same community con connection goal has has five tasks including their task number two which is indeed as just picked up on the last presentation to re reestablish and re-energize the art gallery volunteer program. Take the time get it going and get those volunteers organized and get them back in to serve as dosent greeters collection care assistants etc. Next slide please. And the third one, remember I said there's an appendix. So the cultural services too will pursue that cult community connections goal. And in their case they've got four tasks. And one of them is, you know, explore ways to leverage Grimby's assets, the natural, cultural, historic assets into more interpretive walking trails. Next slide, please. The second goal we can call the awareness and visibility goal or the marketing goal. U so you know current current state is you're speaking to the core audience who knows you well already and you can continue to do that but the future state is to communicate out further reaching a wider audience with with a with a clear marketing message. Um so this is beyond the community connections if you're following me. This is really more about reaching that broad audience through marketing to to to the Grimby and to the region beyond. Next slide. So for the museum, the awareness and visibility uh goal, how are they going to achieve that? So they've got seven tasks. So including for instance um you know task two, the museum in the next five years is going to develop a new brand positioning and museum graphic identity. the museum feels and I I agree now's the time to go to market with something new sharp that communicates what the museum is all all about um as we go forward into this marketing campaign. Next slide please. um for the art gallery pursuing awareness and visibility. There are five tasks uh including one of the tasks um is to you know continue to raise the profile of GPEG on through social media through its website um and and start tracking those with achievable social media KPIs we say you can identify ways to track the progress for for the impact you're having on social media and as well and as a bigger task really develop an annual marketing plan and an annual marketing plan just for the art gallery with mailouts, radio ads, digital focusing on key promoting key events and programs. Next slide, please. Uh awareness and visibility for culture services. Yeah, the developing a marketing plan for the promotion of cultural assets and using the town website um to maintain a constant listing. This is something that came up in the what we heard section, a listing of the cultural events that's going on in town. um not not always the easiest to keep track. Next slide, please. And so the third goal is more if if the other one is one the first the first goal is about community connections. Second goal is about marketing. The third goal is really about product. It's like what you actually offer. So we're calling it exhibitions, programs, and collections. And there's a goal there um and a future state. So right now I would I think we could say that the the exhibitions are excellent for both the museum and the art gallery. and they are a known quantity. You kind of know what you're going to get and you get it and you're happy. But the future state is to take that product, those exhibitions and programs to more of a mustsee, must experience for maybe people who haven't yet been to the museum at Art Gallery. Um, and so that's the goal. That's the endstate goal for exhibitions, programs, and collections. Next slide, and we'll walk you through what that means in terms of tasks. So, so for the museum again, they've got four tasks to to in support of this goal. And one of them is for instance, and this comes right out of what we heard from the community, the museum's going to research and implement coste effective ways of integrating interactive experiences, including media when they can and within budget within the galleries. Um, and to then further leverage those exhibitions. to just make them more more interactive, more exciting, and then leverage the use of those exhibits more within workshops and events at the museum. This comes out of the survey information. We found that we we were surprised that not as many people were using the exhibits when they came to a program. We want to make sure if they're going to the museum that they're they're fully leveraging the the the exhibitions that are there. Next slide, please. And for the art gallery uh exhibitions programs yes uh they have five tasks including for instance on the art gallery side uh what we're calling a collection analysis right taking the time pausing and spending the time with a lot of probably a lot of a lot of help to uh do a comprehensive review of what the what the art gallery has in its collection now it's it's accured over the many many years what what it's got now uh where it wants to go institutionally in the future and what how the you know are there gaps in the collection what should the collection be going forward so that's one of one of their five task and a big one uh in support of exhibitions programs and collections um and then lastly next slide please under cultural services events and programs yes they've got three tasks and one of them as a for instance is considering a largecale signature cultural event uh for the town of Grimby, something new with pop-up content provided by the museum and the art gallery and others um and potentially potentially um conceiving of this large-scale signature event as having um a corporate partner. So that is a quick tour through three goals for both the museum and the art gallery and cultural services and the tasks that are going to be done to to ladder up to those three achievable goals and then before that just yeah the highle vision of where they want to go in the next 5 years. So, that concludes, next slide, please. That concludes my summary of the five-year strategic plans um as developed over the past five months. Um and I'm happy to answer any any additional questions at this time. >> Thank you for your presentation, Matthew. Can I get a mover and a seconder to receive the presentation? Okay. Moved by member uh Leairard and seconded by um member Brabbant. Okay. Any are there any questions or comments from the committee? Councelor Cangi. Thank you. Three, Chair. Um I really like this. Um, I like the idea of, um, you know, we have your traditional supporters and and we know that and you know, the residents of Ginsby are very loyal to the things that they love, but I love the idea of widening that base and growing new loyal supporters and having a little more uh, diversity within within that audience. And I like that they they align both the art gallery and the museum. And um I really like the idea of a signature event. Um I know we do the glam gala and and things, but I like the idea of something that's a little more accessible to the public as well. Um you know, maybe a little more affordable and maybe a little bit more diverse to allow the community uh that doesn't typically get to experience those cultural events to be able to have access to that. So, thank you very much. Um, councelor DeFlavio. >> Thank you, Chairu. Yeah, thank you for the for the report and for the ideas. Um, as when we talked uh it was probably a couple months ago. I think further to what councelor Christi is saying, youth engagement and that next generation is the important part of what I've continuously thought we needed to do. Um, I don't think the people realized that when the Ontario provincial government back in 2002 decided to get rid of OAC's in Ontario, uh, that meant kids could take eight less courses in high school, which means they had a lot less choice. And because of that, unfortunately, the courses that ch kids chose to take less of were those kinds of optional courses, music, art, drama, history, the kinds of things that promote and continue the love of art galleries and museums. Um, we need to do whatever we can to rebuild that. And you know, so we we I think we have a an engaged audience, but that engaged audience tends to be born before 1975 or 1980 probably. So what can we do to to engage that future? I talked about things like partnerships with the schools, which I think we're doing a great job of already, but we need to build on further. But anything that we can do to engage youth further. Um, and to take away the kind of um there there's a as a as a self-proclaimed art snob, there's a snobbishness that comes with with art that we need to remove. I think that, you know, like just like music, everybody has their opinion and unfortunately with that comes less engagement. So, whatever we can do to to bring more and more people into that gallery. And I talked about things like renting out the gallery for uh you know, weddings, uh h allowing that to be a facility for because we we do have civil civic weddings that the town does, allowing that to be a facility where where civic u matrimonial services are are provided. uh the museum for somebody I think the gallery is probably a more you know picturesque kind of with no with all due respect to the museum people might not want to get married in front of square nails but but like the gallery has no I I wanted to I do I know I'm just kidding I'm just kidding um but the gallery you know has a a picturesque backdrop there's always artwork in there now um but I think the more that we could do to do that It's also besides expanding the audience another source of income. So let's let's do whatever we can to engage more people and to get more money in and to and once you have people getting married and in the museum and the art gallery uh it means that those people will forever be tied to those places. So wherever you get married, wherever you have that ceremony, you have you bring people to and you have a a special relationship with and you are more likely to donate to and more likely to be involved with. So I whatever we can do to to to engage those people, I want to do and I think that those are ways that we can do it. >> Yes. Go ahead, Matthew. >> Thank you. Thank you for the comments and thank you again for the conversations we had earlier on and I can say that a lot of those ideas have found their way into the plan especially in that uh first goal around community connection and connections to schools and partnerships and and and all of that. So um yes uh agreed on all on all fronts. The the comment and question about rental events we did we did discuss as a group at length. um we haven't identified it as a specific task because there's a lot I think there's a lot more work to be done around that and it would definitely open up a whole new uh business line essentially but but I'm actually kind of a belief but it's it's something that I think deserves more more attention and focus and after all this is a strategic plan for five years there's a document that guides but that's going to guide conversations again that that are going to unfold over I