ANTIGONISH: The town signed-on to a new inter-municipal agreement regarding the management of the Antigonish Arena which will create the Antigonish Arena Corporation to replace the former arena commission.
Antigonish CAO Jeffrey Lawrence said the previous agreement dates back to the 1960s and any changes to the agreement would have to go through the provincial legislature.
“Under a inter-municipal agreement, it just takes the agreement of the town and county to make changes so there is some flexibility,” said Lawrence. “The board makeup isn’t that different but there are some accountability functions in there as far a budgets [being] presented and approved by the town and the county before we enter a fiscal year.”
Antigonish Town and Antigonish County co-own the arena.
Lawrence said there are also stipulations for the resolution of potential conflicts. He pointed to past issues between the arena commission and the Eastern Nova Scotia Exhibition. He also said the quarterly meetings of the corporation will be public.
“It does give the formal ability to the commission to borrow funds with the proper approvals,” he said. “It’s basically modernizing a 1960s document and taking it out of the provincial legislature and bringing it into an inter-municipal agreement so that it can be changed or adapted as required.”