The president of the board of directors of the Yarmouth Arts Regional Council says the town is negotiating in bad faith.
Mitch Bonnar is referring to a news release issued last Friday by the Town of Yarmouth regarding a new arts and culture centre.
Mayor Pam Mood told Y95 News that the town and representatives of the Th’YARC board met and that a two-page discussion paper was produced generally outlining proposed terms of governance.
Mood also said that a new arts and culture centre would be located in the downtown in the area of the Collins Street parking lot.
Mitch Bonnar, president of Th’YARC board says the town has again failed to call another meeting, due a week ago, and says there’s been no communication whatsoever since the last meeting.
He says the two-page document simply outlined what the town wanted to do.
Bonnar claims the town wants to run the new arts facility like the Mariners Centre with an independent board which he says is unacceptable to Th’YARC board because they would lose their autonomy.
“So we asked them to go back and re-look at that, in the spirit of negotiations, and see what we can do to try to make it better. They were supposed to have done that a week ago and haven’t done it yet. In the middle of that out comes the press release basically saying we’re (the town) putting it on Collins Street and we’re proceeding.”
Bonnar says Th’YARC has not made any agreement whatsoever with the town.
He says Th’YARC has not agreed to move to Collins Street even though the press release from the town indicates that location has been decided.
“it’s pretty presumptuous on their part I think. They can build whatever they want, wherever they want I guess if they want to pay for it. But the issue with that parking lot is no different than it was ten years ago. It’s on a back street. it doesn’t serve the purpose of a multi-million dollar building, in my opinion.”
Mayor Pam Mood told us that a governance model must be agreed upon that is acceptable to the town because they would be funding partners, using public money, along with other levels of government.
Bonnar says the town needs to remember an important point.
“They’ve been told by both levels of government, federal and provincial, that they will not receive any funding either because they don’t have us on side and the government can’t possibly be involved in putting the 37-year-old theatre out of business.
Bonnar says “Th’YARC has other options and is actively pursuing them.”