would say the next um yeah the next five year period through you, chair. And as I said in our previous discussion, I've been to receptions at the AGO. I've been to the receptions at the National Gallery. I if if those places can find a way to do it with the level of, you know, with with the high security needs where we've got millions of dollars worth of artwork, then let's try to find a way to do that in Grimby, too. I I that that's all. >> Okay. I have a few questions as well. um the signature event. I like the idea. Can you give us some some examples of some events from other municipalities? >> Yes. And and along with it events from other communities, it's also building on things I think that in a way you've already been spearheading. Um for instance, with the art gallery, you have ways you already have a model for what uh you know, a major event can look like and the kind of impact it can have. And so part of this is around thinking that's great and it's going to continue on. What else can we shape up that's kind of equal in stature and involves the museum more and cultural service and more aspects of of uh of what Grimby has um on the go? Do I have a do I have a benchmark in my mind for what it could be from another community? I don't really, but I think um I think with some work we can we can probably find something that could help guide that conversation. It's got to obviously it's got to work within parameters, you know, it's got to work within the resourcing parameters, budget parameters and everything else. But we do think that there is an opportunity here and definitely worth identifying it is yeah a task to explore. So, not to get technical about it, we weren't committing to it. It's more like let's explore it, develop it, and and and and do some work on it and then bring it back forward in the next little while. >> So, I I love the idea of, you know, if we could have celebrate local artists, and they don't necessarily have to be from Grimby. I think of uh I love Trisha Romance, so you know, on the lake. So, even if it's if it's, you know, a um artist and really not just showcase the art, but be able to honor that artist and the inspiration behind it and all of that, cuz I think there needs to be a connection with how that work was created, right? What the imagination was at the time. So, that's just a takeaway for me. Um, I love the idea about corporate sponsorships. Um I this is something that we we speak I've spoken about and our committee has brought up um on several occasions about the next term of council could really use more corporate sponsorships. We've done a great job through this term but you know continuing it through the library through you know the museums I think would be a great source of revenue for us. Um and I think one of the things that um municipal councils now struggle with is we are losing um development charges. Um and this is potentially a way that we could reach out to developers and and businesses to say, "Hey, you know what? Our library needs an expansion. Our museum needs an expansion." So I would personally like to to see that. So, um, do you have any suggestions for corporate sponsorship, sorry, corporate sponsorships in other municipalities or any takeaways that we can like look to? Uh, the guidance I would offer and and maybe it just sounds like a a platitude or a truism is start with the major employers in town. Start with the major players. It's it's not about what I don't think it's as much about what other other m municipalities have done versus what you are here and give it some thought and then it's a creative exercise because you got to think for it to work for them. They they they also have to see how their business and their brand somehow connect to what you're proposing. So it it's going to take a bit of work. But I would start with a a list of just thinking the the major players in town and what they might how they might benefit from from this more so than looking out outside of the community. >> Excellent. Thank you. And and that point was just I I like to have an idea of how you know success stories of some others, right? So if there are communities that are already doing this, it's kind of a nice template. Um so thank you very much again for your presentation. Resolved that the delegation from Matthew Dawson, Studio Dawson, regarding the cultural services strategic plan be received for information. All in favor? Okay. And that is carried. Thank you very much. All right. Can I get a mover and a seconder to get report DCS 2633, Cultural Services Strategic Plans, on the floor for discussion? Okay. Moved by Councelor DeFlavio, seconded by member Brethther. All right. And Sarah, if you want to take it away. >> I'll pass it over through your chair. Pass it over to uh Janet Oaks in just a moment. I don't think there's too much to add. I think Matt Dawson covered it very well. I don't know if Janet there was anything you wanted to add further. >> So, not really. I think the the strategic plans are well covered. So, unless there's any additional questions in terms of the implementation, I think it's pretty well laid out in the plan. I don't know there's anything really to add. >> Do we have any comments or questions? Councelor DeFlavia, I knew it. Go ahead. >> Sorry. I'm sorry to be predictable through you. Um I guess so we have a a plan. I guess my question is as far as implementation is concerned, you know, have we have we spelled out, you know, like these are the five things that we want to do right away. These are the five things we think we could do in the next three or three to five years. These are the long-term goals. Like is because there are lots of ideas like there were a ton of great ideas in there. Um I I just how do we get from idea to to reality I guess and if if I missed that then I apologize but it seems like this is more ideas and not a lot about the implementation. So just curious to what our next steps are. >> So through the chair there is an implementation plan in there. Um so so it is there and it does sort of speak to that short, medium and longer term. It also identifies what um objectives or goals might have a resource requirement. And I just want to give a shout out to the team, to Sylvia, to Janet and to Matt um because I think we really worked very um aware of the resources that we have and tried to really stick with a plan that would they thought was achievable, but also um you know, a little bit aspirational and something that we were going after and being really mindful again of resources. So, it is in there. Um and again it was being mindful of those pieces and then the plan would be to start to to put those into those years. >> I think I think councelor Flavia was asking where he can find it in the document. >> I will have to look for the actual page number. I don't know Matt Matthew >> full implementation. It's back in an appendix >> and it's got some columns with with dollar signs order magnitude budget time frame year one year two year three year four. So, it's going to be the same same task >> but just with more granular detail about the implementation. >> So, page 39 um for anybody who didn't hear that listening uh online, it is on page 39. We teased it out of the main report because it was a lot of content and we really wanted to focus on the goal. So, that's why you see it in the appendix. >> Thank you. I didn't get to the appendix. So, I apologize and uh I'll have to read that over. >> Okay. There any other questions? No. All right. Um I'm just going to add as well that I'm very proud of a lot of these plans that our council has, you know, provided for the next term of council. So, we didn't necessarily see everything, you know, um come to fruition this term, but it's it's all laid out for the next term of council. So this is a great accomplishment. So thank you everybody that was involved. All right. Resolve that report DCS 2633 cultural services strategic plans dated June 23rd, 2026 be received and that the community services committee recommend that council endorse the 5-year strategic plans for the Grimby Public Art Gallery, the Grimby Museum and Culture Services. All in favor? Okay. And that is carried. All right. Can I get a mover in a seconder to get report DCS 2634 Grimby museum information report June 2026 on the floor for discussion? Moved by member uh Bant and seconded by member um Leairard. All right. And Janet go ahead. >> Thank you through you chair. Um so the museum is as you know is under construction so things are a little slow at the moment. Um but we have hired our two uh Young Canada work grant students. Um they have started their 13 weeks with the town. We're very excited to see what they are going to uh bring to the museum and to camp this summer. Um unfortunately um we have had to cancel the canvas postming workshop just because we are closed. Um we just don't have the uh the ability to um put that through right now. Um we it's not in the report but it was decided today that Canada Day will be moved from the museum park to um Coronation Park this year um just because of the construction and safety aspects. So it is being moved to Coronation Park. We do have um we have spoken to all our vendors. They're all willing to come down. It is only a short walk down the hill. So we will have people in the museum park showing people where to go plus a lot of signage everywhere. So hopefully um we will still get a great turnout um to uh to Canada Day. Um so that is uh in the works right now. Um our exhibition uh did open uh the Grimby Photography Club's exhibition did open. It is a wonderful exhibition and as soon as we open I hope everybody will come and see it. They put a lot of work into it. It is uh local uh Grimby photography as well as photography from the Niagara region. Um it is absolutely stunning and a lot of the pieces are for sale and the sale of those pieces will go to uh support the Grimby Photography Club. Um the opening was a great success. Had about 60 people through. Uh we had uh great safety in in place just because we did have open construction around but everything worked out wonderful. So hopefully we will see you there once we reopen. Um the project the foundation repairs that I've been speaking of are close to completion. Um, we are running a few weeks behind due to the weather. It has not been cooperating and you may know that it is difficult to fill in a giant pit when it's full of mud and water. Um, but the entire building has been waterproofed. So, we are now working on um filling in the the uh the pit around the museum as well as getting ready to pour concrete. So, that is fantastic. And again, Canada Day is being moved because of the construction. Um the museum is currently uh working on the community museum's operating grant which is CMOG. It's our yearly operating grant. Um we are currently working with finance and the strategic plan is what we were meant to be working on for this uh this term of SMOG. So with that being completed we can now submit our um submit