Despite the Town of Essex showing great success in their recreation and culture programs, the town says they are at a point where they are unable to meet the demands of growth.
Essex council will be presented with a report for information on Monday night with an update on their Recreation and Culture Programs.
While many of the programs, including the Aquatics division at the Essex Recreation Complex have shown significant growth over the years, making the town a leader in aquatic programming with nearly 50,000 individual visits.
Various camps held throughout the year including their Summer Camp, and their other creative art and sports programs have shown a large increase, however the Town states in the report that they can't meet the demand based on their current staffing.
Council will also be faced with a notice of motion on Monday night by mayor Sherry Bondy asking for a hiring freeze for any newly created full-time and part-time positions at the Town.
Bondy says there is a big jump of intake for programs.
"It's a surprise, but it's also one of our strengths in the Town of Essex. Something that our staff do such an excellent job on, and they've always had council support for our parks and rec. and our community services programming, and the public are responding really well whether it's new families into our area, or repeat families."
She says families who are looking for programs need to register early.
"We also have so limited space in our facilities, a lot of our facilities are maxed out with different programs whether it's pickleball, or dance, or CPR, or other things that we're constantly doing, and we have to look at can we hire more staff because I do have a notice of motion that we not hire any staff right now."
Bondy says she doesn't believe this will be in the upcoming budget.
"I don't think there'll be any real solutions for 2025, and we also need to see what does 2026 bring, and get more than one year data to determine if we're going to hire any more staff."
The report states that among the biggest challenges in program growth are staff development, retainment, mentorship, and keeping the quality of the programs consistent.
Additional staffing hours, especially at a supervisory level, are needed to maintain the quality and meet the community's needs.
Council will meet at 6 p.m.