News and notes from the City of Brantford’s Committee of the Whole, Operations meeting, which was held on Tuesday, August 6, 2024.
Brantford Red Sox IBL Baseball Team
The City of Brantford Council unanimously voted to give the Brantford Red Sox a $15,000 yearly credit to be used for fees incurred for the use of the Arnold Anderson Stadium field and concession. The credit will cover three calendar years, from 2024 to 2026 and will be funded from the Council Priorities Reserve.
Councillor Richard Carpenter had originally brought the resolution forward back in September 2023, but had moved to defer it until the Intercounty Baseball League (IBL) team obtained their non-profit organization status.
Now that the Brantford Red Sox has officially become a non-profit, Carpenter said it’s time to support the team as it’s had a hard time rebuilding itself since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The team is going through a difficult time to rebuild itself, and we weren’t able to fund them or give them any breaks on our fees [last September] because they were for-profit,” he said. “They’re now a not-for-profit and will be building a Board of Directors soon and so we’d like to give them some support for the next three years so that way we can actually see them build the Board, and not lose the Red Sox to another city after 110 years. We provided a lot more support to our Bulldogs, our hockey team, and I just want to see us provide some support [for the Red Sox] in way of waving some of these fees.”
Councillor Gino Caputo said that he was happy to support the resolution.
“I’m fully supporting this,” he said. “…This isn’t a team that just started up a few years ago, this is a team that has an enriched history, and I think somewhere along the line, it’s kind of lost a little bit. …Going forward, as a City we need to do whatever we can to help support them and be a part of that going forward.”
Councillor Dan McCreary was also on board to support the team.
“Our major teams don’t just provide entertainment for the masses here in the City of Brantford,” he said. “Many people in the City of Brantford support these teams because it’s affordable for them, but also because it provides an opportunity for our youth to look at their major sports teams and to think ‘I can do that too, I can play pee wee and I can go on someday to play for the Brantford Red Sox and maybe excel beyond that.’”
While the committee voted unanimously to approve the resolution, the final vote will officially come to council on Tuesday, August 27, 2024.
Winter and Summer Festivals Financial Impact report
Councilors unanimously supported Councillor Gino Caputo’s resolution during a Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, June 6, 2023.
In June of 2023, The City of Brantford Council unanimously voted to direct City staff to explore the feasibility of a new winter and summer festival to be held in Brantford.
Since then, staff has been developing a concept to present to council, including a detailed report outlining how the two festivals would work.
“To summarize, the Winter Family Festival scheduled around the Family Day weekend will provide a variety of family friendly activities throughout the City and centered within the Downtown and Harmony Square,” read the report. “The winter concept will be primarily focused on community engagement and partnership development. The summer festival scheduled in the month of August, will provide a variety of experiences intended to attract visitors. The proposed activities for the weekend would include a unique to Brantford street festival including street-food and cultural activities/displays, a coordinated chocolate themed marketing campaign, and a concert series that would include two ticketed events on Friday and Saturday at the Brantford and District Civic Centre.”
During Tuesday’s committee meeting, Councillor Mandy Samwell thanked staff for the hard work and their report, saying that she would be happy to support the festivals going forward.
“I’ll be supporting this tonight because I love the idea of more community events and that we’ll be hosting these in Ward five,” she said. “… I hope as we progress through this process for these events, that we can try and dream a bit bigger than what’s in this report and really create something real special.”
Councillor Gino Caputo, who originally brought the resolution forward last year, said that he hopes these events will instill something in the community that has been lacking for a number of years.
“And that is bringing the community together a couple of weeks a year in seasonal changes, and trying to create some kind of culture that I see happen in other cities with huge successes. … I think we have a huge opportunity with corporate sponsorship in all this,” he said. “It gives them an opportunity to invest in their employees, where their employees live, where they work, and where they play, and if we can capitalize on that opportunity to have them bring monies to the table, it’s absolutely huge.”
He also added that he hopes that the events will get people off the internet and out in the City having fun.
“We live in a society now where we can’t get kids off their phones, we can’t get them off social media half the time and we have to communicate through TikTok and or Instagram,” he said. “Let’s get everybody out and about, and let’s really get behind all this, because I think it’s an opportunity for us to be able to do something we haven’t done in a lot of years.”
Councillor Richard Carpenter said that he hopes they can engage with the community and lower the costs it takes for smaller groups to put on such events of their own.
“Is there a way we can tear these costs down for some of these smaller events? We should be welcoming these events anywhere we can,” he said. “I’d like us to look at our costs going forward and see if there’s a way we can tone them down a bit to make these smaller events more feasible.”
Councillor Rose Sicoli did ask staff if they could look into planning these summer and winter events so that traffic coming in and leaving West Brant, can do without interruption.
“Just a note for while we’re planning this, whenever there’s interruption to one of two ways out of West Brant and there’s quite a bit of chaos,” she said. “Has there been any consideration to maybe closing down Market Street and just keeping it down that way, as opposed to closing down the main through?”
Lori-Dawn Cavin, Manager, Community Recreation and Events, said that this was something they could explore.
Councillors then voted unanimously and the decision will come back to council later this month for final approval.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
