Meaford council has voted against a motion brought forward by Deputy Mayor Shirley Keaveney that sought the allocation of $5,000 for legal fees in order to explore options for municipal acquisition of the waterfront property known locally as Centreville Beach.
Keaveney’s motion, brought before council at their January 27 meeting, noted that in 2020 the municipality spent roughly $7,000 to obtain a legal opinion about the ownership of the property, and that legal opinion gave no indication that the municipality had ownership or responsibility for the property. Her motion also noted that in 2024 that legal opinion was reconfirmed by the municipal solicitor.
Centreville Beach has long been a popular spot for locals to enjoy some time on Meaford’s waterfront without the crowds that can be found in other beach areas.
In August of last year, however, the municipal picnic table and trash bin were removed from the small waterfront lot, and the following month a sign with a municipal logo was erected informing that ‘This is not a public beach area’. In the months since residents have been demanding answers.
At council’s January 13 meeting, concerned residents attended to ask council to take possession of the property and to return it to a publicly accessible beach.
A 24-slide presentation to council was led by Peter Van Drunen, who questioned the closure of the beach area.
“We are here representing a large group of local residents to convey a compelling case for an invaluable opportunity for the Municipality of Meaford to secure permanent public waterfront access at a minimal cost, as it is clearly in the best interest of community,” Van Drunen told council.
Council was told that research by residents indicates that a local family has a rightful claim to the property, and that family has offered to transfer the property to the municipality for a nominal fee in order for the beach area to remain accessible to the public.
Van Drunen suggested that, “By way of legal land title searches and consultation with the Trusler Family Heirs, we know the following: Alfred J. Trusler acquired the deed to properties on both sides of Centreville in 1910. As parcels were sold off, the Trusler family retained the waterfront Lot 38. A County Registry update effort in 1958 resulted in the Lot 38 being deemed ‘ownership unknown’ due to absence of owner at the time. In 1971, the Trusler family registered a claim of ownership of Lot 38. The rightful claim to the property was inherited by Brent & Nancy (Trusler) Flanakin.”
In October of last year, Brent Flanakin attended council to offer to transfer the property to the municipality, and he told council that he has research materials to back his family’s claim to the property.
For council however, the ownership of the property remains an unanswered question that they are hoping to get to the bottom of.
“Therefore be it resolved that Council of the Municipality of Meaford direct staff to continue to investigate and allocate an additional $5,000, based on the cost estimate provided by the municipal solicitor, to examine options for the Municipality to acquire the land informally known as Centreville Beach, and to prepare a report to Council, including legal advice, options for acquisition, and details on further costs that will be incurred to acquire the lands. The report shall be presented to Council by March 2025,” read Keaveney’s January 27 motion.
The motion was defeated in a 3-3 vote (Councillor Tony Bell was absent from the virtual meeting) after some members of council expressed reservations over spending money on a legal opinion regarding the municipality obtaining the property before the actual rightful ownership is known. Members of council noted that the rightful ownership of the property is ‘murky’ at the moment.
“I’m a little concerned about the verbiage of the last paragraph, because it literally says ‘staff to continue to investigate and allocate an additional $5,000 based on the cost estimate provided to examine options for the municipality to acquire the land informally known as Centreville Beach’. Now based on conversations we had at the last council meeting, I am not precluding the potential of possibly buying that down the road, but I thought at the last meeting we were more interested in literally finding the outcome of the legality of ownership,” Councillor Rob Uhrig told council. “I didn’t think we had gotten to the point about purchasing yet. I still would really like to finalize, or declare literally who owns this property before we make any concessions about purchasing.”
Councillor Uhrig suggested that the $5,000 requested in the motion could be money wasted should an owner of the property be confirmed and that owner not want to sell the property to the municipality.
Councillor Harley Greenfield agreed with Uhrig.
“I have been very interested in this situation, I would like to find out for sure more about the ownership, and I think Councillor Uhrig has made a good point, and yes I think we should consider that (confirmed ownership) before we go ahead with the original notice,” Greenfield told council.
Councillor Brandon Forder also agreed that it was too early for the municipality to explore acquisition of the property.
“In my opinion, we shouldn’t be spending any money on this at this point in time. The municipality can’t get involved buying the property until the ownership is fully settled,” Forder told council. “If two parties believe they own the same lot of property, this dispute is typically resolved through the civil court system.”
Once a ruling on the rightful ownership of the property is made, Forder suggested that would be the time to explore the potential for municipal acquisition of the property.
