by Tristan Turner
Council, excluding the absent Mayor Lisa Holmes and absent Councillor Brennan Fitzgerald, approved three motions related to a needs assessment for a new regional recreation facility at their Apr. 12 meeting.
The motions come as work and timelines are rampaging up on the new community arena just east of town, which was originally conceived to be built in stages, with more recreation being added on to the facility in the future.
The first motion was to direct Administration to “have a Needs Assessment prepared in relation to a Regional Recreation Centre.”
The second motion directed Administration to send a letter from Mayor and Council to Sturgeon County and the four municipalities in the Sturgeon Region, including St. Albert requesting support of a Needs Assessment. The motion called for additional copies of the letter to be sent to Alexander First Nation and Edmonton Garrison.
The third of the motions directed Administration to send a request to Sturgeon County asking them to pay half of the cost of the Needs Assessment. No cost for the assessment was discussed.
The motions passed unanimously and with limited discussion. Reports on the outcome of the assessment are forthcoming.
It is my understanding that RC Strategies has done needs assessments for many of this areas large Rec Facilities. This assessment should distill the feelings into facts and give concrete information to move forward with. The increased profile of this project and growing awareness should translate into a wider demographic and increased response rate as compared to the more general review done in the 2012 Regional Recreation Master Plan. The Open Houses held in Morinville have been instrumental in showing that the population wants more than an arena. The fresh facts from this needs assessment should help to prove that and assist in the upcoming requests for any available funding and grants. The County has the opportunity to pay for a portion of this assessment and get an idea where their citizens land on this issue.
Pretty simple… We NEED an arena, so how about we get that started and worry about the rest later? We couldn’t even finish out our hockey playoffs in the Morinville arena this year.