our grant and hopefully we will know about that probably by the end of August. >> Thank you Janet. Do we have any questions or comments from the committee? No. All right. Resolve that report DCS 2634 Grimby Museum Information Report June 2026 dated June 23rd, 2026 be received for information. All in favor? Okay. And that is carried. All right. There are no consent reports. Moving on to discussion reports. Can I get a mover and a seconder to get report DCS 2635 major refrigeration peach king center community impact update on the floor for discussion? Moved by member um sorry by councelor how and seconded by councelori and Sarah please go ahead. >> Thanks for you chair. I'm going to turn over to Trevor in one moment. I just want to touch on it though. It's actually five months as of tomorrow that we have been open at the major refrigeration Peach King Center, which seems a little hard to believe in some ways. I think when we were finishing construction and opening, we somewhat thought we might have a bit of a sigh of relief, but we really haven't. It's just been uh breathed in a different way just as quickly. Um, but it's been a really great 5 months, and I just want to thank the team for an incredible amount of work to adjust to all the changes. Uh it's bringing in new people, uh working in different ways together, dealing with some changes, and we've just seen some really tremendous uh outcomes so far in our five short months that Trevor is going to walk you through. Uh thank you, Sarah. Got a little presentation or a few pictures that Noah's going to throw up for us. Great. Uh so as Sarah mentioned just going to cover some of the early community impact um at the MRPKC 5 months um we've definitely settled in. I think when we we touched base after 1 month that we were still catching our breath u but we are kind of you know transitioning now into summer and getting excited for camp. So things are uh settling down. It was nice to get the opportunity to look back on how things have been going so far. You go to the next slide now. So, I think we hit the ground running with the grand opening. We had a lot of people coming through the building uh on that first day. We estimate close to a thousand people attended on that first day. And I can tell you that people kept coming uh in the days that followed. I think uh I was more of a tour guide than anything else in the in the early weeks, as were uh many of our other staff. And uh our customer service team can attest to the uh phone call volume that we received and in person. uh there was a lot of community interest and excitement around the opening of this facility and we have really seen that translate into hard numbers and engagement over the last 5 months. We go to the next slide. No. So in the facility we do have a number of security cameras and they're actually something that we're able to leverage to count the numbers of people who come through the building which has been great. uh we're working with the IT team to kind of refine that, but uh we were able to uh in late March track uh all of the folks who entered the building in one week, which we measured at about 10,000. Um I had a look a few weeks ago, we had a lacrosse tournament and just over 2 days we had 4,000. Uh so definitely really interesting to see some of the metrics coming in uh in the facility. So we do estimate that we've already had over 150,000 people through the building since we opened uh and expect up to 400,000 to attend over the course of the year. And again, once we get this kind of system fully up and running, we'll be able to have reliable metrics not only of how many people come into the building, how many people go into the gymnasiums, the fitness center, how many people uh stand in the lobby. Uh so really looking at looking at uh you know, as Matt mentioned, KPIs, our ability to do this in this facility is great and we'll be continuing to report back on some of those metrics uh going forward. Uh next slide, please. So the gymnasiums and the indoor track are truly kind of the anchor of the new side of the building and we've really received that seen that in their in the use. Uh the walking track or indoor track in particular especially during you know a cold winter February March you know I'd come in in the morning and there'd be over 40 people at the same time walking on it. Um and it was just really great to see how much quick use we got uh through that. And then on top of that, uh, you know, serving our basketball, volleyball, pickle ball associations, um, we worked really hard as a team to ensure that, you know, despite, you know, we wanted to make sure we had hit the ground running when we opened, but we also, you know, wanted to make sure we knew when we were going to open. So that was kind of the one of the points of friction we had when we were planning and we were happy that our local associations were able to step up and get into the facility and use it right when we opened. Um so yeah, Grimby basketball association, Grimby volleyball association, Grizzy Pickle Ball Association, our own internal programming were users uh from that first uh day that we opened. Uh walking track, we have had some struggles as we've talked about previously in terms of just uh type of use. Uh so one of the things that we've implemented was during major events and tournaments. We had a lacrosse tournament, we had a basketball tournament, and we actually locked the door. It has a key pass and we said if you want to use a walking track, please check in at the front desk. we'll give you a key pass, no charge, uh just so we can kind of monitor who's coming in and out. And that was successful. So our plan is to continue rolling that out next year for hockey tournaments. And again, this is only as needed when we're expecting really high volumes of people and uh we feel like we have a little bit of less ability to control, we can implement that. Uh so we did pilot it and that's something we are continue planning to continue uh in the fall. Uh next slide, please. So, I know it's really hard to see here, but this is kind of the plan for our allocation in September. So, we had what we would call like an interim schedule that we used when we opened in late January. Uh this is also in the appendex if you want to have a closer look cuz I know it's hard to see uh see the names, but it gives you a sense of what we're looking at in terms of overall facility utilization uh starting in this coming fall. And uh it really has a great uh breadth. We've got a lot of different partners. Um the one thing that's not really reflected in this schedule is uh the Grim Basketball Association runs a lot of like weekend tournaments uh in a structure that's not the same for hockey. Like their tournaments are actually kind of like their game play. Um so that's been a bit of a change for us. So you know usually about two weekends a month we will have full utilization in those gymnasiums uh for basketball and then we have these other types of programming that we're kind of sprinkling in uh as we can. I mentioned some of our you can pop to the next slide. Uh Noah, I mentioned some of our our major users already, but we also have our uh 55 plus active living club that has time for pickle ball, uh table tennis, carpet bowling, uh floor curling. We have uh fitness programs that occur in here. And one thing that's been new for us in the gymnasium that we've been really exploring is drop-in programming. Uh we have shinny and public skating in the arenas, but uh with all the different types of sports you can do in a gymnasium, we've been expanding our drop-in offerings. Uh some folks do not want to participate in a league. They want that more informal engagement. Um and for pickle ball and volleyball in particular, volleyball actually has been very popular for drop in. We've seen really good engagement uh week over week for folks coming in and just dropping in um as they wish. Uh next slide, please. So another standout for the facility has been our fitness center. Um, so in in 2019, which was the peak of our use in the old fitness center, we had 226 act active members. Uh, we now have 450 at the Peach King Center and that's just as of May. Uh, so really seeing uh really good engagement in that fitness center and we are seeing folks who are on a 3-month membership renewing. So we're thinking, you know, we opened in January. It's a new facility. We're kind of expecting really good engagement, but we are seeing that uh continue. uh we've actually already hit our revenue target for the year on the fitness center uh based on the memberships that we've sold to date. So really seeing really good engagement and uh still maintaining good use even as we move into good weather. On the second level of course we have the fitness center but we also have our fitness studio and the indoor track. It really has kind of made this fitness hub where you know we have our our happy hearts cardiac exercise program that uses the studio and the walking track and the uh fitness center all at the same time. Uh so it's been really great for our fitness uh programmer and the fitness team um to kind of be able to take advantage of all those different spaces and we have added some new classes um boxfitit, yoga nidra, zumba uh to to name a few. Uh next slide please. Um, and continuing kind of the trend of growth, we're seeing our 55 plus active living club, which was formerly the Grimsby Seniors Club, which was out of the Livingston Activity Center. Um, has transitioned to the MRPKC as part of its opening and really seen a ton of growth, uh, in this area as well. Um, so we're up 51% over last year. Um, over 700 members, that's an all-time high. I think the previous high was 600, which was pre-COVID. Um, average member age has gone down significantly. 