See screen image of the council meeting yesterday with l to r, Jim Peeling and Scott Newman in the lower right image.
Sports Wall of Honour (SWOH) Advisory Board’s Request Approved
Funding of $7,500
Article by Sue Dickens
Trent Hills – Wed., Feb. 28, 2024 – “Staff is very supportive of this project,” said Peter Burnett, Director of Community Services.
He was addressing Trent Hills Council about the Sports Wall of Honour (SWOH) Advisory Board’s request for $7,500 from Trent Hills to fund their project to install one of three interactive Kiosk Data Centres including one in Campbellford.
The project will see each of the three communities in Trent Hills have a kiosk.
Jim Peeling, chair of the SWOH board was joined by Scott Newman to speak about their project during the Feb. 27th council meeting and they answered questions following which approval for the funding was voted on and given unanimously by councillors.
Newman noted that the word kiosk “leads to people thinking it’s like a little booth and it’s not a little booth. It’s actually like a giant iPad.”
He went on to explain how it will be set up. “So the homepage we do want designated for sports … but on that homepage we’ll have all the hidden pages (with other community events) in it. And it’s all touchscreen. So those (hidden pages) are endless as far as how many you can put in there. It won’t take away from the integrity of the sports,”
On the main page it will have all the actual menus to pick from… it’s a very clean application on the main screen, he explained.
Burnett spoke to council about the coordination involved with the project noting the need for the addition of a receptacle in Campbellford at the new SUNNY LIFE Recreation and Wellness Centre. Another will be installed at the Hastings Field House and a third at the Warkworth arena. Burnett noted that with approval of the project, hydro will now be installed for the kiosks.
“We talked briefly about Hastings. We’ll have to do a site visit and look to see what might work best there. It’s a very bright space. So we have to be mindful of where it can be placed in the lobby just so that people can gather and look at it and the sun is not going to be an issue so those would be expenses that the municipality would be covering under our operation budget,” Burnett commented.
“I’ve been in very close contact with both Jim and Scott in recent months about the kiosks and Scott and I met at the municipal office a few weeks ago and he was able to show me some video of the actual unit when he went to the showroom. It’s very impressive, the functionality of it is fantastic. It’s way above what I anticipated originally would be offered and the ability to pull in the community and other sporting organizations like minor hockey and so on, I think would be a great benefit to the facility,” he added.
The board’s mandate is to have equal representation from all three communities and the intent is that all three kiosks will be identical.
Newman then spoke to council noting, “The total cost for the three kiosks is $16,481. I gave an updated cost projection this morning with copies so if anybody wants one.”
As a bit of background on the funding, shortly after council’s resolution approved back in September 27, 2022 the local Campbellford Kinettes donated $5000 in support of the commitment. That funding is still in place. As well the local Campbellford-Seymour Community Foundation (CSCF) has recently been asked for one of their standard $5,000 grants.
Newman pointed out, “There’s no favoritism to one organization, one town, one municipality. one committee, we’re opening it up. We want to be able to have all the sports organizations a part of this. We want their community to be a part of it. We want Trent hills to be a part of it.”
He added, “As far as the tourism side goes … the focus is sports but I think there’s a lot more to it that we can add to these kiosks to make it a community project.”
It was noted by Peeling that the SWOH Avisory Board is governed by the Campbellford Heritage Society, a registered Charity.
The first Trent Hills Wall of Honour ceremony (Gala) is slated to be held Saturday, May 11 from 1 to 5 p.m. in the newly renovated Warkworth arena. The ceremony is designated as a fundraiser. More details will follow.
For more information on the Trent Hills Sports Wall of Honour go to: Facebook page.
