A Regional Draw

I'm not sure if people real realize just how cool The Multiplex is going to be. It seems like a lot of people think of it as "the new pool" and that leads to picturing an updated, bigger, version of the Leisure Centre.

The reality is that it's much, much more than that. It really does have the potential to be a regional tourist draw.

I'm not saying that people from Calgary are going to decide that they need to drive up just to check it out but I do believe that people from the north and the region around the city may do just that. I also think that after families stop in once they will start to make it a regular part of their visits to the City. Just like my family used to stop in at the wave pool in Millwoods and then the water park at WestEd when we would go down to Edmonton.

With features like a tube slide, adventure river and surfing machine all set in amongst a fantasy dinosaur theme, kids and parents alike are going to love it.

Check out the pictures and tell me you're not excited too....

City Media Release

The much anticipated Dinosaurs for the Multiplex are finally arriving in Grande Prairie! The first shipment of the Multiplex’s prehistoric pals, are now onsite at the Multiplex and installation will begin in late June.

Cheryl McKenzie, Multiplex Marketing Manager says “This is one of the most exciting parts of the overall aquatics area. The personality that these playful dinosaurs display is just amazing. In the children’s vortex area the dinosaurs are cute, colourful and friendly.

There are 6 perched on Hoo Doo’s surrounding the kiddie’s area, and they are equipped with goggles and life preservers just ready to splash in the pool. There are 3 more surrounding the family hot tub and volcano. Further back in the giant slide area beside the lazy river the dinosaurs are more realistic looking. We have a giant T-Rex head that is breaking through the rock facade over the change rooms and a couple more are on the island in the Lazy River. In addition the theme includes waterfalls, foliage, 4 pterodactyls, dinosaur rib cage and murals depicting some of the prehistoric aquatic life. The City wants to support the exciting new dinosaur opportunities that our region is becoming known for and The Multiplex is the perfect place to put that theme to good use. Though the Dinosaurs at the Multiplex in no way represent those found at Pipestone, they will certainly help get visitors and locals alike in the ‘Dinosaur Frame of Mind’.”

The Dinosaurs were designed in Calgary at Studio Y Creations and have taken over a year to develop. Studio Y has taken the Dinosaur theme to a whole new level while remaining considerate of all ages of our patrons.

“It is going to be so exciting to show off the Multiplex to everyone. It is definitely a one of a kind facility that won’t fail to impress anyone who comes to visit us!” adds McKenzie.

Multiplex Theming Concept Images

In my last post on the Multiplex I posted some pictures from inside of the construction site. Today I've got more images to share, this time though you'll be getting a look into the future of the project rather than at how it stands today.

At a committee meeting yesterday council was presented with concept images for the theming of the aquatics portion of the building. (The Daily Herald has a story on the committee meeting here.)

We approved going ahead with just under $900,000 worth of dinosaur related theming elements. It's always been a part of the plan to include a theme in the aquatics centre (the $900,000 has been in the project budget since the beginning). I think this is important because it will set the stage for the multiplex, and the aquatics centre in particular, to become a "can't miss" attraction in the city.

The reason it's dinos is to tie in to a local element - the Pipestone Creek dinosaur bone bed and the future River of Death & Discovery dinosaur museum. The vision, or my vision anyhow, is that when both facilities are up and running our area will have a highly marketable tourism attraction: "Go to the Museum and Don't Forget to Visit the Waterpark!" It might sound far-fetched today but with a little planning & coordination that might just be something that attracts people to the area and keeps them here a few days longer- all the while contributing to the local economy.

The quality of the images below is only kind of so-so because they're scanned from the hard copy. You can click each picture for a larger view which might be a bit easier to see. Anyhow, let's get on to the pictures:

As you come out of the change rooms you exit through rock walls over grown with vines and embedded with fossils. There are pterodactyls in the air overhead.

Right in front of you is the children's pool and the spray deck. You can climb up in to the tree-top to be under the big dumping bucket with giant dragonflies around you.

Around the back of the tree-top water feature are the stairs which go right through huge dino bones sticking out of the ground.

