The sound of unanimous agreement around the council table sent town staff away with orders to work faster on the upgrades for Eddie Bush Memorial Arena's sound system.
The Town of Collingwood council agreed to put a new sound system in the 2025 budget, led to the decision by a motion from Coun. Chris Potts in December.
Potts said he asked for an update at the March 17 council meeting, which was delivered by the director of parks, recreation and culture, Karen Cubitt.
She said the project is underway. An audio-visual systems integration company completed an audit of the existing system with recommended upgrades and an estimate to use for the town's budgeting purposes.
Staff are ready to put out requests for bids from a minimum of three eligible companies and have targeted the completion for the upgrades for the third quarter of the year.
Coun. Chris Potts said he was glad to hear the system is being worked on, but was disappointed it wouldn't be ready in time for an Ontario Hockey Federation tournament on April 18. He said that was one of the drivers for council voting in favour of sound system upgrades.
The tournament will be the OHF championships for U15A minor hockey teams hosted by the Collingwood Minor Hockey Assocation.
"I appreciate timing ... but that was one of the driving factors was this coming up," said Potts, who noted the arena would be full for the weekend and there would be award presentations that would be hard to hear without an upgrade."
He said he thought it was clear through the budget process that a big reason for the sound system upgrade was the OHF tournament, as well as concerns for health and safety in the event there needs to be an announcement for an emergency and/or evacuation.
Coun. Kathy Jeffery agreed something should be done quickly.
"Nobody's hearing anything at the Eddie Bush," said Coun. Kathy Jeffery. "We need it sooner rather than later ... it's going to be pretty embarrassing for us to be hosting something that prestigious ... to have that kind of sound system, it's too bad."
Coun. Deb Doherty asked whether there could be an interim solution, such as renting equipment. Cubitt said it was possible and would be paid for from the town's capital budget.
Doherty moved that staff explore alternatives to augment the sound system before the OHF tournament. Coun. Jeffery added that the motion should also note staff could either expedite the current work or find an interim solution until the project is completed permanently.
Council agreed to waive the notice period in order to vote right away on the matter and have staff start working on a faster upgrade.
"I thought that's what the directive was," said Coun. Rob Ring. "We knew we had a sound system that wasn't good, I don't know why we spent so much time studying something we already knew."
CAO Sonya Skinner said staff was putting out a request for proposals based on the work that was identified as required by the consulting. She noted she wasn't aware there was a rush on the project.
"We're going to get prices," said Skinner. "The budget was passed in mid-January and now we're at mid-March ... we proceeded reasonably well, not as fast as we could have if we better understood the challenge."
The direction to speed up the process or find an interim solution passed unanimously.