3.3 years is a big jump. We are seeing uh younger older adults engaging in the facility which is great and Grimsy residency uh is up as well which is is awesome. Um so this is being driven by a number of different uh elements but I think pickle ball and um watercolors are probably leading the way in terms of uh and Tai Chi uh those three are really leading the way. Uh we have uh over 400 people currently. So 400 of those members are are actively participating in pickle ball alone. Uh next slide please. Um so on the programming side, we've also been able to integrate some new partners. Uh our little vet program, Robo Pets, kids who code, uh first aid training, uh March break camp will be returning uh which is great, which is currently sold out. Um, and as I covered at the last meeting, uh, the youth room, uh, will be piloting a launch, um, at the end of the month. We're actually going to be starting, I think, the first week of July. Uh, so looking forward to getting that online. And of course, as part of the, uh, MRPKC, we have a number of rentable public spaces, uh, multi-purpose rooms, um, you know, increased lobby spaces. Uh, so we have seen a lot of interest in folks who want to host events in the facility. As I mentioned, the grand opening, but we had a very popular family day. It's always been popular, but just seeing the volume of increase in attendance just by nature of hosting it in this facility cuz we just have that much more space to work with. Uh we hosted an active living fair. We welcomed the home show back for the first time in uh over 6 years um in basketball, volleyball, and hockey tournaments. And we are just so much better able to equipped to meet the needs of those types of events uh in this space, which has been really great. um on the rental side. So, uh baby showers, birthdays, corporate meetings, uh we're really starting to just see the volume pick up as people are, you know, visit the facility and become aware of what we have to offer, check things out. Uh booking our multi-purpose rooms. Uh we've also lost uh we've also launched a birthday package. So, you can rent the gymnasium, you get two hours of gymnasium time, or sorry, an hour gymnasium time, 2 hours of multi-purpose room time as a package. It's staffed, it gives you access to equipment. We've seen a ton of interest in that and we're actually looking at expanding that next year to include public skating. So you can book a kid's birthday party, you get an hour on the ice, you get a couple hours in multi-purpose room and we're finding that when you wrap that all up in a package, uh families are very very interested. So that's uh something we're continuing to grow. Um we just closed uh requests for a concession vendor which we're looking to have in place for September 2026. Next slide, please. Uh, so one thing I put in the report and I think it's it's one of the things that's really hard to quantify and it's it's the way we're seeing the space being used. So at the Livingston Activity Center, it was a huge problem. Even at the Peach King Center, the old Peach Center was a problem where you come to your activity and it feels like you have to leave because there's nowhere else to go. The lobbies were small. You're occupying a lot of space. And really one of the big goals of this project that the architects tackled was how do we let people stay in a way that doesn't feel intrusive to others in the facility. And I think we're really seeing that. Um the amount of volume we're seeing in the day. I think it's something that no one on our team expected. Uh we're used to it being busy at night. That's when hockey is, you know, that's tried and true weekends. Uh but the older adult community um folks who are coming for the indoor track, they're hanging around. They have tai chi and then they go sit downstairs in the concession and talk or sometimes they just stand in the lobbies, but there's just so much more space for that kind of informal. You know, we've had students, we had our study cafe that we launched a few weeks ago and students just like studying in that open concession area. So, it's really been nice to see just how that open passive non-dedicated space has been taken advantage of. And I think it really makes it feel like that community hub that I think was part of the goals of this project. So I think uh you know there's not going to be any metrics on that necessarily, but I think we are seeing anecdotally um all that change. And uh yeah, that's that's pretty much it. We've been uh very very busy. Uh Sarah mentioned it, but I want to do the same. Um you know, you get to hear from me, you get to hear from Sarah, but there there's so many people in that facility who are working so incredibly hard um and have worked very incredibly hard to deliver all the changes that have come with this. I think about our fitness team, our customer service staff, um our maintenance staff. Like when I saw the numbers of people going through the building, I was thinking like, "Oh, no wonder the bathrooms are dirty." Uh we had 4,000 people here in the last 48 hours. Um so I think uh you know, we're learning a lot and uh are really uh you know, happy to see how things are progressing and looking forward to what we're going to do next. >> Thanks. >> Thank you, Trevor. Uh all right. All right. Do we have any questions or comments from the committee? Councelor Christeni. >> Thank you through chair. Um I've clearly used the facility a few times. Um it is always busy and it's wonderful to see. I think we need an addition. Um >> bad joke. Sorry. Um, but in all seriousness, um, the space is used so well and I think the community is very happy with the way that, um, it what it provides and um, I've I've rented for birthday party and I have to commend the staff are phenomenal um, you know, very helpful um, and for programming and for the indoor track and stuff like that. So, I know it's been a lot of work for the staff. I know it's been a lot of um learning and adjusting and stuff like that. So, you know, I really want to commend commend your department and the staff for um doing so well at uh the adjustment of the last couple of months. So, >> councelor DeFabio, >> thank you chair through. Uh thanks Trevor. That's a great report. It's it's awesome to see all the things that we thought were going to happen happening and more. Um I your data on the number of visits is is really good. Um I think that's a a good way to support the concessions. You know, the the argument's always been it's hard to attract somebody for a 12-month concession. And I remember back 24 years ago when we were talking about, you know, how do we get people to rent this thing out? and and the the issue was always there were only people in there during the hockey season. Well, what we have now is a true 12 month of the year facility, which makes it very different from a concess concession perspective. Whether you're selling hot coffee in the wintertime or iced coffee in the summertime, even if one out of every 20 of those people goes and buys a drink or a snack or one out of every 50, you've got a considerable number of people coming into the building, which really makes a difference in that concession. Um the I want to commend you and staff on the study cafe and all the other things. You know, I know it was a a youth advisory committee um idea and and implement it. But again, it shows the potential for the facility. There's the old saying from Field of Dreams that if you build it, they will come. And the fact that we have this facility now means that we can offer things like that that we weren't able ever to do before. I've said this before and I'll continue to say it is what we've created now is a true community center, not an arena. Uh it's it's truly a community center where all members of the community from, you know, very young age to very old age, whether it's for birthday parties or to for the guitar and music sessions that are there on Tuesday nights or Thursday nights, the that that's being done in the senior's room. there you you get people you can have people from 2 to 8 in that place at the same time which is not what it was before. So you know your report shows all of that. Um the birthday package what an amazing idea like what you know again something that I would never even thought of. Uh the fact that we can and the the offering the skating in the future you know if we have the ice time that's amazing. Um, so you know that you talked about uh all of the different activities that are going on in there. I think that the fact that there's a reason for people to be in there at all times. You know, I was in there for the I I was there for the um the open gym that the Niagara River Lions ran last week. And while I was there, there were people going to work out upstairs. There were people going to use the track. There were people going to uh there were a ton of people lacrosse. I didn't realize how many lacrosse families we had. Uh and again, in the past, lacrosse has always been there, but it was just lacrosse that was there in the summertime and camps. Right now, it's we we have so many different people coming into that building for so many different reasons. It's just a beautiful thing to see. And and that if you build it, they will come thing. We I I don't think that any of us at this table know what that place is going to be used for 10 years from now because there are ideas out there that we haven't even heard of yet. So, I'm excited to see what's coming down the line. I'm not that far away from retirement. So, I I'm going to need stuff to do in a few years. And and thank you to you. And and the last thing I wanted to say was every interaction that I've had with our staff there, you know, people who don't know that I'm a counselor, you know, uh has always been incredibly positive and incredibly helpful. Whether it's the people behind the desk or the people uh bringing out chairs or the people cleaning the floors, every single staff member there has been phenomenal to work with and has been a a positive experience. So, please give my thanks and the community's thanks to our staff because if we have people there that aren't making that a positive experience, that's the word that goes out into the community and that's the word that goes out on Grimby and everything that I've heard about our facility is how great it is and how jealous other communities are of the facility that we've created here. So, thank you to you and our staff to Sarah and to everybody else that made this happen and I'm excited to see what's happening in the future. Apologize for the rant. >> Long- winded as usual. >> As usual. >> As usual. >> Okay. Is there anyone else that wants to add? Okay. Uh I had a few comments for me. Obviously, you know that I love this so much. By far this was the highlight of our term of council for me. Um just seeing people using it constantly. Like I like I I've said this on several occasions. I go all the time, different times daily. It's always busy and it it's all different ages and and like you said like the design there are people that linger, you know, in the in the halls or upstairs at the little nooks. I I went uh later than usual to the gym the other day and there were probably like 10 high school kids just, you know, working out, very respectful. It's excellent to see so many people using it in all these different ways and like you know we had high hopes for it but it's just exceeded that so much so and you know there are people that try to you know bash the that this investment that we've made but it is a true investment in our community quality of life health um just phenomenal so thank you to everybody that's you know had a part in it um Trevor I'm going to ask you the the stats on um like I want to know does this mean that we have this many more people who maybe haven't been as active cuz I I'll assume that the fitness we've probably taken some of the Y members and um maybe good life members but overall would you say that this is also showing that we're getting our residents more active through any of this data like is there something specific you that you could point to? >> Uh only anecdotally I I can't say you know for sure. I mean and from the