A little further along is the chance to ride a pre-historic wave on the flowrider. (council agreed to remove the dino from the top of the rocks to keep the theming within budget.)

Way across to the north end of the building is the tower that leads up to the start of the waterslides. As you speed down the bodyslide you come splashing out of the mouth of a T-Rex.

If you come down the tubeslide you end up in the adventure river where the current takes you through a mountain and around the river island.

The view riding along the river is pretty exciting.

While the kids are off doing all this the adults might decide to relax in the hot-tub and listen as a waterfall tumbles down from a rock outcropping. (Council voted to remove the large dino on top of the rocks, as well as the palm trees. The thinking is that, while this are should be consistent with the theme, adults will enjoy the area without needing as many features as in the youth oriented areas.)

This final image is an example of the work from Studio Y Creations who will be doing the theming. They have done work for the Tyrrell Museum and will have no problem making dinos that look realistic. I'm going to make sure that at least one of the beasts lumbering in the building is an authentic looking local.

Minister Blackett in GP to Make Funding Announcements

Back in 2007 I mentioned that a new funding program, the Major Community Facilities Program (MCFP), was launched by the provincial government at the Coca-Cola Centre in Grande Prairie. I was hopeful that the time that having the launch at the CKC would be a good omen for the city receiving some support from this program for the construction of the aquatics centre.

The program was originally supposed to provide up to $280 million in grants to communities across the province. Since it's launch the department responsible has a new minister in charge (Lindsay Blackett, MLA for Calgary North-West has take over for Hector Goudreau, MLA for Dunvegan-Central Peace) and the program has given out 131 grants adding up to $203 million.

See the list of grants given out here:
Grants in 2007/08 (pdf)
Grants in 2008/09 (pdf)

So far Grande Prairie hasn't received any money from this program towards the aquatics centre. The only grant the city has received at this point is $500,000 towards the Centre for Creative Arts renovations. Even when you add in the $350,000 the county of GP received for renos to the Clairmont arena I can't help but feel the Grande Prairie area is being left out compared to other Alberta communities

Check out these examples:

Brooks, $3.38 Million (Multiplex)
Camrose, $3.5 Million (Performing Arts Centre)
Cold Lake, $3.0 Million (Multiplex)
Leduc, $2.0 Million (Multiplex)
Lethbridge (U of L), $2.0 Million (Sports Centre)
Lethbridge, $3.68 Million (Multiplex Renewal)
Penhold, $2.0 Million (Multiplex)
Red Deer, $3.7 Million (Community Centre Renos)

Of course that's leaving out Edmonton & Calgary who have seen multiple grants. In some situations multiplex projects in the two major centres have been given grants of $10 million in one shot.

So, I'm hopeful that this afternoon we'll have some good news from Minster Blackett.

Update:
The city received $1M towards the multiplex construction. Of course we are grateful for any support but that's about 1% of the cost of the project so although it's helpful it's only so great. The minister did hand out just over $4M in grants during his visit. The Daily Herald has all the details here

Multiplex Connection to Community Energy System?

Council is having a special meeting this afternoon to consider designing the Aquatics Centre/Multiplex so it can be plugged into the Community Energy System (CES), which looks like it may now be a reality thanks to new funding announced last week.

The CES would generate steam from waste energy at the Canadian Hydro EcoPower Co-Gen plant at Canfor. This steam would then be piped across the city and be used to heat large public buildings. (Overview of the plan HERE) The catch was that Aquatera had until the end of 2009 to start taking steam.

The project has a long history, at least as long as I've been on council I think. Back in the day Ald. Carol-Lee Eckhardt helped us get a grant from FCM to do a study on the feasibility of the project. The results were that the concept is technically possible but that the business model was hampered by Alberta's system of natural gas rebates, and the high upfront capital cost of construction and the eccoPower Centre was finally built in 2003/4.

The provincial rebates artificially made using natural gas cheaper when prices went up and reduced the incentive for organizations to sign up for the CES. We lobbied the provincial government quite a bit and eventually had the law changed so that any future rebates for natural gas would also apply to bio-mass projects like the CES. Barrier #1 removed.

