The contract expired more than a month ago but the future name of the Island Savings Centre is still up in the air.
Will it stay the same? Will a new sponsor emerge? Will be revert back to the Cowichan Community Centre? Time will tell, says North Cowichan mayor Al Siebring.
The discussion around the Island Savings Centre Commission (which presumably would need a new name as well) table has been delayed due to the election and while the new public officials get their footing.
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“We continue to call it the Island Savings Centre for now,” Siebring said, admitting the financial institution is getting some free publicity. “The hope is by the end of the year or early in the new year, the new commission will take a look at it and figure out what to do.”
Siebring said there was “consideration” around going back to the “Cowichan Community Centre” which, he said, has a lot of public support.
“Or do we find a way to call it ‘the Cowichan Community Centre, brought to you by….(insert company here) or do we do another full corporate sponsorship,” Siebring added.
The reality is, he noted, any major change is going to cost money that local government, and taxpayers alike, aren’t keen to spend.
“If we were to go back to the Cowichan Community Centre, that would involve changing a lot of signage and there’s a cost to that,” Siebring said. “It’s not insignificant, that’s some dollars that would fall to the taxpayers. If we get some interest from somebody else, that would be their problem.”
Siebring, who has sat on the Island Savings Centre Commission for eight years now, including several years as its chairman, said a request for expressions of interest regarding the facility’s naming rights fell flat.
“It was not a request for proposals but it was just to see if there was any interest in taking this on and we didn’t get anything that way because I suspect partly because we didn’t tie any dollars to it.”
Siebring said would-be partners would likely want to know more details before expressing interest. Time will tell, but for now, he says, it’s still the Island Savings Centre.
The Cowichan Valley Regional District received $100,000 a year from the credit union for capital projects including facility upgrades, a new parking lot, new sound systems, a new Zamboni and more.
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sarah.simpson@cowichanvalleycitizen.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