conversations I've had we definitely have drawn from the YMCA Good Life and Fit for Less. Um as well as we as we've done I don't think we're as busy as some of those other centers and people do value kind of coming in and it's you know it's busy but it's not like I can't use the equipment busy. Um but but one thing I think I'll mention and I think I covered it in the report. I forgot to mention it is the idea kind of of um what you're exposed to when you're in the facility. And I think that's really where you're seeing people get pulled in, which is going to a fitness center can be an intimidating experience, but maybe not so much in a place you're comfortable with. Um so, you know, maybe you come to the walking track a few times or maybe you you go to a program and then you like kind of poke your head in and then maybe you try it one day and it's kind of like baked into this facility that you already feel comfortable in and then you're being exposed to all of these other things. So, I think I think you're getting the benefit in the fitness center, but I think where you're seeing all of this growth is you're seeing people exposed to things for the first time. Like our 55 plus active living uh club was at a living activity center. Unless you were part of it or you knew about it or you got our targeted advertising, you didn't know about it, but now it's like you're walking by, you know, some men playing billiards in the youth room and you're like, "Hey, how do I get to be part of that?" Or you walk past the fitness center or whatever. Like you're, you know, you take your child to lacrosse and then you see like, "Hey, there's open gym time. I can go play basketball while my son's in lacrosse, whatever. So, I think we're really seeing this kind of cross-pollination as people like see what's available in this facility and choose to participate. And I do assume that the fitness center is benefiting from that as well. >> No, it's excellent. Just keep doing what you're doing and we're just going to have more and more people using the facility. So, it's it's true. Whatever you guys do seems to be working and the numbers just keep growing. So, thank you. Uh resolve that report. DCS 2635 major refrigeration Peach King Center community impact update dated June 23rd, 2026 be received for information. All in favor? Okay. And that is carried. Can I get a mover and a seconder to get report DCS 2636 proposed filming bylaw for the town of Grimby on the floor for discussion? Uh moved by member or councelor How, seconded by member Rayont. Right. Uh Sarah, please go ahead. Uh thanks to your chair. Uh this was something that u Melissa from our team worked really heavily heavily on. We had a lot of collaboration from different uh staff throughout the organization and Trevor also worked quite closely with. So Trevor's going to just walk you through a few of the highlights. >> Thank you Sarah. Maybe not quite as exciting as the last report but uh here we are. So uh background on this we have seen increase in interest in filming in Griby. I would say this has probably been going on the last probably just before co um but even picking up more so after um in terms of uh not only folks who are actually coming and you're seeing them film but even just general inquiries that we're getting from yeah filming scouts uh just general inquiries and some of this is you know people who want to come to Grimsby but also Hamilton's also a growing film industry as is Ontario and we're seeing some of the spillover sometimes it's like you didn't realize you drove over an imaginary line and all of a sudden you need a permit from the town of Grimby because you know you you were in Hamilton and you just came too far down the QBW. Um so we have seen a really big increase in that and uh one that I don't think we've really been really well equipped for in terms of uh the policy we have now. Um so currently we do have filming guidelines but they're very much meant for town property. If we're going to use a town facility we treat them very much like a facility use permit like we do for an event or an activity. Uh but we are seeing that that really isn't enough uh depending on the type of engagement. So some folks um you know they're renting private property uh which is fine but then that actually can have public public impact. So if you you know you rent a home or you're working on like a large like a large lot that's private sometimes that can have parking impacts, it can have noise impacts, you can need road closures. Um and there's a lot of um permitting that needs to be uh dealt with and the earlier we know the easier and uh the better we can help facilitate that process with uh with a prospective company. Um so this really isn't the intention of this bylaw isn't to make it necessarily any more difficult for folks to film here. All of those rules still exist and a lot of them are not aren't even in our jurisdiction. Um it's really just a matter of us um finding out early what people's intentions are kind of triaging uh what they want to do and then actually guiding them through the process to say hey if you want to do this you know that's a regional road you need a permit from the region and just helping people understand kind of what is needed to move this forward um and so that we're having an understanding of what the community impact might be uh so so if that's something that we want to balance as we're we're reviewing it. So, um, the the the kind of core of this is a triage system. Everybody has to tell us they want to film. Um, and then it lets us kind of shoot it in the right direction. So, if it's small, uh, low impact, you're not using town property, uh, there's no like pyrochnics or special effects, more than likely, you're not going to need a film permit. You know, you'd have to follow any of the rules that are relevant, but off you go. Um, larger, more complex productions would require a permit and that usually means our staff are involved in the process in terms of facilitating whether that be road closures or permission from the fire department. If there's like discharge of fake firearms, that type of thing. Um, or you're going to have significant neighborhood impact, you need parking uh exemptions, you need to be parked for a certain amount of time, we have to engage bylaw. And then also anything with a major prolonged community impact we could actually refer to council if we feel that the impact is going to be um very severe but at the same time has a lot of benefit. There are a lot of benefits and economic elements to filming. Uh that's something that can be referred to council uh for approval. Really this just gives us the mechanism uh to get involved as needed. Uh because one of the struggles we found with filming is because we don't have ongoing relationships. Sometimes people are coming to Grimby for the first time and the last time uh to film something. We are finding that uh the compliance can sometimes be a little bit suspect because it's like by the time we realize the rules haven't been followed, they've packed up and off they go. Uh so the the bylaw does give us a little bit more teeth that uh you know we can kind of enforce and proactively tell folks, hey, you really do need to fully disclose what you're planning to do so that we don't get a phone call saying, "Hey, there was filming in my neighborhood until 2 a.m. last night and now they're gone. Uh so overall again this this really is about striking balance. Uh we want to be a willing partner. We want to uh support filming in our area in our region. It's it's good for local and economic value, but we do want to make sure that's being balanced with community and neighborhood impact. And this kind of gives us the the ability to triage that and uh point it in the right direction. >> Sorry, I didn't realize you were done. Okay. Okay. Uh, do we have any questions or comments from the committee? >> Councelor DeFlavia, >> I always wait for other people to to go first. Uh, through you to Trevor. Thanks, Trevor. Um, so I don't think you mentioned insurance uh in your report or if you did, I'm I'm sorry if I missed it, but I'm assuming that part of what you talked about in this, you know, they come to town, they do filming for a couple days, and by the time we realize it, it's already too late. Um, my concern has always been about, you know, liability and because most large productions would require general liability of some sort, but if we don't know that they're filming and they damage, you know, the the shoulder or the grass with their trucks when they're parking on the side of the road or things like that, we have no way of going after them. So, at least if we have a process where they have to apply for a permit, even if we determine that it's not one that requires, you know, like a a paid permit, knowing that they're in town and knowing that they're filming is an important part of us being able to follow up, I think, in that in that insurance process. I think of things like, you know, and it was a huge production, but The Handmaid's Tale and what hap I don't know if you know the story, but what happened with Bernie Arbor Stadium in Hamilton and uh they used it for to film as a substitute for uh Fenway Park. I think it was supposed to be in in Handmaid's Tale, but they completely destroyed the grass because of it rained and there was all kinds of things that happened and there was thousands and thousands of dollars of damage. Now, that's obviously an extreme situation, but I'm thinking of these large trucks that are parking on the side of the road on Main Street, for example, if they're filming a large production, uh, and maybe chewing up some grass and chewing up the shoulder and and doing things that are permanent when it's a temporary production. So, I want to just make sure that we have a way of following up on that with the productions if that kind of damage occurs. uh through you chair. Um anytime they're using town property um they are required to submit a commercial title commercial general liability certificate with the town listed as additional insured and that's additionally required by the region as well depending on their property. Uh so the only reason they would need to provide insurance is if the activities were felt to be totally constrained to private property and this is again one of the things that we never necessarily knew. It was we would kind of just wait and find out is there going to be a public impact? Are they going to have parking? We wouldn't know. By this we can say hey your production size is X. You know we ask how big is your production. We've learned a lot about you know there's a big difference between three Brock students filming a documentary and a Netflix production. And this kind of gives us the ability to kind of say hey we need to sus this out first and then we'll see if you're a 40 uh person production. We know that you're not parking on private property. We know you're going to have a parking impact on the neighborhood. let's