Upfront construction costs were still an issue of course so it languished. The first three phases were estimated to cost $23 million in January of '08. Of course part of the cost of construction would be recovered through the rates paid by customers but at $23m it would drive the rates up so high that they (again) wouldn't be competitive with the existing natural gas system. It would need at least $12m in "no-cost capital" (aka grants) to make it a feasible alternative to natural gas at current rates.

So it wasn't until City Council committed $6m in a narrow 5-4 vote in the fall of '08 that the project seemed to have some legs again. As we rolled in to 2009 the clock really began ticking on the deadline for Aquatera to start taking steam by the end of the year, or risk loosing the right to do so. The $6m from the city was good but we still needed to find some way to get up to the $12m mark.

When the Federal & Provincial Governments announced the Building Canada Fund to stimulate the economy there seemed to be an opening. Building Canada's goal was to encourage spending by municipalities that would create jobs by getting new projects rolling across the country. The catch was that they had to be new projects that wouldn't happen otherwise, and that cities had to have the money to come up with at least 1/3rd of the project cost. (That last bit is proving difficult for many communities - it's not like communities typically have large amounts of uncommitted cash floating around.)

So about March GP submitted four applications to the Building Canada Fund; Art Gallery Reconstruction, City-Wide Wireless Network, Landfill Gas Extraction and the CES. As far as I'm concerned the CES is the perfect application; it's something that is labour intensive (building the plant and running the pipes through the city), wouldn't happen without the additional support, we have our 1/3 ready and it delivers new "green" infrastructure that can reduce CO2 production by about 13,000 tonnes/yr.

In the interim, construction was progressing at the Aquatics Centre / Multiplex. Although the facility isn't set to open until 2011 if we wanted to plug it into the CES some important design decisions needed to be made early on. How many hot water boilers would we have? Large boilers like these are not "off the shelf" things, they are "build-to-order" and need to lead time. Would the roof-top heating units be natural gas fired or not? If they're not then it changes how we plan for hot water lines to run up to the roof. By the start of May it had reached a point where city administration needed some direction from council: are we building the multiplex to plug into the CES or not?

We had 3 options for the facility heating system and each came with it's own caveat;

• Build in the traditional manner using only natural gas (Cost to connect to a CES later VERY high, approx $5m)

• Build to be totally dependant on the CES (rely on VERY expensive temporary heating solutions if the CES doesn't go ahead)

• Build a flexible system that could accommodate the CES in the future, and act as it's redundancy (about $1m additional upfront costs with a chance of getting $800k back if CES goes ahead)

On May 4th council considered the issue and voted 7-2 (Ald. Wong and myself opposed) in favour of building in the traditional manner. We were told that if we got positive word on the Building Canada application soon we should be able to change direction without too much wasted time or cost.

Fast forward to last week when it was announced that we will receive funds from Building Canada for the CES ( I hear it should be enough to get us to the magic $12m mark) and all the sudden it looks like council may have some reconsidering to do.

A meeting has been called for this afternoon at 1:30 to review the impacts of the new money towards the CES and design implications for the multiplex. I hope we'll end the day with council reversing it's previous decision and directing admin to go ahead with building a flexible system at the multiplex.

I'm not naive enough to believe that things will finally go smoothly for the CES from here on out but hopefully we're on the way.

How The Provincial Budget Drove Up Taxes in GP

Last night at council we gave final reading to the 2009 property tax bylaw. Unfortunately we had to increase property taxes more than we had predicted back at budget time last fall. This unexpected increase wasn't something we were happy to do of course but it had to be done.

The crux of the issue is that the Provincial Government chopped money out of the Municipal Sustainability Initiative grant when they delivered their budget a few weeks ago. Even though it was distributed unfairly, when it was announced the MSI was supposed to be a program that would allow municipalities to make long term planning decisions. Listening to that direction here in GP we went ahead and put that money to use; it makes up a significant part of our funding strategy for the new aquatics centre and multiplex. So the unexpected reduction in the MSI is a big problem.

