A company has been chosen to develop a site analysis and concept model for a future multi-use aquatic centre in Red Deer.
Edmonton-based Marshall Tittemore Architects will look into the money it would take to develop a site and what could be in the planned new facility.
Jerry Hedlund, projects superintendent with the City of Red Deer, said the company was chosen because they have worked on similar aquatic projects in the past. Marshall Tittemore Architects will work with Ontario-based MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects on the project.
Hedlund said the consultant will both look at costs and feasibility of adding the amenities to the south side of the Recreation Centre or building it on some other site in Red Deer. He said the city doesn’t have a specific site for where the facility could be built other than by the Recreation Centre for the moment.
“I think at this point in time really there is no designated recreational area in the next few years planned,” Hedlund said. “So what we’re just going to do is have them develop a typical cost associated with a project like this.”
He said they have to report back to council with the cost of developing a site away from the Recreation Centre or by the Recreation Centre in February before moving on with the concept model for the facility.
Hedlund said the consultant will be looking at a number of amenities in the concept model, including a 50-metre pool, possibly a dive tank or an area for synchronized swimming.
“The big focus would be to make it a multi-use facility no matter what is in it,” Hedlund said. “Whatever it ends up becoming it’s going to have multiple uses.”
Hedlund said once the model is completed members of the Central Alberta Aquatics Centre group will go out to the community to raise awareness and money for the project.
In May 2010, the City of Red Deer put $200,000 towards planning for the project.
Under the current plans the facility isn’t expected to be built any time soon. The City of Red Deer’s 2011 capital budget deferred 23 projects under the 10-year capital plan — including the aquatics centre with the Olympic-size swimming pool — for one year. It means that the soonest the facility could be built under current plans is 2021.
sobrien@www.reddeeradvocate.com