It seemed like a natural fit. A made-in-the-County solution that checked a lot of boxes.

The proposal for 24 preschool spaces by the Hub Child and Family Centre at the Athol Town Hall promised to chip away at a childcare waitlist that sits stubbornly at 400.

The programming would have breathed new life into the Athol Town Hall, which has the lowest utilization rate of all the municipal town halls. In 2023 it was used 9 percent of the time.

Yes, the hall is important to the Cherry Valley Women’s Institute and the Athol Recreation Committee. But even with those two groups, not too much is happening at the hall. It recovers 19 percent of the cost to run it in rentals. While that’s not the worst cost recovery rate among the County’s complement of former township halls, Athol is only about half as successful at defraying costs when compared to the town halls in Picton and Bloomfield. They recover 47 and 40 percent, respectively. But I digress. The dismal returns the County gets on its full complement of historical buildings is a topic for another day.

The child care proposal had support from Council, and funding from Prince Edward Lennox and Addington Social Services. In lieu of rent for the first year, the Hub would upgrade the Hall’s septic system, washrooms, and kitchen. They would improve the play area and install new fencing along the property lines. And after that, rent was going to be paid to the municipality.

So what happened? Despite working out dates and times for the ham suppers and strawberry socials, there was still enough opposition that Hub Director Stacey Stanford figured the undulating terrain in the Valley would be fraught with potential headaches. She chose to retreat.

That’s a bad break for the desperate parents seeking child care in Prince Edward County. To put it mildly.

The advocacy group PEC Needs Child Care was formed, in part, to call on Council to address this major issue. A survey it published in 2022 revealed a landscape of depressed and desperate parents who either use a temporary, cobbled-together system to try and stay employed day-by-day, or have given up on rejoining the workforce.

One of the respondents was, ironically, an early childhood educator who couldn’t return to her job taking care of multiple young children because she couldn’t find care for her own child. “We rely solely on my husband’s income and I have lost my career because of a lack of daycare,” she wrote.

The testimonials under the “financial strain” section all sing the same song. The lack of child care in Prince Edward County is keeping some young families at poverty levels because of lost income.

Others have secured child care but in distant areas. Imagine the bewilderment of an 18-month old woken in the wee hours every day for a half hour or 45-minute drive to the nearest care facility.

“We travel 30 minutes one way for the only child care option that is available to us,” wrote one parent. “That’s two hours of driving each day….an incredible amount of time and energy to have my child in care for six hours.”

Still others have no care at all, of course. “This experience has been extremely stressful for my family, it seems hopeless. We are still waiting for child care and are on multiple lists. My husband grew up in PEC and we love it here but the lack of child care makes us wonder if we wouldn’t be better off elsewhere.”

Let’s game out a scenario.

Imagine the next term of Council sees a changeover, as it will. It wants more austerity. Tighter budgets. A focus on restocking depleted reserves rather than spending. It insists no tax increases.

What if this new version of Council figures out the best way to replenish empty County coffers is to start selling off the buildings it deems mere historical artefacts of the former township system — sentimentality be damned. The coffers are dry.

The Athol Town Hall could easily wind up on that auction block. It’s in better-than-averarge condition, and its low use rate makes it a liability. The bones are good and 91 percent of the time, it’s empty. It could make for an appealing piece of property — appealing to a frugal Council to put it on the chopping block, and equally appealing to some developer to snap it up. Another boutique hotel or AirBnB will be on its way in no time. Forget community yoga. Maybe another spa? 

You’d think its value as a childcare centre during the day and ARC and Women’s Institute activities on evenings and weekends would shield the Hall from the lusty glares of those around the horseshoe who want to get rid of underused properties, build up reserves, and lower tax rates. Wouldn’t you.

Perhaps our community groups don’t realize there’s been a lot of hand-wringing about the future of our leftover town halls. In August last year, Council hired an engineering firm to have a look at its inventory of 49 — yes, 49 — surplus heritage buildings. 

They said the County’s ultra rich inventory requires an investment of $5 million per year over the next ten years to bring them up to code. 

The ten-year total of deferred maintenance and necessary renovation and renewal work across the buildings is $52 million.

As Mayor Steve Ferguson noted, “this is a very sobering report. The buildings have been neglected for decades.”

Councillor Chris Braney was brisk. “We need to consider parting ways with some of these buildings; the County’s entire budget right now is $90 million.” That led to a discussion of how quickly Council could divest itself of the beautiful old Wellington Town Hall, which is in immediate need of a serious capital investment that the County simply does not have.

It’s virtually impossible to see how the municipality doesn’t start putting For Sale signs on the glut of underused facilities it currently owns, no matter the heritage or emotional strings attached. Please remember that this is being written by someone who had both “Property of Athol Recreation Committee” inked on every piece of catcher’s equipment he ever strapped on to go into battle for the Athol A’s and who attended more strawberry socials and elementary school dances at Athol Town Hall than he can count.

Here’s a word of wisdom to the scores of user groups that huddle in these Town Halls one or two days a month all across the County. When an unheard-of, well-funded opportunity to ensure your favourite building stays lit and in public hands through the dark days that are looming comes along, maybe think twice before you get all opposed.

After all, isn’t that “the County way?”