City council approved the Chestermere Regional Recreation Association (CRCA) emergency funding, approximately $13,000, which will be allocated from the Recreation Restricted Stabilization Fund.
Chestermere, Rocky View County (RVC), and the CRCA are splitting the cost of the Stantec Consulting Ltd. study, which will determine the cost to repair the red arena in the recreation centre.
“They recently discovered there are structural defects with the red arena and their requesting funding from RVC and us for these unseen financial costs for engineering and remediation of the building,” said the Director of Community Operations Kathy Russell.
“This is our part of assisting in the CRCA moving forward,” said Mayor Marshall Chalmers.
“It’s quite clear that the recreation centre is very important. It’s integral for this community,” said City Councillor Ritesh Narayan.
He added, “It means a lot to people in so many ways. Anything we can do to keep that place open and running, I think we should definitely contribute to it.”
A third-party engineering firm assessed that the structural defects were caused during the original engineering and construction of the red arena in 2005.
For the safety of CRCA users and the viability of the facility in the short-term, the CRCA has confirmed that Stantec Consulting Ltd. has put in place a snow load monitoring program until remediation can be completed, which is estimated to be in the late spring.
“In the event that snow does build upon the arena, Stantec’s monitoring program will ensure that the safety of facility users is not in jeopardy,” Russell said.
If there is a heavy snow load on top of the CRCA building, a contractor will remove the snow, or alternatively, the red arena would be closed until the snow load is reduced.
“The next step is Stantec to complete construction drawings and complete the scope of work
The estimated cost is around $38,000,” Russell said.
“City administration respects the request and feels that the CRCA has shown due diligence and is handling the matter and it is in capable hands,” she added.
The CRCA membership is extremely grateful for the assistance from Chestermere City Council, and RVC council, said CRCA Board Member Derek From.
“We are hopeful that we can convince both RVC council and Chestermere council that recreation in Chestermere is extremely important to the community so that we can get ongoing and consistent funding,” From said.
