Recreational rental rates for minor sport organizations may see another drop in fees.
Amherstburg council will meet this evening to discuss a revision of the User Fee Schedule for 2023, with rates going into the 2023-24 season for local minor sport associations seeing a drop in prices.
The Prime Time ice rental rates for local minor sports associations could be reduced from $205 an hour to $201.96 an hour.
The Non-Prime Time ice rental rates for local minor sports associations may see a major reduction from $180 an hour to $110 an hour.
The User Fee by-law indicates that fees and charges for recreation must be adjusted by the Consumer Price Index on January 1 annually.
The Local Minor Sports Association Prime Time ice rental rate in 2022 was $198 an hour, and based on the by-law the rate should have increased by 6.9 per cent for the upcoming 2023-24 season.
However, the Town has said that would be too large an increase for not-for-profit organizations and administration has recommended the rate be 3.54 per cent instead of the proposed 6.9 per cent.
Michael Prue, Mayor of Amherstburg, says the inflation rate and the increase of 6.9 per cent was too high.
"Which was not really fair to some of the groups, they met with senior staff and outlined their concerns, and senior staff was in total agreement with them that the rates had to be looked at."
He says the reduction in Non-Prime Time ice rental rates will be a huge benefit.
"A sports team who rents the Libro for a hockey team, or a figure skating club who rents for an hour was going to pay $180 an hour, hockey games last an hour or two, and so that's going to save them a whack of money."
Mayor Prue adds that it's crucial to be able to keep recreational sports local.
"It is also important that we find ourselves in the middle of the pack of the seven municipalities of Essex. We all have ice rental rates and we don't want to place ourselves out of the market. So, originally what we did actually made us have one of the highest, if not the highest ice rates, but now with the reduction we'll be in the centre of the pack again."
Many local teams rent the ice out at the Libro Centre, including the Amherstburg Admirals, the Amherstburg Minor Hockey Association, as well as Skate Amherstburg.
Council will also be looking to drop the $8 surcharge for all minor sports organizations for 2023 to $7 an hour.
And the dedicated office space fee could also see a major price drop from $12 a square foot to $5.60 a square foot.
Council will meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.