Aging facilities, like the Moose Recreation Centre on the Southeast Hill, could be the focus of costing reviews and replacement plans this fall as city budget officials seek to cut spending, the News has learned.--NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Discussions to close city-run recreation centres could revive a longstanding but never publicly discussed plan to build a multi-plex in the Box Springs Business Park.
Several Medicine Hat city council members discussed the benefits of consolidating new modern facilities to replace aging arenas and recreation centres this week as a way to cut costs and meet challenges in an upcoming budget update.
Albert Stark, head of the ownership group at the Box Springs Park, said that is in line with what his group first proposed in 2012 and have more recently been lobbying for.
âWe believe a (multi-plex) make sense, and it makes a lot of sense at Box Springs,â he said, citing city councilâs goals of boosting sports tourism and development.
A four-rink facility near hotels and the city-run large spectator arena Co-op Place (formerly the Canalta Centre), could bring in a spate of new events, said Stark.
âWeâve been working on it, and for the last year more aggressively, but itâs at the conceptual stage right now.â
Stark also said a larger plan for whatâs long been billed an âevents districtâ in the park near the large rink, could be outlined for the public this winter.
City officials didnât specifically discuss the BSBP proposal at Monday nightâs council meeting, where Mayor Ted Clugston talked at length about the need to re-examine aging recreation facilities in terms of costs.
The Moose Recreation Centre on the Southeast Hill, he said, is in need of $1.2-million replacement of the ice slab â upgrades that have been paused since 2018.
Another community rink of the same vintage, the Hockey Hounds Arena in Crescent Heights, is due for a $1.5-million âmodernizationâ in 2024, according to the long-term capital projects list.
âThe Moose requires a fair bit of work for the ice slab, so weâll see,â said Clugston, who also talked about changes to the Municipal Development Plan, passed this fall, that call for more centralized, rather than community facilities.
âAt first people may say âno wayâ⊠but in a city the size of Medicine Hat ⊠people will drive to facilities and there are efficiencies ⊠that far outweigh having a facility in every neighbourhood.â
A potential multi-plex was first discussed in 2012 when councillors approved removing a second ice surface from the Family Leisure Centre expansion, partly due to budget constraints on the $36-million project, but also due to a vaguely described private sector multi-plex proposal.
A study five years ago of ice availability in the Hat stated older rinks are less efficient in terms of collecting revenue to cover operational costs, but the cityâs two oldest rinks also cost less in actual dollars spent.
This week, most council members said belt tightening is needed ahead of budgeting, while the News also revealed that administrators are evaluating plans to reverse a 4 per cent tax hike.
As well this month, the city, Redcliff and Cypress County also signed a regional intercollaboration framework that has co-ordinating recreation spending as a top priority.
âWeâre looking at every single area of our operations and evaluating what the future will look like,â said Coun. Julie Friesen, who sat on the collaboration committee and chairs the cityâs public services committee that includes recreation. âWe have some aging facilities that sooner rather than later weâll have to have major money put into them.
âWeâre also working with Cypress County and Redcliff about (collaborating more), and recreation is on the table there, too.â
Last year, Cypress County evaluated a partnership with the Prairie Rose School Division about building a new rink in Dunmore before pausing the project. A new recreation master plan is before county council this month, and a new âIntermunicipal Collaboration Committeeâ of the three municipalities was just struck to discuss potential co-ordination and cost-sharing of joint-benefit projects.
âIs this something where there is something we can work together on?â Friesen said, speaking generally. âMaybe, maybe not. If it doesnât work, then we wonât do it.â
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