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Aquatic centre pushed back four years in Red Deer’s 2019 proposed capital budget

About 85 per cent of capital budget could be spent on utility and road upgrades
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Concept images of the new aquatic centre can be seen on the walls of the Red Deer Recreation Centre. (Photo by LANA MICHELIN/Advocate staff).

The City of Red Deer’s proposed $115.7-million capital budget pushes back the long-sought-after multi-use aquatic centre for another four years.

This means the design won’t begin until 2023, with construction scheduled to start in 2025.

The scope of the project will be reviewed next year, however, to determine whether any cost savings can be achieved, says city manager Craig Curtis.

The proposed 2019 capital budget includes mostly must-have utility and road upgrades and very few new initiatives, such as planning for the G.H. Dawe spray park and arena twinning.

Curtis said the design for this project was moved up a year, with construction suggested for 2020, because the Kinex Arena is only expected to last another five years.

The aquatic centre had to be pushed back because the city was approaching its debt limit, said Curtis. With many unknowns about the availability of future provincial funding, he said administration didn’t want to risk exceeding the city’s self-imposed debt ceiling.

The proposed aquatics centre is slated to be a $90-million project. It’s conceived as containing a 10-lane Olympic-sized pool, with movable floor, hot tub, steam and sauna rooms and a separate dive tank.

The facility was also envisioned as featuring an outdoor leisure pool and sunbathing terrace, child care, retail and concession space and multi-purpose meetings rooms, time keeping and spectator spaces.

Since there are significant funding constraints on capital budgets in these slower growth, lower revenue years, a project review will be needed so the project can be slotted in “when we can afford it,” said community services director Sarah Cockerill.

Under the previous capital plan, the new aquatic centre was to be designed in 2019 and the budgeted for over 2021 and 2022, with construction happening in 2021.

The Central Alberta Aquatics Centre Committee has been advocating for competition-quality swimming facilities for over a decade. Brian Gallaway, chair of the group, said he’s “obviously disappointed,” although not entirely surprised, the big project has been pushed back.

Gallaway hopes council will find ways to cut some of the unnecessary features of the project to make it more feasible to start construction sooner.

Several city councillors have also been supporters of the aquatics centre going ahead on schedule, including Buck Buchanan, Michael Dawe and Dianne Wyntjes.

On Friday, Buchanan said he’s “certainly not happy” to see the project pushed back four years in the proposed capital budget, which will go before council for debate Nov. 19.

At the same time, he said he understands why administration wants to delay it, since pressing upgrades to the water and waste treatment plants are must-do expenses. Part of the challenge is that Red Deer city council opted to stay within 75 per cent of its allowable debt load.

It also hasn’t asked the province whether it can exceed its debt limit, which was recalculated at the request of Calgary, Edmonton and Medicine Hat, to give those cities more financial leeway to tackle new projects.

Buchanan expects these issues will come up for discussion as city council considers the capital projects it can and can’t do in the next few years.

“I’d rather do the pool sooner, rather than later,” he added. For a city of our size, it’s important to have a competition-quality pool, he said.

“Here we are going into the Canada Winter Games,” and some aquatics events will be done off site because Red Deer doesn’t have the facilities.”

Some of the proposed projects city council will consider as part of the 2019 capital plan include:

* $10 million for design, roadwork and intersection improvements for the Northlands Drive project, including earth work for a planned rail overpass near Highway 11A.

* $2.6 million for detailed design planning for G.H. Dawe expansion (including arena expansion and twinning) and new spray park. (Construction in 2021-22).

* $1 million to be cost shared for repair and maintenance of Red Deer Airport, including apron and generators.

* $7.7 million for a phosphorus recovery upgrade and biosolids facility at the wastewater treatment centre.

* The addition of a residuals management system for the water treatment plant that further cleans discharge before releasing it into the river (funding for this was previously approved).

* Nearly $1 million for sports field upgrades around the city.

Copies of the budget are available at city hall, city recreation facilities and the public library. Public feedback can be emailed to feedback@reddeer.ca.



lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com

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Julian Soitu swims lanes at the Red Deer Recreation Centre. (Photo by LANA MICHELIN/Advocate staff).