talk about it now so that we can get insurance and the process in space and and notify residents in the area so that they are being you know made aware of the activities that are occurring potentially in their neighborhood. Okay. Any other questions? No. All right. resolved that report DCS 2636, proposed filming bylaw for the town of Grimby dated June 23rd, 2026, be received and that the community services committee recommend council approve the draft filming bylaw attached to this report as appendix A. All in favor. Okay. And that's carried. Can I get a mover and a seconder to get report DCS 2637 ICE allocation 2026 update on the floor for discussion? Okay. Okay. Moved by member Bibbond, seconded by um member Leairard and Sarah, please go ahead. Thank you, chair. So, this is an update to our ice allocation policy. We've had an ice allocation policy for many, many years. We have three allocation policies. We have a sports fields policy as well, and we have a gymnasium policy, which you did receive and approve earlier in the year. There is a lot of similarities among the policies in terms of some of the governance and the structure, but obviously they're also a little bit specific to the type of space that they um are are speaking to. So, this is the update for ice allocation and then in coming months we will be bringing the sports fields one as well. So, Trevor's going to just walk you through a few of the updates and changes. >> Uh thank you Sarah. Uh yeah, so this is part of kind of a broader update to our allocation policies. Uh we started with the gymnasium allocation policy which committee approved I think late uh late last year and this uh very much is updating a well overdue policy. 2014 I believe was the last full update of the ice user pol policy. So it was well overdue. Um and very much looking to align it with our gymnasium allocation policy in terms of the things that are universal uh that speak to both and then obviously updating some things that are specific to the um to ice. Uh so we did again look at our gymnasium allocation policy which was based on benchmarking a number of other policies across Ontario and other ice allocation policies that uh that are both in our area and across Ontario for similar size municipal municipalities. Um so the the the meat of this is based on the priority of who gets um access. Uh so consistent with our gymnasium allocation policy, it starts with our youth community sport organizations and then we have professional junior which is our peach kings and our adult community sport organizations. Then we have schools, local nonprofits and commercial users. Um yeah, so youth obviously gets at the top uh which is very consistent across policies um in Ontario. And then once this kind of is the procedure that we use when we're doing our primary allocation. We're building the main meat of our schedules that last for you know the duration of the the season and then anything that's not being booked actually gets released in our schedule and is bookable online to the public. So if you want to book one hour, you're not really involved in this process. These are big block bookings for major users. These are agreements that are worth um uh tens of thousands of dollars in terms of their value over the course of a year. Um once we have these booked um the blocks that are unused get released and the public can book those by the hour online. You can see our schedule online once we release it. We put these in first and then it gets turned over after that. Um within that we also have um town programming that actually precedes everything. So our public skates um any like major events that the town is hosting, town programming like our skating programs uh precedes all of our other um allocation. Uh some of the major things that we're looking at changing. Um so our uh we've capped return time. So under the 2014 allocation policy, as long as you gave 2 weeks written notice, you could basically return an unlimited amount of time. Uh which uh we've found increasingly more difficult. Uh so this does put a cap. You can uh return up to 3% of your total allocation of time up to 20 hours. This gives the groups a little bit of flexibility to move but not too much that it's having a revenue impact. Um, it also gives us the a mechanism where if folks are giving back too much time, whether they're using it or not, we can adjust their future allocation to say clearly you don't need that time and it now can be released back to either be reallocated or for public use. Um, one major change that I don't think to be too controversial, but uh we are changing our ice resurfacing times. Uh, currently if you go to Grimby Lincoln or West Lincoln, we all resurface the ice at different times. Um and those precious 10 minutes uh for families matter. So instead of you know at right now in Grimby you start uh 10 minutes late technically we resurface at on the hour. Um Lincoln starts 10 minutes early. So we're just trying to align with our partners across West Niagara. So starting in September your ice time will start on the hour. Um so if you're you're at 6, your kid is on the ice at 6, not 6:10, which is what it is currently. And then the last 10 minutes of your ice time would be reserved for the flood. So you'd actually get curfew 10 minutes prior. We flood and then the next group starts on the hour. One of the major changes and these are directly aligned with the gymnasium allocation policy is governance requirements. Uh so governance and residency expectations uh for community sport organizations. These allows us to you know verify that people have um you know a proper board a proper constitution have democratic decision-m they have financials that are being provided they have information on their website uh just to make sure that these organizations are governing themselves um in a proper way and it gives us a mechanism to kind of step in and verify some of this information as needed. Um, one other change to or something that's specific for ICE is our pri primary user in Grimby is a little unique because it's a regional organization. So, we have West Niagara Minor Hockey, which is our our biggest renter of ice. And because they're a regional organization, this policy set standards to ensure that the proportion of ice that West Niagara gets is equal to the proportion of Grimby residents they serve. Um, so what we don't want to happen is to say, "Hey, West Nagra needs more ice. um they can't find it in Smithville or West Lincoln or West Lincoln and Lincoln and they're coming to Grimby, we're open to that conversation if it means Grimby residents are benefiting from that increase in ICE. So, this does make sure that what they're getting allocated is proportional uh to to the Grimsy residents that make up their organization. Other than that, it's just um kind of some operational updates, dressing room, safety equipment. Uh but overall, it uh it does it's a good update. I think it really closely aligns with our gymnasium allocation policy. Um, and we did uh provide a copy of this policy in advance to our ICE users and we met with them to review it. Um, and have uh, you know, address any concerns that they've had. So, any questions, I'm happy to answer. >> There any questions or comments from the committee? >> Okay, I will ask some questions. All right. So, very happy to see this. Um, I know this is something that we have I've been asking questions about for a long time. um particularly with the give back of ice cuz there was a huge discrepancy in in how much people were build and how much they actually paid which I'm very happy that you have this. Um however, one thing that I think needs to be addressed in the future um and maybe you can clarify cuz maybe I've got this wrong. Uh West uh West Niagara Minor Hockey collects uh their their registration closes in August. So, um I would say probably 90% if not probably closer to 100% are full in August. They're collecting the money. So, they have all of that money in the bank account. uh why I I would like to know if it's possible if we could when they are booking time that they are paying for it at the time of their booking so that we don't have to chase people for money being returned because that kind of that people are not honoring that. So, um, you know, it'd be much easier if you just pay for it. Just like if you know, if if I wanted to book an hour, um, for an hour of ice hockey, I would have to pay the full amount. So, they have that money. They should also be be paying for it. So, I don't know if Sarah, if you want to chime in uh through you, chair. I mean, it's something we can certainly take away and discuss. We would need to do it wholesale, right? I mean I think we wouldn't want to do it only one group like that is if you do a single rental you pay for it at the time but most of our allocation they are paying for it as the this the time has gone on. There's also a lot of trades and different things that move so they do get invoiced at the end of each month which is the same for all of those groups. Um so it has worked well and as far as I know they pay pretty promptly. Um, so to to be honest, it's easier for us this way just in the way the system is functioned that it just spits out exactly what their time is and it's done that way. Certainly, if we see there's an issue with payment, we can certainly take a look at that and make sure we follow up in a different way. But I'd be a little hesitant to change only one group and not change them all. I guess the ask here would be to change it for all so that everybody if you are booking that you are paying upfront. So that that is is like I don't see the difference. Um like for hockey they collect all that money in August. They book for starting up um after Thanksgiving. So it just makes sense that they pay for you know even if it's like a few months at a time whatever like there's some kind of a payment policy um rather than after. So through your chair, something we could take away, we'd have to do a little bit of looking at it again that how each group collects money I think does vary. I know some groups maybe you pay all upfront. I think last time I paid my hockey fees, you had the option of paying it throughout the course of the year. So So like not everybody's paying the entire thing up front. Some of them are definitely paying in installments. And I would say a good chunk of them when they're that long of a season often do have an installment. So we would need to take it away just to understand how that impacts the groups and how they're collecting the revenue. >> So I guess if if that's the case then it would be a matter of like even just assuming everybody's an installment maybe collecting like quarterly or whatever but rather than being at the end. So it's just um something I was thinking um and also the give back. So, when we have that open ice time, it would be great because we've we found, you know, anytime that we're advertising free ice for the public public skating, it's being