CORNWALL, Ontario – During the second day of Cornwall’s budget deliberations, the Parks and Recreation Department asked that the replacement of the seat cushions at the Cornwall Civic Complex as a part of their 2020 capital projects budget at a cost of $305,000.
The blue seats that make up the bulk of the 5,000 seats at the Complex date back to the building’s construction in 1976, according to Parks and Recreation Division Manager Jamie Fawthrop, the padding in those cushions have been reduced to dust.
In 2019, Council set aside $55,000 to study the replacement of the seats. The company that first provided the seats all those decades ago is still in operation, and they still provide replacement parts for the model of seats at the Civic Complex.
Because of the degradation of the cushions, many patrons of the Complex are left sitting directly on the metal springs in the seat pan.
Councillor Todd Bennett welcomed this budget item, saying that he hoped it would increase attendance to events at the facility.
“I’ve heard people say that they won’t go to anything in the Complex because they don’t want to sit in the insert expletive here, seats,” he said.
“I watched three hours of curling, but I sat for 15 minutes because that’s all I could take,” added Councillor Glen Grant.
If approved, the seats could be replaced by the end of the year.
“This is one of the things that can be done to revive the building, but money will need to be spent in order to do that,” Fawthrop said.
