I’ve been flummoxed at times when faced with the manner in which the request from the Brantford Bisons football association has made its way to the city council table.

The Bisons, along with other football teams based at area high schools, have been suffering through the redevelopment of the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre project, which took away a playing field that won’t be ready again for some time.

Thinking long-term, the group wants the city to redevelop the North Park Collegiate field adjacent to the sports centre as part of the $64-million project and make it an all-weather turf field.

There is merit in, as it can be afforded, moving city and school fields to turf on the cost basis alone.

This project however, hasn’t been part of the harried marathon of the sports centre’s redevelopment. It’s not on the city’s five-year capital plan and has not been identified as a priority by the city’s parks and recreation department. Ask the department’s general manager and the cost of putting in the turf and other associated renovations to the running track, stadium seating and fieldhouse could start at $1.4 million.

City council, in a slick move that happened Dec. 1 and was confirmed Jan. 30, moved $150,000 from capital-project spending in information technology (IT) that could actually improve the way city employees provide public services to this Bisons field of dreams. It’s a shadow of what will be needed to do the project properly and as far as council’s own planning and priorities, wasn’t on the radar prior to November.

Asked point-blank what the Bisons would be willing to bring to the table, president Brad Ward offered up all kinds of useful information on pricing for the project and volunteers to advise the city. He even suggested the city add the field project to the KCI fundraising contract for the rest of the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre. Not in the offer is any money from the Bisons, who would be one of this field’s main users.

Counter that with the field of dreams at Pauline Johnston Collegiate, a community-led initiative that hasn’t done as good of a  job (yet?) calling up city councillors and giving them the gears. That group wants an all-weather turf installed at the PJ site. Speaking to Brantford public-school trustee David Dean, they’re looking for partners beyond the city and Catholic school board. Partners willing to bring their wallets to the table, one would assume, since neither school board can tap into a pot of money for a sports field.

This could become the start of a long line of other sports and recreational organizations lining up at council’s door with the words “my turn” on the tips of their tongues.

To which there’s an easy end— You want the city to invest in new or revamped facilities to benefit your user group?

Come to the table with money to support construction costs or a partnership model to pay for operating costs.

Struck by this thought tonight at the joint brownfields community advisory committee and heritage committee meeting considering the reports on Greenwich-Mohawk.

The heritage advocates in this city will likely, justifiably perhaps, be incensed if this or the next council does anything except preserve what’s worth preserving at the Greenwich-Mohawk site. This council’s task is unenviable— account for decades of neglect and attempt to address it with a pot of money that’s nowhere near large enough and a fiscal and political dynamic that won’t allow it to raise the necessary capital through taxation or debt.

Surely, predictably, heritage advocates will call for the seats on council if the spending required to make up for these decades of neglect is not supported and the decision becomes demolition over preservation.

It’s not this council’s fault. It’s not really the previous council’s fault either.

There are decades worth of councils that hold some of the responsibility for the current state of these buildings.

Worse yet, there are decades worth of voters who elected those councils that obviously didn’t see the preservation of these buildings as a priority.

So, before blaming this council should it choose not to spend what’s needed to preserve, take a good look in the mirror first.