This is a problem for any municipality in Alberta that took the Province at it's word and made plans for the MSI money. Those rich municipalities who were just putting the MSI money away in reserves for "future projects" are probably ok but for those like Grande Prairie who used it to deliver on community priorities are scrambling.

See the city's media release below for more detailed info:

"Media Release
May 05, 2009

Reduced Provincial Funding Results in Higher Property Taxes

City Council gave third reading on a bylaw Monday that sets property tax levels for 2009.

Bylaw C-1225 raises taxes by 9.4% to cover a $2.5 million shortfall in Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funding. The City received $4.7 million of an anticipated $7.2 million in MSI dollars.

City Administration had projected a 7.5% property tax increase for 2009.

MSI funding was decreased by $200 million across the province. Grande Prairie’s share was allocated to the construction of the Aquatics and Wellness Multiplex.

Twenty-two per cent of total property taxes collected in Grande Prairie are remitted to the education system.

“It is unfortunate that Provincial budget changes have such an immediate effect on residents in the form of a larger than anticipated property tax rate increase,” says Mayor Dwight Logan. ”We are mindful of economic conditions in the community and had been hopeful for more MSI funding.”

Property taxes are calculated by yearly assessments, taking into consideration average growth and market increases or decreases. The growth increase for Grande Prairie in the 2009 tax year is estimated at 5.4% and the average market value has actually decreased by 5.8%.

The market value of properties within Grande Prairie has changed slightly. Houses or low density residential homes have dropped in value by 8.7%, apartments have decreased by 17.4% and non-residential properties have increased by 3.9%, based on July 1, 2008 assessments.

A mill rate is established by dividing the revenue requirements by the assessment base and multiplying that number by 1000.

For 2008, a home owner whose house in Grande Prairie assessed at $303,900 would have paid $2639 in property taxes. The same house will now be assessed at $277,500 and the property holder will pay $2887 at the new rate, an increase of $248. The difference is equal to the cost of approximately 23 litres of gasoline a month, over a year."

Aquatics Centre Funding

GPconservative has a post looking at how the city is paying for the Aquatics Centre and the additional money that council dedicated towards paying for it.

He did miss the fact that a chunk of the $2.9m in extra money is actually coming from the new construction in the city, it's not all from the provincial reduction in Education property taxes.

Other than that I think over all he's pretty accurate on his post. The mill rates vs. tax rate thing can be confusing (I've looked at mill rate before ) but the essence of what he says is correct: The province is collecting less tax from property in Grande Prairie and the city is "capturing" it or "moving in to the space vacated by the province".

This isn't the first time this has happened the province has slowly been moving out the property tax area for sometime and in the last couple of years I've voted to support the City taking that space each time it's come available. This is a major plank in the AUMA's argument for funding for cities.... the province has lots of revenue sources (income tax, user fees, royalties), as municipalities we only have property taxes (and to a limited extent user fees and grants). So unless we get additional taxing powers (a whole other discussion) then we need all the room we can get in the property tax area.

The only thing that I'd suggest GPconservative might be off base about is that that it's an "Aquatics Centre Tax". The money is going towards the Aquatics centre, that's true. But it could have gone towards anything... all the way from lowing the tax increase (as you pointed out) to additional spending on some other project or service. So that's a matter of perception really and I can understand that some people will see it that way.

How ever you see it I firmly believe that it was the right decision.

Council choose to apply it towards some of the money we had anticipated borrowing, essentially increasing our "down payment" and decreasing the amount of the "mortgage" on the Aquatics Centre.

As you know, the more you put down up front, the less you pay in interest over time. The DHT article kind of mentions this " ...borrowing will decrease by $8.8 million and reduce debt services charges by $672,000 in 2010." but doesn't get the real scope of the savings... I'm pretty sure it actually saves $672,000 ANNUALLY starting in 2010. Over the term of the borrowing that equals a lot of tax payer dollars that won't be spend on interest payments!

