A four and a half million dollar borrowing bylaw for the Niverville multiplex project received some opposition at a public hearing earlier this week.

Mayor Myron Dyck says town council held a public hearing at their council meeting on Tuesday. He notes there were a few people who attended the meeting who expressed concerns that the 16 million dollar project is too big for the community. He notes the town has already set aside 500 thousand dollars of the five million they committed to the facility.

Dyck says members of the multiplex committee were in attendance to help answer the many questions that arose. He says one of the main concerns that was expressed was the taxes would have to go up to pay for the project, but notes all of the money for the project will come from existing taxes.

“Our recreation infrastructure reserve, we set a portion of taxes currently into that reserve and then the rest is going to come from gas tax money. There were those that felt that gas tax should only go into roads and it shouldn't be used for recreation.”

Dyck says when the town first started on this project they hired a group of experienced engineers to conduct a feasibility study and they found that this project is within Niverville's means. He notes there were some residents that wanted to know if operational costs were factored into the decision.

“Our current arena, and this was an important point, costs us about $150,000 dollars per year to operate. The feasibility study put out by the engineers says that the new facility is going to cost us roughly 50 to 75 thousand dollars. So it is actually cheaper to operate than our antiquated 1967 arena.”

Dyck says there was a lot's discussion and many questions were answered. He notes they are currently working to get funding from the provincial and federal governments as well as local businesses. He adds if they cannot raise enough money the project will be brought back to the public.

“We've set a deadline for review of August 31, 2017 to see where are we at and how much money do we have at this point, what government commitment do we have, and if we have it all great go to ground, but if we don't then we said it is going to be a community consultation process.”

Niverville Town Council gave first reading to the bylaw on Tuesday and the second reading is expected to take place at their August town council meeting.