Did JD lie about Nellie Lunn Park costs?

2026.10.15 A friend and neighbour mentioned that there was a rumour going around that I had lied about the cost of reopening Nellie Lunn Park. I put some clarifying details together in an email for them, which I'll share with you here.

Hi    ,

      Happy Thanksgiving!  

It has been brought to my attention that I’m being accused of lying about the cost of reopening Nellie Lunn Park.  I intend to upload comments on this to my website but I thought I would share this with you now in case it relates to the discussion we had sometime after the All Candidates’ Meeting at the Legion.

The cost of doing what was legally required to reopen the park was less than $5,000 due to volunteer labour, community involvement, financial donations and corporate support.

Beyond this, Council spent more than $10,000 several years ago on a survey of the park access trail as a gesture of good will to the neighbours.  More recently, Council had a survey of the shore allowance.  There was potential for this to be recovered as part of the deal with Kawartha Land Trust.  Neither of these were legally required.  They were done as gestures of goodwill.

Additional costs have been incurred by the Township to respond to, and defend against legal action by a neighbour.  This has gone on for several years and will not likely be resolved in Court until the next Council is in place.  

It has been suggested that this is the strategy - stall any action on the park until a different Council is in place, one that is not supportive of the park.  I’m not in a position to comment on that.  

These legal costs are related to managing neighbour relations and were not a prerequisite to opening the park.  If anything, they are necessary to protect the authority of Council and the survival of the park.

Regards … JD