So, yes this additional money is going towards the Aquatics Centre and yes it could have gone towards reducing the tax increase. But first off it wasn't planned that way a year ago, second the home owner will not pay more than the 9.7% increase council approved back in November and finally it will save tax payers over the long term.

I'm comfortable standing behind the decision.

Multiplex Action Around BC and AB

Some quick notes from other communities about the development of their multiplexes....

Kelowna
City of Kelowna considering community bonds to support financing for the Mission Recreation Park Aquatic Centre.
-full story here

My Comment: This is interesting, unfortunately I don't know if this is possible for AB municipalities, we'll have to check into it. Also of note - Kelowna is getting a Flow Rider.

Penhold
Town of Penhold receives $6 Million from the Province of AB and The Government of Canada for New Multiplex Facility.
-full story here

My Comment: Wow! Hmmmm, a $6 million dollar investment in our Aquatics Centre would be nice!

Chetwynd
Province of BC and The Government of Canada Contribute $2 Million to Upgrade and Expand Chetwynd & District Multiplex.
-full story here

My Comment: Wow! Hmmm, a $2 million dollar investment in our Aquatics Centre would be nice! ; )

Aquatics Centre: Maintain Your Holding Pattern

Well, we're just about through the first official week of the "holding pattern" that has been imposed by council on the Aquatics Centre and Fieldhouse at the CKC multiplex.

I know, I know - I haven't been doing a lot of blogging lately and so it might feel like this issue has just wizzed by. Well rest assured that even though I haven't been blogging on it people out there are talking about it. Since the council committee of the whole vote by a 5-4 margin to delay making a decision I've had about 45 emails. Some support holding off on the decision and other are saying "What the heck are you guys doing? Get it built already!" I really appreciate the input from both sides and I respect anyone who takes the time to let council know what they are thinking - no matter what side of the issue they are on. It is, after all, about the conversation.

There have also been two Facebook groups started in support of going ahead with the CKC site.

... I have to share one of the emails I (and the rest of council) received, the email was entitled: "Decisions by Facebook?"

"My 14 year-old has been on the receiving end of a Facebook blitz to “Build the Aquatic Centre NOW”. I am not sure who is behind this, but there are three issues that have to be explored here:
1. Plans for the CKC were begun 10 years ago, and the city has grown by about 15 000 since then. I think it’s called “change”, and it definitely creates a domino effect, so DEAL WITH IT, don’t ignore it.
2. Council should involve themselves in approval of projects--not design (unless of course, they have extensive building, architectural, and business experience.)
3. Trying to create a false impression of support (such as last summer’s skewed survey or the present Facebook panic) is totally undemocratic. The voices that must be heard are those of taxpayers and others of VOTING AGE. Clearly, a large number of respondents to an anonymous newspaper survey or Facebook request do not fit either category.

As a new council with a fresh, inclusive approach to the many issues we must deal with in Grande Prairie, I hope you can judge any of these “surveys” on their merit, and not bend to any contrived result presented to you."

Wow, ok.... First off I think it's great that younger people have a way to get involved in discussions about the future of their community. People shouldn't be barred from being involved important issues until they are voting age, after all young people are certainly a group that we hope would use a facility like this - their input should be important and they should use all available mediums to express their opinion.

Second, the plans at the CKC have evolved and changed over time as has Grande Prairie. The proposed Aquatics Centre wasn't designed 10 years ago - it's been designed over the last year or so with input from the users of the current pool and it reflects the best examples from other buildings across the province. The design of the Aquatics Centre is BIG, bigger than anything that currently exists north of Edmonton. It is built for the future of our region.

Finally, to suggest that people actively talking about issues and trying to round up support though a new medium like Facebook is undemocratic is like saying that using a photocopier to print up handouts and pamphlets for a cause is undemocratic. The way I see it the more people are talking, writing, blogging, Facebooking, texting or even podcasting about an issue the better off democracy is! It's not about the medium, it's about the conversation.