used. So, maybe we consider opening that up for for free um here and there, not all the time, but you know, just and advertising it a little sooner so people get out. So, uh councelor DeFio, >> thank you. Chair through you. Um, does the hockey association pay all at the end? Cuz I thought they paid monthly. I I you know, it's usually it's a monthly invoice that gets sent out to different organizations. It's like that in Lincoln and it's like that. So, I'm assuming it's the same uh through the chair. That's correct. I was going to add that. So, they are paid monthly right now and that's the way most of our sort of monthly groups use is the the staff then tally everything that is in that month and they do get invoiced monthly. So it's not at the end. It is it is per month. >> Okay. So just to clarify on that then will they be so if there's a give back it'll be up to that certain percentage and then it'll they'll just be build and that's it. Like there there's no ability for them to just not pay that extra portion that they've given back >> through the chair. So they would be build for what they used. >> Yeah. As per the policy. >> Okay. Thank you. Sorry Councelor Levy. I didn't realize you >> No. Yeah. I was going to mine was going to be similar and that is uh I understand your concerns where if you know if you if you're booking uh let's say let's say 500 hours of ice time and then you're giving back you know that I'm the policy allows for a certain amount to be given back uh but if you're giving back a 100 hours that's a significant amount you know what I mean like if there's there's a threshold that needs to be met. Uh, I like the fact and I like what Trevor uh mentioned about the uh percentage of Grimby users being considered in that. That being said, West Niagara is a West Niagara, West Niger hockey, if we're talking about hockey, is a West Niagara organization. And there, you know, uh, for one age group, the majority of the players might be in Lincoln, and for another age group, they might be in, uh, Smithville, and then another age group in Grimby. So, as long as there is a balance between that because for every kid that is coming to Grimby from Lincoln to play, there's going to be a kid going from Grimby to Lincoln to play. So, the or or a similar amount. I know that we have two arenas and there's going to be more coming this way, but there is a balance to be found. So, I think that we need if we have two arenas, we need to have people using them. We need to make sure that they're used as much as possible. When there's downtime, they are they cost us money. So when we have ice, let's use it as much as possible. I appreciate you wanting to make sure that Grimby people are using it. But when it comes to an organization like West Nagra Minh West Minor Hockey, I think of it as a Grimby organization that also serves Lincoln and West Lincoln. Uh I I know it's a huge organization, but they are offering a service that Grimby Minor Hockey used to serve in Grimby. So I think we have to find some flexibility in that and and understand that there is a give and take when it comes to an organization like that. >> Sarah, go ahead >> through the just to comment on that. You know it wouldn't be sort of on a per team residency. It's a rolled up overall of the association. I think where this comes into play is, you know, um hockey is often looking for more time, right? And if they're looking for more time, we're just looking at for what is the proportion of their overall league from a residency to make sure that we're not going to displace another group in the prioritization that might meet our residency when ultimately maybe net of that association they wouldn't if that makes sense. So that's really where that kind of comes into play more is just making sure that where we have to make time adjustments based upon that prioritization that we are giving some consideration to that residency. Okay. I just had a question uh for clarification. I've noticed um when the Peach Kings have home games here that the East Pad is not booked at all. Um and it's consistently been the case. So, is there some kind of an arrangement where there are no bookings on the east pad when during any of the Peach King time? Is that something Trevor? Uh through the chair. There's no arrangement. I will say the east pad during the Peach King game is the least popularized time uh in Grimby. I just by nature I think of the volume that you see in the facility and and the parking. I believe that time is held by by West Niger Minor Hockey and I think sometimes they choose not to use it. um especially as you get into the late uh times of the season where parking can be a challenge, but no, there's no there's no excluded ice uh during that time. >> So, I'm hoping that's not a giveback uh that that is consistently happening because if that's a matter of, you know, maybe we just open it up to the community. Okay, go ahead, Trevor. >> Yeah, I just wanted to add I think um I understand your question because I think we're not just thinking about money, we're thinking about uh utilization, right? We want to make sure that the community is maximizing utilization. I think really the intent of the the give back and the cap isn't to say, "Hey, we want to charge you extra if you don't use it." What we want to say is we want you to be really strategic about the time you actually need. Tell us early that you don't want it so that we can turn it back to the community, ensure that it's being used. Um, so that is really the intention there. And I think, you know, to kind of address the invoicing question as well, um, there is time that gets given back at times, but there's also time that gets added. And that's why we need that flexibility. if there's a cancellation in Lincoln, you know, to your point, councelor DeFlavio, um do we want to be careful about regional allocations, we do, but if time is open and people want to book it, we want to sell it to them, whether it's West Niagara or other organizations as well. Uh so really like our goal here, and it's the same with the gymnasium, is to say, please only tell us the time that you need. We'll allocate another priority in this policy, and if you don't need it, we're going to release it to the public. And I think that's where our team's done a lot of great work um scheduling through an online platform where the public can actually see live um so you can actually book even same day in some cases so that we're trying to maximize the utilization of of all of those facilities. I just I I wanted to um say that I really like the fact that you are looking at that the G Grimby residency um just because like to councelor DeFlavio's point about you know um Grimby might be playing West Lincoln but that doesn't necessarily mean if if Grimby if the preference let's say one of the arenas is not the favorable one Grimby a lot of people like to play in Grimby so if all the Grimsby and West Lincoln games are being booked in Grimsby. That's not really a fair allocation. They should be It should be, you know, some in West Lincoln, some in Grimby. So, u I think that's a fair way of doing it. So, I appreciate that as well. Are there any other questions before we wrap this up? No. Okay. All right. Um, can I get a mover and a seconder to get report DCS 2638, community services? Oh, sorry, wrong one. Um, all right. Resolve that report DCS 2637, ice allocation policy 2026 update dated June 23rd, 2026 be received and that community services committee recommend council approve the draft ice allocation policy attached to this report as appendix A. Uh, all in favor? Okay, that's carried. Can I get a mover and a seconder to get report DCS 2638, community services information update June 2026 on the floor for discussion? I will be very sad when this is the last one. So, okay. Uh moved by um councelor H uh seconded by member Brethther and Sarah, please go ahead. Thank you through the through the chair. This one is a briefer one as well. Uh councelor Sherwa. So, just a couple of updates for you. Um just want to touch on the facility demolitions at the pump house uh garage location in the Oaks Road. I know I've talked to a few of you about that. took quite some time to uh have that work fully completed and it was not left in the best condition. So, I just wanted to acknowledge it to say we did work uh quite extensively with the contractors on site and did end up going in an ultimately in a different direction um to get that work done and that was being done at the end of uh last week and into early this week. We have done some more work on our parks and facilities improvements uh in terms of a web page and communications. We've uh Jill's done a lot of work on this to have a web page that is uh guided by a QR code with signs that we have in different locations so we can communicate better with residents a little more real time about different improvements going on particularly in our parks with playgrounds. So that's gone well so far and we're going to continue to roll that out and it's just a stronger way for us to be able to communicate especially as changes and adjustments may occur. the Grimsy Museum uh veterans mural, which is something that was discussed uh last year. Uh I think it initially came through public works committee and then through council and was a a capital project for us this year. That is being uh pushed forward with Janet and Sylvia. So uh waiting for some initial expressions of interest with the intention of having that work completed for this coming November. And another art project uh that was touched on earlier by our advisory committee for the art gallery is the MRPKC lobby mural project. We are just in the midst right now of reviewing some of the final uh submissions from the five artists. So that work should be getting underway very soon as well and will really uh transform that wall and add greatly to that lobby space. Special events, uh Melissa covered this previously as well. We have music nights, movie nights, but in addition, we did want to acknowledge that with the downtown reimagined project uh beginning this Monday, um the farmers market will be relocated up to the MRPKC starting this Thursday and for the remainder of this season in a similar location to where they were before when they were here for CO if you recall that. And another upcoming event is on August 22nd. The Castle Shoreline Social will return this year. was a successful event uh last year. So, looking to change it up a little bit, but continue to have a bit of a special event presence down in our west end. And that's it for this one. Thank you, sir. Any comments or questions from the committee? No. All right. Okay. Resolve the report. DCS 2638 community services information update June dated uh June 23rd, 2026 be received for information. All in favor? Okay. And that is carried. All right. So for our correspondence, we are looking for um member feedback for our end of term wrap-up presentation. So um I believe Noah had sent out an email of our