Grande Prairie city councillors will soon vote on whether or not to develop the second floor of the soon-to-be-built Smith subdivision Rec Centre.
Councillor Dylan Bressey believes the $400,000 development, which would see the addition of community meeting spaces, among other things, dovetails into the development of the rest of the community centre. He adds it’s also a potentially key piece of infrastructure when it comes to emergencies.
“We’ve got a great activity space, this would provide some meeting space which could be great for community groups running their programs, and in the event of a disaster where we are receiving evacuees into the centre, it’s additional space to accommodate their needs.”
Funding for the project, slated to be more than $4 million, comes from the COVID-19 Resilience stream of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program. One caveat of the funding was the timeline of construction was relatively short, with the mandate of completion in 2021 required to access the cash.
Bressey says they are looking at a completion timeline on the project of about a year and a half from the moment they were aware the money was being made available. He adds even with a potential second floor being added into the final plans, the rec centre will still fall within the original idea behind the project.
“It’s still that idea of creating efficiency and not having a lot of bells and whistles.”
Construction on the Smith subdivision Rec Centre is expected to get underway this spring and finish no later than the fall.