INNISFAIL – Following an 11-minute council discussion Innisfail's mayor Jean Barclay noted all hands of council members were raised.
“Carried. We got there,” said the mayor.
After more than five years of council discussion, studies, and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on concepts, Innisfail town council unanimously passed a motion on April 14 to move ahead with an Innisfail Aquatic Centre modernization project that could cost taxpayers up to $15 million.
The nine-month construction project, which begins on July 7 and built by Chandos Construction and Group2 Architecture, will be funded through a combination of the town’s Facility Reserve (now at $2.8 million), a provincial Local Government Fiscal Framework grant, and a line of credit and debenture.
The town is currently waiting for approval, which could take another year, from a federal Green and Inclusive Community Building (GICB) grant application, that could bring in close to $6 million to offset the project’s total cost.
“The aquatic centre (project) has been a long process,” Barclay told the Albertan. “We've gone from modernizing the existing facility to increasing the footprint on the existing facility, to building a new facility down by the arena.
“And really the only pragmatic thing in the end was to modernize the existing facility, because the other options are not affordable for us,” added the mayor. “There’s been a lot of advocacy for sure but I’m pleased we have finally come to a decision.”
Council’s decision to go with a modernization option for the 38-year-old facility came late last year when the town was forced to give up hope of obtaining provincial funding support for a new $29 million facility beside the Innisfail Twin Arena.
It was just over three years ago when town council approved more than $600,000 for design work into a new build beside the Arena but finding large-scale provincial funding support proved to be a non-starter.
In the meantime, the existing aquatic centre, located on the west side of 51 Avenue across from the Innisfail Health Centre, has experienced increasing adverse maintenance issues in recent years at considerable cost to the town and taxpayers.
During the April 14 regular council meeting, Meghan Jenkins, community services director for the Town of Innisfail, said the project cost, once estimated to be in the $12.2 million range, is now closer to $15 million due to added features and owner and shared risk, including potential tariffs.
“The owner risk is essentially things the contractors don't have a lot of control over,” Jenkins told council. “So, of that $1.2 million of owner risk I believe about $650,000 of that is currently identified as tariff risk.”
Jenkins told council a key aim for the project is to bring the building up to code and to lower operating costs.
She said a new building envelope and exterior will have “high performance” walls, roof, windows, doors, skylights, and a coloured exterior facade.
Council was told there will be a mechanical and electrical overhaul that will include heating, cooling, ventilation, and pool filtration replacement.
Jenkins added interior facility upgrades will include a new stainless steel hot tub, fully refurbished steam room, office reconfiguration and a lobby redesign.
And there will be barrier-free universal change rooms, designed to be usable by everyone, regardless of gender and ability.
“There are individual private change stalls for every individual, and that allows us to meet all of the barrier-free requirements,” said Jenkins, noting the concept is supported by staff to address challenges, such as bullying, theft and vandalism.
“There's a lot more sight lines and openness to them, so it's not as though you're completely behind closed doors.”
As for the project’s impact on staff, Jenkins said three full-time staff members will work in other areas of town operations while half of the 15 part-time employees will be repurposed to either fullt-ime summer parks positions or other opportunities.
The remaining part-time employees are being laid off at the time of aquatic centre closure in July, said Jenkins.
As for user groups, such as the Innisfail Dolphins, Jenkins said the closure will have a limited impact of about three weeks and they have opted to make their own arrangements during the closure.
