Councillors' views don't mesh with Tidal View board

By Michael Gorman

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

A replacement facility for Tidal View Manor that would be located off the hospital property is far from receiving full support from Yarmouth's town council.

During a special meeting on Monday with Gordon Wood of the Tidal View board it was clear that although all six councillors and the mayor support a facility, support is far from unanimous that the facility move away from the hospital and take potentially valuable land off the tax roll.

Wood told council that the new facility, which would cost around $30 million and must be a single level, needs to go ahead as soon as possible to ensure funding remains in place and the project is completed. There is concern from Wood, the Tidal View board and councillors Esther Dares and Martin Pink that if the project is further delayed and an election comes during that time, funding for the project could be lost.

"Unless we get a guarantee in gold from the province . . . we very well could lose it," said Pink while discussing the possibility of further delays.

Pink, who is the most recent addition to the Tidal View board, joining the mayor and councillor Wally Strickland as the town's representative, said that his view on the facility has changed since joining that board and that his belief that the facility is what is best for the residents could outweigh his views as a councillor in terms of what is best for the town.

On the other side of the argument stood Mayor Charles Crosby and councillors Clifford Hood and Murray Judge. Hood, the most outspoken critic of the project for some time, is concerned about what relocating the facility to somewhere else within the town limits will do to the town's tax base. Hood has long voiced a concern for the town's depleting tax base and wondered why a location outside the town limits could not be considered, something Wood said the board had not done due to logistics with sewer and water connections.

At this point, said Wood, the board has yet to buy a piece of property but has a list of five potential locations. At the top of the list is about 10 acres of land behind Walmart. At the bottom of the list is the hospital location.

Hood, like the mayor and Judge, also said that he is unconvinced that the facility cannot be located at the hospital and went so far as to refer to the present project outline as a "cock-eyed, cockamamie, unsustainable deal."

The mayor reiterated a point he has made on several occasions that until a proper study shows him that the facility cannot go at the hospital site he would not support any other location.

Members of the Tidal View board are no longer supporting the idea of staying at the hospital because of difficulties they would have in terms of moving a parking lot and helipad and because they do not think the area is conducive to taking residents outside.

"Quality of life is much improved," Wood said of the board's proposed facility and location.

Judge, the chair of the town's Planning Advisory Committee, said he has real concerns about whether or not the board's site of choice would be able to pass rezoning requirements it would need to locate on the land behind Walmart. He made reference to attempts in years past by people to rezone a piece of land in that area and said area residents adamantly opposed its development and the traffic it would bring.