accomplishments. Noah, do you want to speak to that or do you want me to continue? >> Yeah, there's not much to say. It was sent in that email. It's the exact same document that's up here. Uh but yeah, we're just looking for any last comments from committee members on what's included in the list of accomplishments and the future opportunities. And this is kind of the last kick at the can before it will be put together into the uh script that councelor Shaw will deliver at the July council meeting uh during the chair's report for community services. and that'll be kind of the last uh you know last thing spoken on this committee for this term uh in terms of what was captured. So, we're just hoping that you know if there's glaring omissions or errors or any other opinions want to be included, this is kind of the time for that. >> Okay, I'll I'll go first. Um I I think I had asked if we can include the uh the community participation where is it um for the accomplishments including the events because there are quite a number of events even if they were um through a partner organization. I think it's it's important and uh it'd be nice for staff to also um have that accomplishment uh as well. So, I don't know if anybody else has uh councelor Christie. >> Thank you for your chair. Um I'm just going to sort of build on that and I would like to see some examples of like the support for accessibility and inclusion. Let's give some clear examples of what we actually did. Um you know, our accessibility section at the parade, our inclusion swims, um things like that I think are important. one, they let the community know that we're listening and, you know, we're delivering things that they ask for, but also that those things are happening and that they exist. >> Councelor Fabio, >> thank you, Chairu. Um, so the master plan that we completed, uh, I don't is it mentioned there? >> It is. >> No. >> Okay. So, I think that that's a pretty big, uh, a pretty big accomplishment. Um I the the events that were from from my ward perspective I can tell you that the event that was held last year Grimsby on the lake that was a you know like a kind of a trying to figure out how we're going to do this type of thing was a great start. I would and for next steps I'd love to see more community engagement in that area. The waterfront trail is important to me. Uh whatever we can do to bring the community to that area and uh make that area accessible to the entire community. I I'm in favor of I would love to see a better connection and it's a public works thing but and I'll bring it up public works as well but because the waterfront trail is supposed to connect through the loan old fifth wheel property but that seems to have stagnated that that project. I think that we need to have uh a connection whether it's a shoulder connection with Ballards or something along that north service road that connects the community uh to the to the east to the waterfront trail so that people feel comfortable with their families t walking with a stroller or riding a bike or whatever that looks like along that shoulder. It might mean uh jersey barriers like I don't know what that's going to look like temporarily. You know, I if it's not too expensive to to make that something where people feel safe because it's a service road and people do go a little quicker on the service road. So, we need to be aware of that. But I do think that we need to do whatever we can to connect that the entirety of Grimby. And because that little piece there is so disconnected and so um isolated from the rest of the community, it creates a a barrier to accessibility for everybody from the east there. So I think that that's a next step, whatever that looks like. Uh, I I probably should have followed up on it more throughout the term of council, you know, in in hindsight, which is always 2020, but since we're talking about it, I would really like to see that connection improved and more engagement in that area. I think we're going to see more of it also once Casablanca is finally improved, uh, when the region finally does the Casablanca improvements because it'll mean that pedestrians and bikes will feel more comfortable going over the Casablanca Bridge. All of that should be accessible to all of Grimby. So that we need to do more to to to do that from a from a connection perspective both in the short term whatever that looks like and I think in the long term it's going to be a lot of regional work that's going to make that happen. >> That's all Sarah go ahead through you chair. Yeah, there are a couple of um master plans and strategies we might want to list because we actually did a lot more than we have in the past, even including the recreational trails master plan. It might seem like a long time ago, but that was within your four years. Uh the cultural strategic plan, there are quite a number that we could list. Uh two other things I thought I would just mention to the group is the Casablanca Waterfront Park was a huge one and although a chunk of that work certainly did occur previous, um ultimately it was an accomplishment that occurred during your term. um as well as the 40 mile bridge is that because that was a very significant one too. Um so I'm happy to help summarize maybe just a few of those even significant assets if that helps. Um because there is quite a bit of asset renewal we did even with parks um park and playgrounds and various things as well. >> Uh yes I I can't find the email I had sent to you because I had quite a extensive list of the accomplishments. Um I believe I I think I had sent it to both of you. So yeah, I had I had included a lot of those um in the playground renewals and the uh the bridge, all of that stuff. Go uh sorry, councelor Christeni first. Go ahead. >> Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I was just going to say um not everybody may realize what improvements were done in different parts of the community or different wards. So I think listing some of the parks that were redone. Um I mean this department has done so much over four years. you really got to brag about it. Um, this might be a little bit lengthy of a presentation, but uh, it's important and I think a little like maybe some stats, how many trees were planted, um, stuff like that cuz those are things that the community was asking for. Let's improve the tree canopy, right? And hundreds of trees were planted. So, I think those little things are important. And same with some of the stats from the Peach King tonight. how many more people uh you know are are do we have space for in the seniors programs and things like that are really important because it shows the work that has been done to improve and you know we answered the things and we we are providing the things that the community is asking for and I think that's important to say councelor >> thanks chair through you yeah and I was going to mention things like uh the the outdoor gym equipment that we put in in Confederation park like there are there are so many things that we attended this year and that we that this year over this term that all these things that you staff have done uh and the community has done I was going to mention this tomorrow night public works like you know I'm thinking about what we did in public works and a lot of the public works stuff is stuff that you have to do you know like it's there are things you know infrastructure is stuff that you have to do community services a lot of this stuff is stuff that we choose to do which is significantly different And when we list all of these things, we've chosen to do a lot of really cool stuff over the last four years, I think this is an opportunity to to really show where Grimby has invested this money with back into the community, you know, because you don't see the stuff underground. You don't think about the road resurfacing that public works does, but all of the things that you've done as a as a staff and and this committee has done and this group has done have been things that, you know, we didn't need we we didn't have to do every one of those things. There are things obviously like the bridge that needed to be replaced because it was washing away. But there are all other things we did like that outdoor play uh outdoor workout equipment, the improvements to to various different parks throughout the town that were things that we chose to do. So I think that every one of those things that we highlight shows where that money is going and and actually demonstrates to the taxpayer, which is who we're here to represent, where their money is going and where they're getting value for money. And it is literally like council Christi said in every ward throughout the town that so there you it's not focusing on one. We've been spending money all over the place. Don't quote me on that part of the statement. Make sure you put that in context when if you quote that. >> Yeah. So, I' I'd encourage you if you could go back to my email because I did have a extensive list of these these things and maybe go back to the community services updates for all of our meetings because there was always so much happening and that'll kind of jog your memory as well. Uh Sarah, did you want to say anything through the chair? Sure. I can um I kind of left a little bit to this team as to what you wanted to focus on, but if you'd like me to take it away and work a little more with no on it, I'm happy to do it. And I think Yan maybe has a comment too. Sorry through you, chair. I also um I came to the committee late like what we were added on I think when uh the art gallery kind of the the committees changed. Um but my first few meetings it was all about pickle ball and we haven't even talked about pickle ball and I feel like we brokered the pickle ball wars the piece between the pickle ball people like we forget like that was a lot. We spent a lot of hours on pickle ball. Just saying. >> Voldemort. We weren't supposed to say pickle ball. So >> it's true. And if we could actually mention Liz as well, cuz she was on the committee at the beginning, so I want to make sure that she's got credit for for her part in this as well. So, uh, councelor How, do you have anything that you want to add? Oh, no. Um, anybody else? Last item. Okay. Oh, councelor Candi, go ahead. Um, just to bank off what councelor DeFlavia was saying, I think the things that this committee has done has improved the quality of life for residents. I think that's the key thing for all residents, whether it's, you know, supporting inclusion, whether it's playgrounds for youth, whether it's, you know, pickle ball, whether it's programs for seniors. We really have, you know, seen everybody in the community, heard their concerns, and tried to improve quality of life for everybody. >> As usual, Jennifer does. >> Yes, she did a great job. >> Okay. All right. So, this is our last meeting of the community services committee for this term. So, thank you everyone. This is a wonderful term and our meeting is adjourned.