Aquatic Centre study swimming along

The city is swimming around to find some solid footing on a new Aquatic Centre.

Sierra Planning and Management was in council chambers during Tuesday’s budget meeting, and Director Jonathan Hack says the best option is to develop the Archie Dillon Sportsplex.

Second on his list?  Vacant land along Highway 655 across from Gillies Lake.

Hack says the Sportsplex (and Whitney Arena in the east end) offer the best options to build a multi-use building with twin ice pads and a new Aquatic Centre attachment by using existing infrastructure.

As well, he says the Sportsplex has the ability to expand if nearby land owned by DSB-ONE become available.

Hollinger Park and McIntyre Arena were both looked at, but offer little room to expand services and parking.

From here, the second phase of the study will be to show the public renderings and drawings of the final product and develop the cost for two locations.

If construction were to happen on the Sportsplex in relation to this project, the plan is to keep the existing pool open until it comes time to demolish the site.

Councillor Joe Campbell is expressing caution with this project as a whole based on what’s happened in the community over the last few months.

“It’d be nice to have this facility but there’s a lot of money involved here and there’d better be a lot of money coming down from the senior levels of government,” he said.

“Otherwise, we cannot afford this.”

Hack was asked about costing, and while that number comes in April (with a lot of other variables still to be determined), he says a similar project in Guelph went between $55-million and $60-million.

Councillor Noella Rinaldo says the area where Independent Grocer stands looks completely different than 40 years ago and is looking forward to the process.

Sierra Planning will be back in April to deliver their results in terms of costing at two locations.

See the full presentation HERE.