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Century-old boating club in Otterburn Park facing eviction after city reneges on long-standing deal
Over the years, the Otterburn Park club has been home to thousands of professional and recreational rowers of all ages. But it could be forced to close its doors.The Otterburn Boating Club, located in the city of Otterburn Park, about 40 kilometers east of Montreal, has been around since August 16, 1921. (CBC)Bob Matthey has been a…
Over the years, the Otterburn Park club has been home to thousands of professional and recreational rowers of all ages. But it could be forced to close its doors.
Bob Matthey has been a member of the Otterburn Boating Club (OBC) most of his life — first as an athlete and then as a coach. Now, he and fellow club members may soon have to pack their paddles and go.
“It's like someone walking into your house and telling you to leave in five days,” said Matthey. “You just can't believe it, you don't understand.”
Members of the OBC received an eviction notice from the city of Otterburn Park last week. The letter informed them that they would have to move all their equipment and hand the building over to the city by March 8. The news came as a shock to members.
“It's almost like they're looking at us like a brand new organization and we've been here for 100 years,” said Matthey. “It doesn't make sense.”
The OBC, located in the city of Otterburn Park, about 40 km east of Montreal, was established Aug. 16, 1921. Over the years, the club has been home to thousands of professional and recreational rowers of all ages.
The club has had a deal with the city since 1965, when it gave the city a chunk of land in exchange for the municipality's help in paying its expenses. Every five years, club members meet with the city to renew or change that contract, but this year they say couldn't see eye to eye.
Last week, the city sent the OBC an eviction notice, asking them to remove all equipment and hand the building over to Otterburn Park by March 8.
Yves Richer, a member of the OBC's board of directors, said the club gets as many as 1,000 people using its services every year. He said people come from out of town just to send their children to the club's summer camp or take part in their adult dragon boat racing program.
Without their current building, he doesn't see how the club could go on.
”We're not going to let this go,” said Richer. “We want to have a fair and a sound agreement with the city.”
Richer's 14-year-old son, Philippe, has been an athlete at the club for five years and competes in both provincial and national canoe competitions.
Every summer, Philippe trains at the club four days a week as of 6 a.m. He can't imagine his life without it.
”I'm really sad because OBC is like our family,” said Philippe. ”It's like a home for us.”
”[If] it all disappears, we're not paddling anymore, we're not training anymore.”
Lack of transparency, mayor says
According to Otterburn Park Mayor Denis Parent, the city met with club members repeatedly and had warned them that it could no longer afford to keep paying the $100,000 a year or so that it takes to maintain the club.
Parent said the city had been paying around 92 per cent of the club's total running costs, including purchasing boats for it and maintaining the building. To him, it just didn't seem like a fair deal for the town's residents.
“Only about 40 per cent of the people come from Otterburn. All the other ones come from the other cities around,” said Parent.
According to Parent, the OBC was asked to provide them with a breakdown of its daily running costs so that he could request funding from other nearby municipalities on their behalf, but he claims they did not cooperate.
”They don't have a lot of transparency,” said Parent.
Parent would still like to see nearby municipalities in the region pitch in to pay for the club's costs but, he said, it would be up to the club's board of directors to meet with nearby mayors and ask for the funding themselves.
The club says it's happy to ask other municipalities for money, but that it shouldn't have to pay building costs since it only uses the basement of the community centre where it's located.
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