The chair of the 2010 Dryden Walleye Masters Committee says the organization is disappointed at a city council decision not to sponsor the local fishing tournament by donating the use of the Dryden Memorial Arena for the event.

Joe Barron’s letter on behalf of the Walleye Masters Committee appeared in the March 13 council agenda, requesting permission to use Duke St. Dock for the event, permission to close Earl Avenue between Duke and Arthur streets and the sponsorship donation of the Dryden Arena for a total of 10 hours over June 18, 19, and 20.

Council, chose not to waive a $775 facility rental fee.

Though present at the meeting, Barron expressed frustration at his inability to directly address council on the matter while it was being discussed at the meeting.

“What we suspect, from the figures that we have, is we’re bringing anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000 each year into the community,” said Barron. “That’s $3 million over the last 20 years this tournament has brought into the merchants, restaurants, hotels, etc. For them to dismiss it like that, I wonder where their loyalties lie? Do they not want these activities to go on?”

Barron adds he hoped that council would have tabled discussion on the matter in the hope that the group could appear as a delegation at an upcoming meeting of council.

“We talked about it (appearing as a delegation) and based on what was said, there’s no sense in us doing that. It would be a waste of everybody’s time,” said Barron. “There are tournaments like this across the northwest,” he said. “Red Lake, Fort Frances, Kenora – all of their councils are behind these tournaments 100 per cent. They can see the economic impact and the goodwill it’s creating. I don’t think the Dryden Council could care less about the Walleye Masters.”

Council’s discussion raised the point that local taxpayers are currently subsidizing over half of the facility’s annual operating costs.

City of Dryden director of community services Bill Latham says the city would find itself in a difficult position if they absorbed rental costs for some groups and not for others who could make equally valid claims about economic spinoff to the community.

“If we open up the arena for everything like that, it wouldn’t be fair to all our partners. We have to be consistent and fair. We do recognize the economic benefits when we have events in the arena, but we also have to be responsible to the taxpayers.”

Latham says recreation department officials have recently developed an hourly rate system that helps keeps costs down for community partners. He adds the recreation department used this new rate structure in their discussions with the Walleye Masters Committee to arrive at a rate of $775 for the 10 hours they need over the weekend. Under the existing fee schedule, the same access to the facility would have cost $1,743.

“We’re doing that more and more with all of our user groups, because they’re not using the arena for the full day, just a couple hours,” said Latham. “It is a fairly good deal and it does go above and beyond our existing policy.”

- Chris Marchand