Whew, felt good to get that off my chest! : )

Anyhow, while I've been away from the keyboard someone has been actively blogging on the topic.... GPConservative has two posts here and here. The first covers a little perspective of what council members said during the election. (Most supported going ahead with the CKC project pretty clearly, although there were a couple who wanted to shut it down) The second posting looks at the Peace Country Wellness Facility Society and the impact they've had on the project.

I think I've been pretty clear in all my prior postings, I totally support going ahead with the CKC site. Changing location at this point in the project is not in the best interests of the public. If there was an organization that was going to come on as an equal partner an pump in an extra $40 million dollars - that might be a different story but my experience tells me that that is not going to happen for a number of reasons.

$80m Facility, Without A Tax Increase

How do you build an eighty million dollar facility with out having to increase taxes to pay for it?

That's exactly what council will be discussing at 9:30 this morning; how do we build the Aquatics Centre and what will the impact be on the tax paying homes and businesses in the city?

Here's the details that are in the staff report to council...

Cost
$80m (The full Aquatics Centre, with the first portion of the fieldhouse)

Funding
$2.825m
Aquatics Reserve (Money we've been saving up for this project)
$1.110m
Aquatera dividend (from our Shares in Aquatera for 2008, 09, 10)
$1.8m
2006 Profit from Growth in the Tax Base (2008, 09, 10)
$5.8m
2006 Profit from Growth in the Tax Base (2009, 10 - in previous years was going to Library/Gallery)
$1.8m
2007 Profit from Growth in the Tax Base (2008, 09, 10)
$6.4m
Contributions from businesses, other municipalities & fundraising
$6.0m
2008 Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding
$7.2m
2009 Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding
$8.2m
2010 Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding

$41.135m Sub-Total

$39m Borrowing (Also called debt, or "the mortgage")

$80m Total

I know the picture isn't all that clear just looking at the chart. I know I still had some questions so I'll try to answer some of them in case you are asking yourself the same thing.

How much are the payments on that $39 mortgage? You'll have to increase taxes to make the payments won't you?

Well, no actually. The debt servicing (the mortgage payments if you like) are $3.1m per year over 20 years. The Profit from Growth in the Tax Base and the Aquatera dividend that we used above for construction come to $4.47 million per year. After construction is done in late 2010 we can use those moines to pay the mortgage and still have $1.37 million left over.

Ok, what about how much it cost to operate the building? I heard the Leisure Centre looses money and this Aquatics Centre is even bigger and more expensive to run so it will cost more. You'll have to increase taxes to pay for that loss won't you?

Actually the business plan for the building says that it will run at a loss of $1.31 million in the first year (that's the same as it costs to run the Leisure Centre), in the second it will improve and only cost $948,500 and in the third year it's practically break-even at $36,950. So, we can use that left over $1.37 million from above to off-set the operating losses in the first few years. The estimates of memberships sales we are building this on are pretty conservative in my opinion (3500 sold in the first year and through presales then 5150 in the second, 6890 in the third and 8190 in the fourth year).


The meeting is starting in a few minutes, I'll have to finish up later.....

City Opens Online Survey

The city has finally created an online version of the Aquatics & Wellness Centre survey! For those of you who have already done the survey on my site - no worries, your submissions have already been sent in. . For those of you who haven't shared your opinion yet you can continue to do the survey below or go here for the city's survey.

Before you do either, check out this page for a look at the layout and features that are being proposed for the centre. Have a look at all the "stuff" and then do the survey to tell us what you think is important to have in the facility.

Aquatics Centre Survey

The City's survey about the Aquatics & Wellness Centre (that I link to below) has no way to submit online. So I've created an version of the based pretty much exactly on the city's off-line form. Fill this out and I'll email the results in to the city for you.... and next time the city does a survey like this I'll see if we can't get it online right from the start. 

Just to be clear - when choosing how important a part is 1 means Very Important and 4 means Very Unimportant. Please choose a priority for each item.

**** The City finished it's survey on July 20th, 2007. I'll post the total results of the whole survey when they are compiled. ****

City to Survey Residents on Aquatics Centre

News Release
July 4, 2007

Survey Assists Regional Aquatics And Wellness Centre Development

The City of Grande Prairie is inviting community input into future phases of the regional Aquatics and Wellness Centre with a survey.

