Plans for an aquatics centre in Bonnyville are moving ahead, with both municipalities coming together to make it happen.
After discussing options for the area when it comes to an aquatics centre, the pool committee passed a motion that a feasibility and visioning study be conducted to get more information.
During their regular council meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 13, the town voted in favour of funding 50 per cent of the study up to $30,000, which will be added to the 2019 capital budget. The MD approved the same amount during their own council meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 14. Their contribution will be taken from their recreation reserve fund.
Town Coun. Chad Colbourne, who’s a member of the aquatic centre committee, noted the significance of conducting a study.
“(The pool committee) came to a consensus that our pool is (around) 40-years-old, and a good life span is 40 years. We’ve got a good life span out of the pool, I think it’s important we look into what something would be for a (new) pool,” he expressed.
MD Reeve Greg Sawchuk said, “We talked about a number of things, including what it would take to upgrade the existing pool... We looked at other opportunities, and whether or not to add-on. That price tag was looking at about $6-million just to do renovations.”
The proposed location of the new facility is the Centennial Centre, hoping to create a hub in the area.
The aquatics committee also discussed the possibility of tearing down the current location and building a new pool there.
“It was the original plan that the C2 would become a hub for recreation, and that goes back to a study done by the C2 earlier this year,” Sawchuk noted, adding narrowing the focus to one location would cut down the costs for the project.
After reaching out to other communities who have done similar projects, having one central location for recreation was determined to be the best option.
Part of the aquatics centre study will include public engagement, with a rough plan being drawn up to present to residents.
“They would go out there, and look at some ideas, come up with some sort of diagrams, have some open houses, and talk about it with the public,” Sawchuk explained.
As more information is required before the plan can move forward, the feasibility and visioning study was what the pool committee thought would be the next best step.
“There’s still more details that are needed, and more numbers are needed before a decision can be made,” expressed Sawchuk.
Mayor Gene Sobolewski said, “This is exactly the place that we wanted to get to, and be able to say ‘this is exactly what we need.’ I want to thank each and every one of the committee members for taking the time to do that. There’s a lot more work to do, but I want to thank everybody for that because it was a great job. This was exactly what we wanted.”
