‘Sober second thought’ needed about West Ferris arena, presentation to North Bay council Feb. 27

Bill Antler is heading to North Bay City Council on Feb. 27 to talk about the history, reality and potential future of the West Ferris arena at the Sam Jacks Recreation Complex. He said there needs to be public review and consideration because a "false" narrative about the arena’s physical condition is what led the city into pursuing a twin pad arena replacement.
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The city decided to put it in a location further from the densest residential and business core of the community, with the intention of completing a long-term development instead.
CORRECTION: North Bay Mall wasn’t built by Mancini, who owned the property at one time, it was built by the Juno Group of Toronto.
Antler had hoped to present at this past Tuesday’s council meeting but the procedural bylaw limits the number of public presenters to three. It would have been timely because the staff report finalizing the request for proposals to build a twin-pad community centre at the south end of the city was on the agenda. Council ultimately voted in a strong majority to proceed, although Coun. Jamie Lowery called for a motion of reconsideration (that would normally come up at the next regular council meeting when Antler was presenting on Feb. 27). Mayor Peter Chirico, however, gave notice that he was going to rush the process by stating he can call a special council meeting within 24 hours and deal with Lowery’s motion sooner. It would expedite the tender and avoid the conflict with Antler’s presentation.
Interestingly, council will have to vote at the special meeting to suspend their procedural bylaw so that Lowery’s motion of reconsideration can be dealt with at a "special" meeting rather than the "next regularly scheduled" one.
Worth noting, Antler wasn’t able to present on Tuesday due to the procedural bylaw they may suspend (at the meeting Feb. 15 at 5 p.m.) – the same set of rules, some will recall, that denied a woman’s group from making a presentation asking council to declare "intimate partner violence" as an epidemic (denied access because it’s not something under municipal control).