County of Brant councillors will decide on Aug. 10 if keeping the Syl Apps Community Centre open beyond completion of the county's new twin pad arena is an acceptable plan.

The county’s Syl Apps repositioning committee has recommended that the facility kept open for multiple sports, including soccer, roller hockey, baseball, indoor golf and basketball.

Council will deal with the recommendation at its next meeting. 

“If we don’t make this revenue generating or at least break even, it won’t get passed by council,” Coun. Shirley Simons said at a repositioning committee meeting on Thursday.

Parks and facilities manager Darin Ayres has prepared a draft business plan that would see the building operate without taxpayer dollars over a 15-year period, despite $500,000 in planned capital upgrades.

The business plan shows a facility with a $125,000 artificial turf for soccer use between October and April, with Sport Court flooring for the balance of the year. Sport Court flooring is plastic and adequate for playing a variety of sports.

The business plan builds in debt payback in order to cover the costs of capital upgrades like new roofing, netting and purchasing turf.

Coun. Murray Powell said several soccer groups from Brantford, including the Brantford Galaxy, have expressed interest in the artificial turf option, but Coun. Cliff Atfield said he would rather stick with Sport Court flooring year round.

“Of course soccer would prefer turf, but we don’t always get what we prefer,” Atfield said. 

Details like what flooring to put in the Syl Apps facility are not ones the committee should be deciding, Coun. Roy Haggart said.

“That is not our mandate,” he said. “We are supposed to decide if this facility should have a future. The details will be up to parks and recreation if council approves our recommendation to move forward.”

The recommendation calls for plans for Syl Apps to be in place before ice is removed for the final time, currently estimated to happen sometime in December.

Syl Apps was to remain iceless for the coming hockey season due to the opening of the new Brant Sports Complex twin pad. With construction delays expected to push completion of the twin pad past the start of hockey season, the county will put ice in Syl Apps one last time this year.