Warming centre in Orillia to open soon

The city and county have chosen a new location for its warming centre.

Some good news for those need to escape the cold during the winter season in Orillia. The city and Simcoe County have selected a new location for it’s warming centre and for the first time it will be open regardless of the temperature.

“It’s good because it works,” said Orillia Mayor Don McIsaac. “We had the county tour it a couple of weeks ago they are actually in there this afternoon putting on the finishing touches and should have it open and running next week.”

The new warming centre will be located at the former Orillia Power property on West Street.

The new location was required after the Orillia Community Church informed the city it would not be able to make its Colburn Street location available after it was told the county and city wanted to have the warming centre open every day regardless of the temperature.

Interim pastor Brent Hargreaves says the move to be open everyday just didn’t work for the church.

“That was really just too much for us to be able to do,” said Brent Hargreaves.

“It just didn’t fit with where we were at as a church and the things we’re trying to do to be able to help our own city as well, so it just the fit wasn’t there anymore,”

The site works because it is close to the downtown, but even more importantly, the building didn’t require a lot of work to get ready for the season. The Lighthouse works with the county on operating the warming centre.

“Last year, the warming centre was open for 84 nights we had about 1,600 visitors in that time and we served about 300 unique individuals,” said Dale Rowe, Lightouse executive director. “That’s a significant number of people that need support so being able to do that every night is a really good thing.”

The new location in Orillia should be good to go soon - likely sometime in early December.

The warming centre is funded by the County of Simcoe and is a partnership between the Lighthouse and One Community Services.