Residents can access the survey on the City’s website. It is also available at all City facilities and will be featured in an upcoming advertisement in the Daily Herald-Tribune. Responses are requested by July 20. The survey has been available at events such as Municipal Government Day and the Aquatics and Wellness Centre Open House.

Council heard a presentation from the Peace Country Wellness Facility Society at Tuesday’s meeting and invited the group to provide further input into the project.

In June, Council instructed administration to have the architectural firm of Barr Ryder complete construction drawings.

The $70 million facility would feature a 54-metre pool, an aquatics playground, an adventure river, hot tubs, a sauna/steam room, waterslides, and a 10-metre dive platform. Other planned highlights include springboards, a flow rider (wave/surfing attraction), a fitness area, meeting space, concessions, and childcare space. Future modules could include up to three field houses. The facility is on par with other multiplexes in Alberta and exceeds features in a number of areas in many cases. A complete comparison is on the website.

“The community has told us that a regional aquatics and wellness centre is an important component of the range of recreational facilities they expect in a growing, vibrant and progressive city,” says Mayor Wayne Ayling. “It is important that residents and community groups have ongoing input as this project unfolds.

“This facility is designed to meet local needs and serve as a regional and destination attraction. It will have something for the entire family, giving prospective residents and visitors even more reason to come to Grande Prairie.”

City's Aquatics Centre Website Updated

The city's website for the Community Knowledge Campus has been updated to add more info on the new Aquatics Centre.

The site now has draft floor plans for the facility. Another helpful addition is images showing examples of the types of equipment that are going to be part of the design. It makes it a little easier to understand what a surf machine is if you see it - even better is seeing a video. The same goes for the "lazy river" and all the kids areas.

The city will also be mailing out (and posting on the site) a survey to gauge the public interest in the different components and the desire to build the fieldhouse.

College Cancels Swim Program

The Grande Prairie Regional College (GPRC) just cancelled it's competitive swim team.

It sounds as though there were a few different influencing factors but lack of available space to run the program is specifically mentioned.

I think this goes to show that if you don't have the space (or enough time) available the community looses things one by one because of that lack of capacity.

Here's the media release:

April 16, 2007

GPRC Cuts its Wolves Swim Program

GPRC Wolves Athletics announces, with regret, that it is terminating its swim program. As a result, GPRC will no longer participate in the Swim Program of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Association (ACAC) effective immediately.

The Wolves Swim Program has operated in a partnership with the G.P. Piranhas Swim Club since 1996 and the program has produced some outstanding performances.

"The decision to terminate the program has been difficult," noted Leigh Goldie, Chair of the Department of PEAK. "We have seen some great successes, and know that in large part this success is due to the training done by the swimmers with the Piranhas Swim Club," Goldie added.

A review which was recently conducted has revealed that the number of
swimmers who participate exclusively through Wolves Athletics has diminished dramatically over the years. Wolves Swimming successes, of late, have been largely realized by Piranhas swimmers who attend GPRC.

The review has also identified concern with pressure on available facilities. Current available pool time cannot handle the demands of all the aquatic clubs. This factor limits any possible growth of the Wolves Swim Program as it is reliant on time available to the Piranhas Swim Club.

Another significant factor is the trend being experienced in the ACAC Swim Program. The number of colleges participating has diminished over the years and there is no indication that this trend will change. The fact that it is a one semester sport with no national championship further justifies the decision to opt out now.

GPRC Wolves Athletics is very appreciative of the partnership it has had with the G.P. Piranhas Swim Club. Their involvement has been key to the successes of the Wolves Swim Program. We wish the Piranhas continued success with their program.

For more information, please contact:
Francois Fournier
Athletic Director
GPRC

So, as I said there were lots of factors that went into the decision.

The meeting I'm about to go into at 2pm is looking at awarding the construction tender for the new Cultural Centre and I'm supporting moving ahead with it - I don't want to see our community atrophy because we don't have the capacity our residents are looking for.

Mobile Bill